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Dec312004
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2005 Begins |
Instead of struggling to stay awake to watch Dick Clark ring in the new year with 100,000 people who are having a lot more fun than my sorry ass in front of the TV, I went out for the evening with Melanie. Andrew was dropped off at grandma’s in the afternoon. The rest of us left the house a little after five. We first had to drive out to Metairie to drop off Jeff at a friend’s house where he was to stay the night. We then drove uptown to pick up Melanie. After we arrived I waited with her sister while Melanie resolved an ‘accessory problem.’ With that out of the way, we departed and drove out to the French Quarter. Mom and Dad dropped us off at on Decatur, as road blocks prevented them from taking us all the way to Frenchman St. It was just as well, since we had plenty of time before our 7:00 dinner reservation. We stood outside the Spotted Cat for a minute to listen to the act that was playing before walking across the street to dinner. We were seated immediately. It didn’t take us too long to figure out what to order. I ordered the barbeque shrimp, Melanie got the fried shrimp. It didn’t occur to me at the time how much of a hassle it is to eat barbeque shrimp, which needed peeling. It was almost embarrassing, having my hands so messy. The waiter brought extra napkins and hot lemon water, all of which were much needed. After finishing dinner and thoroughly washing my hands, we went to the back of the club to the stage to find some seats for Astral Project’s nine o’clock performance. We took our seats at around 8:10 so we had plenty of time to wait and talk. The set started promptly at nine. The performance was quite good. They played some recognizable tunes that I may have heard the first time I saw them at Snug Harbor. They also did a couple numbers from their new CD. The act concluded with a final number and a rather amusing monologue from drummer John Vidacovich. After the show we made our way out and walked down Decatur St. to Caf Du Monde. The thick fog was rather unusual I suppose. You could barely see past four or five car lengths. Unfortunately the Cafe was quite full. There were no tables and a good number of people waiting for them to pop up. We would have sat outside the awning but it had recently started raining so crossed the street and made our way along side Jackson Square, under the cover of the adjacent buildings. The rain subsided and we walked around the square to the Jax Brewery. It looked closed, we then stepped into the Walgreen’s across the street, I thought I’d buy an umbrella. Melanie found a chair as we were wandering the aisles and took a seat for a short while. I just stood around the closed pharmacy with her for maybe 10 minutes. We talked and were occasionally asked if there were bathrooms somewhere in the store by a variety of folks. After Melanie had her fill of sitting we walked back to the front of the store and I bought an umbrella. Of course no sooner had I completed my purchase did the rain stop for the remainder of the evening. We walked back Across Decatur and up some steps to a deck on the Jax Brewery. We saw that it was open and went in and walked around a bit. We went back out to this large patio or whatever it was, which normally overlooks the river, although on this night you could barely see past the Streetcar stop immediately behind the building. I think we pretty much remained here until after midnight. One could barely see the lit ball that was set to drop at midnight. The crowd grew thicker as 2004 came to a close. 12:00 was marked by plenty of cheering and noisemaking. There were no fireworks however due to the thick fog. We did here some folks on the riverfront with some fireworks of their own. At about 12:15 the crowds thinned out a bit and we made our way to Conti St. to meet my parents at the Bombay Club, a little place inside the Prince Conti Hotel. It was a little over a ten minute walk. The hotel was just past Bourbon St. The club was rather small, I saw my folks sitting right by the door. We sat around there for a good while, watching the party continue to die down. I’m not entirely sure when we left. When we did we all walked to the car which was parked on North Rampart. We made our own way home after dropping off Melanie. I wasn’t particularly tired after getting home. I used the computer for a short bit. Bianca called to tell me about her evening. I think we hung up about three, after which I went to sleep.