Monday, Jan. 19, 2004 - 9:43 a.m.
Greetings,
Cold. Rainy. Grey. Those are words that describe today. I like it. It’s January weather. Winter in New Orleans.
Anyway, since it is Monday, here’s a recap of the weekend of magical fun that I managed to have:
Friday Night:
I’m casting my mind backwards three days and it’s a stretch even with the Café du Monde coffee I’m sucking down from my PJs travel mug. Let’s see. I got off work around 5:30 and went down to the lobby to wait for Thomas. He eventually arrived looking snazzy in his Izod jacket, and we went back up the escalators and straight to the parking garage where Kharis was waiting to convey us home.
Ah yes, it was Free Form Friday and so that means when I did walk into Crescentwood I lit my lava lamp, the lights around the window, and a stick of incense – most likely lavender scented. And the crickets. I made the crickets chirp on my sound machine in the Study and the rain effect in my bedroom.
I straightened things up and lit more incense in the kitchen and eventually ended up in a warm lavender scented bubble bath surrounded by candlelight and sipping a glass of champagne.
I watched the “Hospital” episode of Ab Fab and then called Ken at Collinwood. He had gone visiting the upstairs neighbors (Collinwood is a two family farmhouse) and had indulged in red wine and was feeling rather expansive. He hadn’t even showered yet or donned the dreaded caftan and it was nearing 11 p.m. his end.
I made Hamburger Helper and watched “The Night Strangler”. Carl Kolchek tracked down Oscar Goldman in underground Seattle. There were belly dancers – dead and alive – and the famous “Night Stalker” music that John loves so much.
I managed to stay awake for most of it and went to bed around 1 a.m. or so.
Saturday:
The rain poured down on Saturday. Gusts of rain were so hard they woke me up around 9 or so Saturday morning forcing me into getting up and grinding Windsor Court flavored coffee beans and sitting in the living room sipping it while listening to raindrops spatter against the windowpanes.
Tom and I ventured out around 2 or so to visit the French Quarter and a mask shop to procure masks for a magical Working we were undertaking that evening (and I also plan to wear mine for some of the upcoming Mardi Gras parades). We parked by the river and with trusty umbrellas in hand, we walked through the puddles across Decatur, up Dumaine and from there to St. Ann where we spent about 45 minutes perusing all the masks in the shop.
We found just the perfect ones (mine is sort of a foxy looking one and his is just plain scary), had them wrapped up in plastic to protect them from the rain, and sallied forth back towards Jackson Square.
As we cut across it, we debated the merits of eating lunch at The Corner or going straight home to Crescentwood. Around this time frame, it suddenly began to pour. There were no raindrops, just a steady wall of water that splashed down on us in a cold wave.
There was no protection from it. The wind made sure to blow the wall of water sideways into us and then some more wind blew cold splashes against our backs and the sidewalks disappeared into a rapidly growing lake of water.
In order to keep my umbrella from blowing inside out, I had to lower it down in front of my like a shield and I could only see people and myself and the city from the knees down. Very surreal.
I was wet down to my underwear in about 15 seconds.
We scurried for The Corner but about a million and one tourists had the same general idea and the line waiting to get in stretched nearly around the corner (it was under a balcony ledge out of the rain so they were content to stand there in their stupid plastic rain ponchos stamped “French Quarter” and “Bourbon Street” looking like a herd of cows waiting to get into the milking barn.
“Screw this, let’s go home!” I said to Tom at about the same time he said it to me. So we slogged through shin deep water across Decatur and back to the parking lot.
When I jumped behind the wheel of Kharis, about five pounds of rain water came with me. I had to dry the steering wheel off so I could drive and my Sketchers were full of water that leaked out onto the floor mat.
Then because of the rain and detours it took us nearly half an hour to get back to Crescentwood. (The drive to the Quarter took about 8 minutes.)
Tommy put a towel down on his Chamber floor and we both undressed to the skin. He ran and got me my bathrobe and I put the sodden clothes in the washing machine and the rest of the afternoon was basically spent trying to dry off.
Saturday night the Pylon had a Working which went rather well and afterwards we drank a bottle of Yellow Tail shiraz (one of the bottles of wine my boss gave me for Christmas –YUM) and by 11:30 I was settled in front of the television watching three episodes of Dark Shadows with Tommy and the cats. I even had a nightcap of Sambuca.
Sunday:
It was, by contrast to Saturday, a gorgeous sunny day. I spent the great majority of it doing laundry and watching the Carol Burnett and Friends marathon on TV Land. I read most of a library book, cuddled with cats, and made hotdogs and beans for lunch.
A lazy, lovely day.
And now I’m here and I’m finally done chronicling my weekend.
Until next time,
Olrun
