is there a problem, officer?

yeah, so i got a speeding ticket. on the way back. in tennessee. 86 in a 70... and there's a second charge on the ticket because we didn't have the insurance card on the car. yeah. oops. the ticket's $151.95... strangest amount... and too much out the window...

speaking of windows... leaving slidell, a rock flew up at the windshield, and matt's now got a spider-shaped crack in his windshield. insurance will cover it, but it's the biggest rock crack i've ever seen. it was a large rock... it actually hit in two points at the same time, and it's two separate impact things. pictures to follow, hopefully...

sugar bowl was difficult. i almost got into a fight (don't worry, i didn't... just a little verbal jarring). seriously, what kind of idiots decide to pick fights with their own fans when their team is losing? that's what you call destructive. idiots. and of course, after going for it on 4th and goal (short), in the first damn quarter (beamer never makes these calls, even when he should... whose idea was this? i'll bet it was beamer's...) and missing, we lose by 3 points. of course, we also missed a short field goal later in the game, too. you know, we need a kicker just for short fgs on the hash. i think that pace freaks out 'cause of the loss to nc st. it's in his head, and he needs to get over it, but until then, we might need someone else.

we spent the next day in new orleans as well. except... in the morning, we got lost looking for the trolley stop cafe. we turned off of canal street onto the wrong street, made a u-turn, and... somehow missed canal street. how do you miss a giant street? i mean, not being able to find it is one thing (you know, when you're driving parallel to it or something), but driving right through it... that's sad.

anyway, we found poydras eventually, and found st charles... and then almost lost st. charles in a roundabout. um, yeah. anyway, we eventually drove past the trolley stop, but we didn't read it correctly, so we drove right by and decided later that it was... well, it. so we went back, and there was good gumbo to be had. yes.

we headed for the french quartier after that, and drove around the damn thing twice before we found it. you know those little signs by the road that point you in the direction of points of interest? yeah, even with those, we got lost looking for it... we were about to decide to go to a museum/aquarium (aquarium!) instead when we found it. <sigh> what's wrong with us? and i thought i was alright with directions when i knew the way back to the car after the game...

that night, we had dinner on a balcony on bourbon street... (the weather down there was a huge departure from the single digit temps at seven springs). you know all the generic new orleans seafood dishes, and those were great (please, what did you expect?)... but even the red beans were good. i thought it was so weird. i mean, red beans are red beans, right? mmm...

went to oriental east for lunch today (yay for real dim sum!), and then the botanical gardens for a post-lunch stroll. i've never been there before, and it was cool. we somehow managed to lose matt, though. yeah, turned around, and he was gone. he'd gone to look at the bananas.

didn't find any flowers that really melted me or anything (though i have a general recipe for happy-merc flowers), but we did see a sensitive plant (that's its name, no joke). same plant that my grandmother showed us when i was like 5... it closes its leaves when you touch it, and then it slowly opens again. so much fun. i guess that makes me cruel.

***

i feel like i don't live here anymore. well, i don't... but i just feel like... i'm in someone else's house. which i guess i am, but... yeah. i'm getting too big for this.