Secretly, though, I’ve always wanted to be a drummer. I picked music up again when I became a full-fledged adult able to pay for my own lessons. Enter, the steel drums. I’ve been playing them since 2005. That sort of fulfilled that drummer dream but you know the dream I’m really talking about. The drums.

Get this. My dream is a-happenin’. Sort of. A few months ago, I was playing around on a junky set of drums and it turns out that I may have some untapped talent. So say my fellow steel drummers after seeing me pick up some sticks and playing around on the junky set. Apparently playing Rock Band has helped me play real drums. Anyway, earlier this month, I got that junky set-ish (parts are missing) of drums for free. Awesome, right? Yeah, the set is in my basement. I don’t want to work and I’m ready to bang on them all day.

Would you like to live vicariously through me or are you already rockin’ a set of drums?

using the same bathroom!

We have been together for years and years and besides when we travel, we have never had to share a bathroom. It’s always been our thing for him to use the master bath and I get the one the guests would use when they visit. It’s not a I’m-the-man-therefore-I-get-the-big-bathroom thing. It’s for the sake of preparing for visitors. I think I do a better job of keeping the bathroom clean, so it takes less time to clean up when we have guests coming.

Anyway, the new house has a huge master bath, which includes two sinks and two medicine cabinets. So now we are sharing. It’s weird. He likes to put his towel back on the towel rack. I like to throw mine over the shower curtain rod. This morning, I could see him in every mirror and I stared at him as he brushed his teeth just to see how long it would take him to notice (about 20 seconds). It’s like were each others’ zoo animal. OK, maybe he’s just mine. He doesn’t watch me… that I know of.

Can you relate? Do you share bathrooms with your significant other?

So! The hubby and I just got back from a long stint of travel–since Dec. 21, 2011. Before that, I was drowning in grading to finish up the semester.

Now we’re back in town and we’re about to move in a couple of days. Seriously. Are we insane or what?

Anyway, shall I hit the highlights? We went to visit my family for a couple of days over the holidays. Then we crossed the state to visit my in-laws. We came back home for a little less than a day and headed out of town for the hubby’s work.

Much of what I will tell you about next will seem to fall into the “it’s a long story” category. Just bear with me.

We were in the Big Easy for about a week. We celebrated New Year’s there, which I hear is one of the best places to celebrate in the country. I wouldn’t know because drunk people make me uncomfortable. Instead, we watched fireworks overlooking the Mississippi River. It was cool.

Earlier that night, we went to a casino to try our luck at slot machines. We played Monkees- and Village People-themed machines. Both were fun. The hubby told me we won a whopping $8.00, which is far better than losing that amount, since we were ahead, we left and had dinner.

The next day, a group of ladies and I toured some homes in the French Quarter. Each home had nice gardens and a pool… and a 3-piece band playing some jazz tunes! The first house was a bit of a bust, but the second house was really fantastic. Below is a view from a balcony.

After the tours, we had lunch. A great lunch. A lunch in which I ate far too much. I don’t typically get appetizers, but this time around, it was part of the deal. So I got Fried Green Tomatoes with a Shrimp Creole sauce. It was soooo good… Chef Paul Prudhomme even made an appearance. (It was his restaurant.)

The next day, the ladies and I hit up a piano bar and decorated parasols. The music was great and it was a good time. Afterwards, we ended up in a parade, throwing beads to anyone and everyone who wanted them. Eventually, we had lunch at the oldest restaurant in the city. All of that sounds like I made it up, but I didn’t. Here’s a shot before the parade.

Later that evening, I went to a concert in which this season’s Heisman trophy winner (RG3!) made a special appearance. Kelly Clarkson provided the tunes free of charge. It was a good show.

The next day, it was all Super Dome all the time.

Thanks for hitting the highlights with me. I hope you enjoyed the photos.

]]> http://standingby.wordpress.com/2012/01/05/life-in-nola/feed/ 1 that girl fireworks houses tomatoes parade clarkson superdome http://standingby.wordpress.com/2011/12/17/oh-life/ http://standingby.wordpress.com/2011/12/17/oh-life/#comments Sat, 17 Dec 2011 17:19:40 +0000 that girl http://standingby.wordpress.com/?p=1730 ]]>

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Hi. Life is crazy right now. I’m just taking a 5 minute break to say Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Seasons Greetings and whatnot. I’m not sure that the blogosphere has missed me, but I’ve missed it. I hope to make a comeback next week.

Years ago, I used to buy pre-packaged meals from the grocery store, where they would give me a big box filled with Turkey Day goodies: a turkey that needed re-heating, stuffing, green beans, rolls, mashed potatoes, and a pie of my choosing. We always enjoyed those but it was always way too much food.

One year, I decided to go it alone and put everything together myself. As far as I can remember, everything was fine. After that, I felt confident and continued to buy everything separately but goofed on the turkey. It was frozen. Uh. How? What? I called my dad about that one.

One time, I brought a chocolate pudding pie to the hubby’s aunt’s house. No one died or got sick.

Somewhere along the way, I started buying just a turkey breast and some sides because we were invited to friends’ houses… but I still needed leftovers!

I think it was last year or the year before that I ventured out and made the mashed potatoes myself. That’s probably not a big deal to most people, but it is for me. I boil over pots almost every time I use the stove!

This year, I’m going to try this method with the turkey breast that I saw on Food Network. I’m going to make an herb butter and rub it all over the turkey. AND I’m going to try to make gravy, too!

Wish me luck and Happy Thanksgiving!

Today, a new debate: which size spoon is better?

Yes, lovely readers, these are the debates that transpire in our household at 10:30pm on a Saturday night. We’re an exciting couple. I know. Read the conversation below and pick a side. I need to declare a winner spooner rather than later.

The premise: I was hungry and I decided to eat a bowl of cereal. Early into the noms, I had to stop eating. The size of the spoon was bothering me.

that girl: These little spoons are so annoying. They are so dinky. They don’t hold any milk.
the hubby: Why would you want so much milk? They are good because you don’t have to waste your time with the milk.
that girl: I like to see the cereal floating in the milk in the spoon. It’s like two birds, one stone. Something to eat and drink…. I can’t eat this stuff. I need a new spoon.

I start to reach into the dishwasher to pull out an unwashed adult-sized spoon.
the hubby: Those are dirty! That’s dirty. Dirty!
that girl: Calm down. I know. I was going to wash it.
the hubby: That’s gross. It’s not sanitized. The dishwasher sanitizes.
that girl: You’re insane. I’m going to hand-wash it. Don’t worry. I’ll use soap.

Returning to my bowl of cereal…

that girl: This spoon is sooo much better.
the hubby: Why are you using a spoon meant for horses? That spoon is huge.
that girl: No, this is meant for adults. You use spoons meant for 5-year-olds. You use those worthless dinky spoons. How can you eat anything? They don’t hold jack. I’d like to finish eating today. That little spoon was taking too long and it was leaving all the milk in the bowl.
the hubby: Just get more cereal! That one you’re using is for serving.
that girl: It’s not. Real people use spoons like this. Those others are for babies!

Andddd… scene.

Seriously, I was not eating from a serving spoon. Serving spoons have slots.

In the set of utensils we have, there is a small fork, a big fork, a small spoon, a big spoon, and a knife. The big question is, how insane do you think the hubby is? He uses the big spoon to stir chocolate milk or coffee.

Anyway, since Monday, we’ve gone to the house every day. We have some things to do before we can move, including waiting for the hubby to be off from work but I digress. We started off with cleaning… and I overheated our Ghostbusters-style handheld vacuum (photo) with the collection of dust bunnies and cobwebs. We’ve also delivered paint and supplies for our handyman.

Today I went to the house by myself because the hubby is out of town for work. It felt kind of weird. There were things in the house. Granted, it wasn’t legitimate furniture or anything like that, just ladders and painting supplies, but this was the first time I saw it with things scattered about. It felt like it was our house, whereas in past visits, I felt like we were just the cleaning crew. It also felt weird because the walls were partially painted in the colors we chose. We’ve never painted our walls before. And the room that I am claiming as my own was painted. Whoa. This is. For. Real. And of course, hubby wasn’t with me. It was weird to wander around this big, somewhat empty house without him there, too.

So I went home. To our other house.

We have a lot going on with life lately. I’m taking a class for my masters program. I’m teaching a new class which now equals an overload of 3 more in-classroom hours this semester. I’m responsible for coordinating production equipment needs for that overload. It’s football season and the hubby is working more because of it. The dog keeps peeing everywhere and screams and howls when he gets penned up…. Oh, and did I mention? We’re buying a new house. And that’s not really everything that’s going on!

Sigh.

I consider myself a pretty strong person. I can handle a ton of stress before I crack but I am also not afraid to admit that I’m a cry baby. Sometimes I make myself cry on purpose, so that I can relieve some stress. This morning, I really needed a good cry–dog-related–but I only shed a few tears. Then when I got to work, I got teary talking to a friend who understood my need to cry. That cry only lasted a minute. It wasn’t enough. Then when I was teaching, we were talking about a topic that is very sensitive to me and I got teary-eyed and had to leave the room. That has never happened to me.

Still, it wasn’t enough. I still need my good cry. I know I’ve stayed strong for too long.

It’s 5 years later. September 11, 2006.

I can’t believe how long it’s been since that day. I remember that I was in my car on my way to work when I heard about what was going on. When I got to work, I rushed inside, turned on the tv and then emailed everyone working for the town to let them know. I cried a lot that day.

Today I woke up to find 9/11 ceremonies on tv. I watched for a minute or two then I had to shut the tv off. I don’t mean to disrespect anyone who died that day or anyone who may have been affected by the day’s events. I really could not take it. I would have thought the feeling would have worn off by now. I guess I’m still quite emotional about it. I’d say that’s probably a good thing, right?

What’s interesting about what I wrote 5 years ago is that I could easily change the date to 2011 and I would still feel the same. Deep down inside, I still feel so sad about that day. I can barely think about it without getting teary-eyed. I still remember getting ready to turn onto campus as I heard the news on the radio. I remember not understanding what was happening until I saw it on tv. I remember just finishing a show about the fire department and learning about the chirping alarms firefighters wear. I remember hearing a lot of chirping coming from the tv. I remember sitting on the couch with my co-workers as we watched the events unfold.

I remember crying a lot that day and still crying today.