I am sad to report....

That the goatee is gone.

That is all....carry on.

No wait...before you do that. Tomorrow night's dilemma....do I go to Dos Jefes and see Rick play? Or do I go to d.b.a and see John Boutte's early set, the the late set by Sophisticats???
I know its not a HUGE dilemma but if it wasn't for the music, I would be insane...

Could be soon....

I was just sitting at the Dog (that's the Ugly Dog) finishing up my lunch when one of my co-workers came in. We started chatting, I used to report to him when I answered the phones. Now neither of us know who I report to since I am doing AR and Purchasing and covering phones for breaks. I asked him, "what the hell are they going to do with me??" He tells me that at the end of this month (which is end of fiscal year) that they will hire me on permantly. Which means benefits finally!! WHEEE!!! 7 months with out those have sucked ass.

Now....more importantly.....do I go to Molly's tonight and enjoy some music of the Storyville Stompers? Its an early gig 7-10, so realistically I could go stay for a set or two, then be home and in bed early. Or do I stay home and chill? It should be an obvious choice really, a social life is kinda good to have....but these allergies are kickin my ass. Eh, screw it...tomorrow is Friday, so why not go have fun???

Damn this is a boring post. I really have nothin....really.....I could talk about my racist thoughts I had this morning getting off the bus (some of you know what I am talking about) but I am not ready to do that right now......lets just say after the "raid" a few weeks ago the area has been better but now they are all gathering at the park across the street from my house. UGH!!

Here a Mold...there a Mold....everywhere a Mold

So it rained a bit early this morning....and a little bit mid morning. One of my co-workers said...."in the really bad areas right now???? It smells just like it did right after it happened" We are talkin about the fun times with mold. I have had a couple of bad headaches the past few days, and he informed me it must be from the mold. It could be. Cuz there is a hell of a lot here in the air. Good times.

Speaking of mold, don't forget that in one week and one day....Arabi Wrecking Krewe will be featured on Extreme Homemake Overs!!! Mold fears us.

So Pathetic

Last night I decided to watch a movie Tivo had recorded with my boyfriend Matthew in it. I read what the movie was about and said to myself "hmmmm I haven't seen this one" so I settle down on the couch to watch Frailty. Right after the credits finished rolling and the movie really kicked in, I then said out loud "maybe I have seen this, or parts of it" Kristen looks up from her work then looks at me and said "you watched this the day before the storm. On that Saturday...when I came home and said aren't you leaving???" I totally forgot that I had even watched the movie. THE WHOLE MOVIE!!! Either it was sucky or I just blanked out that Saturday before the storm. I watched the whole movie again....it wasn't that great...really weird, but still.....to forget that you watched a whole movie???? damn. That is sad.

Soooooooo much fun

I am at home today. Allergies and some nasty ass cramps. That and I had a little bit toooo much fun this weekend. No not too much alchol but there was some of that consumed (I didn't have as much as some people *coughannettecough*) Friday night it was the Bonerama gig at the Maple Leaf that included a "photo shoot". It was a fun fun fun night, the crowd was definetly heavy on the George Porter Jr. fans, and that is cool....they got to enjoy the Bone as well. After getting home close to 4:30 ish.....I finally fell asleep around 5.....up for 23 hours. Woke up at 8 then dozed off and on until 11. Got up lounged around and read and played computer games. So thrilling. Later Kristin and I went and saw the Rebirth documentry premier. The story and the history is very interesting....however the editing and over all production was shoddy. I wouldn't waste my time seeing it unless you really wanted to know more about Rebirth Brass Band, and yet it doesn't go into a whole lot beyond the beginning of the band, and the departure of Kermit. What about all the new members??? It could have been a lot lot LOT better. I then went and hung out with some friends that ended in me getting home at 4 PM yesterday afternoon. Time to rest for a bit, take a quick shower and head out to Palm Court where Leroy and Craig were playing. Uncle Lionel came in and quickly hammed it up.....he now calls me "Sexy" He is a cute harmless dirty old man. I :heart: him!!!!

Sucked In

Yesterday when I got home from work, I was flipping thru an old People magazine (it was the Oscar wrap up one....but the newest one the grocery store had, we are that behind) and I noticed an ad for the new season of "The Surreal Life" I thought to myself "I HAVE to watch this season" and then realized that it had started the 19th. Well, duh like it won't be 50 thousand more times.....I did set up the ole Tivo to catch it, and as it happens? They aired the first eppie again last night. Now why did I have to watch it so bad? Cuz FREAKIN C.C. deVille is on it this season!!! You know...the guitarist from Poison??? My obsession band in Jr. High and High School.....I loooooooved hair bands then. They also have on Tawny Katen (sp) you know....the chick that rolled around on cars in the Whitesnake videos, Sherman Helmsley aka George Jefferson, the lead singer for Smash Mouth, some 22 year old Playboy bunny, and Alexis Arquette!!! Alexis is the transgender Arquette!!! Then they brought in, Florence Henderson, you know....Mrs. Brady!!! She isn't staying in the house...but there everyday for to be the "therapist to the group. The 2nd day there the guests had to choose a "hunk" to also stay with them...the hunks consisted of former reality stars, some dude from Survior, someone from Real World, the dude that slept with Paula Abdul and some others.....it looks like it is gonna be interesting. C.C. had come STRAIGHT from rehab to the house, Tawny is also sober as is the lead singer for Smash Mouth......and the others? They were throwin back the cocktails....I love trash TV. It ROCKS!!

Anyway.....

So I spent the afternoon talking to the Ft. Worth Police. First calling the non-emergency number. Giving them some information. Then I got a call back from them, and they took more information. She said to expect a call from a detective at some point. I also called a lawyer referral number and waited for them to call me back. When they did? It was the ONLY time I was away from my phone. I of course didn't look at my phone when I was by it again until it was after their closing time. Oh well. I called and left another message today.

Here is a question for ya'll. When you buy a car from a dealership, they ARE the ones that are suppose to take care of transferring the title right? I know that in a private buy, it could be the buyer that has to do that....not the seller. So I am just making sure.

I should NOT be this tired

This was a nice weekend that just passed.....Friday night Kristen and I jumped on the bus and headed down to the Quarter. We giggled at the gaggle of Tulane girls that got on the bus. They were planning the "pubs" they wanted to hit. One of the girls asked the group, "Do you guys have IDs?" The answer was no. And one of them was wearing there senior prom T-shirt for 2005. Yeah better planning next time ladies. Turned out they were going the same place as us, Molly's. Whenever I saw them that night, they were outside, no drinks in hand. We had a great time, and winded down the evening at Cafe Amelie where Leroy was playing. Saturday was spend with the Arabi Wrecking Krewe as we tackled a new house. There were a lot of people there to help, thanks to the Vets who came out. That is Veterans. They were in town for part of this walk/march protesting the war. I believe they started in Bilioxi. Yesterday there was a big anti-war rally out in Congo Square that they also took part in. Anyway this house, the back yard was transformed from a jungle of downed tree branches and debris to a clean prairie. Almost all of the inside was cleaned out. The roof was finally tarped. Next comes some demolition....it was a good day. I fell asleep at 9:30!!! Of course that meant I was up at 6:30 yesterday. Kristin had to run to Target so I hitched a ride. We also stopped at Barnes and Noble where I loaded up on some books. The afternoon was spent reading and cleaning up around the house. I finally cleaned up all the Mardi Gras beads!! I then headed out to the Palm Court where Leroy was playing.....had a couple glasses of wine and enjoyed some really good music.

Tomorrow is a half day for me. Gonna tackle the car issues big time. I heard from Mike (Lisa's husband) who ran my plates for me. (He is a State Trooper and a chip licker) The car is not stolen which is good. I did some research online and found out that the dealer had 20 days to get the title transferred. When I called in late Jan/early Feb, no work had been done to do that (this was according to the TX registars office) I also heard from the Ft. Worth police and I need to call them to file a police report. Fun times ahead!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I hope everyone is wearing green....or do you want to get a pinch?? ;) I am counting down the hours (3 hours 15 mins) until my work day is done and I can go and enjoy some green beer, or maybe a black and tan, or a margarita, or something green that I can drink!!

Oh and my Montana Grizzlies won their first tournament game in 30 years!!! They beat Nevada yesterday, and are on to round 2 tomorrow against Boston College!! I can't wait to watch that game. GO GRIZ!!!

Not only is the Ides of March.....

But it also happens to be a very special day today. 52 years ago on the Flathead reservation, just outside of Missoula, MT....my dad was born. He has sure done alot in his life so far, the best thing of course being a great dad to my sister and myself. Okay....and marrying my mom. Happy Birthday Dad!!!

Want to hear Bonerama live??

They are going to be on the radio tonight and you can hear it live!!! I just heard from Craig, they just found out about it themselves. Not about the show...but about it being online....so I am spreading the word.

Go here to hear them!!! Oh that is at 8 PST. so in like 40 mins.

He is gonna take first in the bus driver rodeo

I am sitting on the bus this morning, reading my book as I do every work day morning. I look up to see where we are on the bus route, and boy did I pick a time to look up. This car, rather the driver must have decided that they could drive THROUGH the bus. We were about 3 blocks away from Louisiana street, the car was coming up a one way street, and they didn't stop at the stop sign as they tried to cross St. Charles. They smacked into the bus going maybe 20-30 MPH (that is a total guess on my part) they hit the right side of the door, the glass on the door completly shattered, skid along part of the bus and hit the tire. You could see the blue paint all along that side of the bus. The car looked like it exploded....I saw the impact, the pieces flying everywhere, the car spun around at least once, as it was in a revolution at one point, at the end it was facing almost the right way. Our bus driver (one of the nicest this city has by the way) was either swerving to miss the car, or the impact pushed the bus up on to the neutral ground....and how he managed to miss all the light poles, trees, and other hard items is amazing to me. I am of course totally grateful that he could miss all of those, as one of my fellow riders said, "If he had hit one of those poles, the people in the back of the bus would have been pushed back to uptown." It was scary as hell. The guy across the aisle from me, in the aisle seat fell out of his seat, hit his head on something, and said he afterwards "I wasn't sure what was going on at first, I was just hoping the bus was stopping soon" Our driver took down some names and numbers in case they need some more witnesses. An ambulance arrived, apparently there was a little girl in the car, not sure if she was in the front or back seat but her face was all bloody. I think the car may have smacked into a few other cars as well. Once we hit the neutral ground, I wasn't concerned about the car, it was will we stop on our own or will a pole stop us.

On a totally seperate note, someone asked in the comments if I had the title to the my car. No, that is the whole problem. I bought the car almost 5 months ago (in eleven days it will be 5 months) and the dealership has not sent me the title to the car and when I call to inquire on it, they give me the run around. "The person you bought the car from is no longer with the dealership, we should have it out to you shortly" the second time it was "let us look into it and we will get back in touch with you" the third time it was "the owner's briefcase was stolen and he had some titles to the cars in the briefcase. We are slowly recovering them and when we do we will get it to you" UMMMMM you can request a new title. I called the registar place in TX where they could do that and there has been NO attempts to do this. So I have a car that is title-less and it won't run correctly. My comment at the end of the last post "anyone want to buy a car" was a total joke.

So...yeah....


I have been doing some research into the whole lawyer/small claims court/car dealio and I have a headache. I will be doing more of course, want/need to get this taken care of.

A concern, rather a thought that I had today.....wonder if the courts here will have time for something like this? Its a big deal to me of course but to others, its not.

I will be following up on more leads tomorrow. Looks like I will be on the phones in the morning. My hope is to be able to go talk to a lawyer on Friday, it sucks ass that I most likely will have to take time off work to go and do this. Lost wages for me!! WHEE!!!

Anyone want to buy a car? ;)

The continuing saga of my car.

Before Lisa (my sister) came down here for Mardi Gras, she talked to one of her old friends from High School who is a lawyer. He gave her some advice to pass along to me. A quick update for those who are not aware, on October 25, 2005 I bought a car "as is" in Fort Worth, TX so I could come home to NOLA. As I drove it home it started overheating, and has been having these problems since. Well I bought the car "as is" so its my problem right? Well here is the kicker. Oct 25th was 4 1/2 months ago. The dealership I bought the car from? That I have paid CASH to??? They haven't sent me the title. So yeah this may be a hard lesson learned. I don't want to put $$ into a car to repair it, since I technically don't own the car. I have all the receipts and what not from the car purchase, but NOT the title. Several contacts were made with the dealership, which I got the run around as to why I hadn't received my title. Well here we are, the plates are beyond expired, the temp tag the dealership gives you (and have sent several more) are all expired. My car sits there, unusable.

Our friend told me to do the following. First, file a police report. Because if I do for some reason drive the car, and get pulled over??? I could get arrested for driving a stolen car. Even though I paid for the car....I don't have the title. Second, I have to file in small claims court to either get my $$ back or for them to send the damn title already. Third, to report the dealership to BBB. Some people have even suggested a fourth, to go the media, as this dealership taking advantage of a Katrina victim.

I have been looking online for some help, can't really seem to find the forms I would need to fill out for small claims court. I don't really know where to begin. I may have to pick Carrie's brain soon, seeing as she is a law student. However, since she is a law student in classes right now, helping me won't be a priority. She is slammed right now.

In the end I am hoping for one thing. For them to take back the non-working car, and for them to give me my $$ back. It sucks to know that I "have" a car, yet I can't use it. I could buy a car some place else....or hell even better a scooter. It would still get me around right?

My head hurts. If anyone has some good legal advice on the small courts procedures please let me know. It would be greatly appreciated.

Tivo Heaven

We got it to work!! Finally!! After having the darn thing for just about 3 months, we got it to finally work with our wireless. That meant that I didn't have to stay up to watch one of my boyfriends, Matthew on Conan last night, and that when I get home from work? I can watch his yumminess. Tomorrow the movie that he is in, Failure to Launch, is released, a lot of it was filmed here in NOLA, in fact they finished up like 3 weeks before "the thing" I can't wait to see it.

I am so frustrated right now. I joined this ediets thingy and they started sending me some vitamins. I am no longer really following this diet. Okay I am not at all. I can't find a way to discontinue the service, and they are charging me $74 for the vitamins!!! I don't want them anymore, and I can't find anyway to stop the services!!! that is a lot of damn money for me right now. I didn't even authorize for them to send me vitamins!! UGH. Off to go and look some more.

Niiiiiiiice

I know most people hate dressing up for work. Here it pretty casual. In fact I wear jeans most every day. I wanted to dress up a bit today since I am on the phones and won't be needing to go into the shop at all. I have on a jean skirt and flip flops, and that is it. No I have a nice shirt on as well. I ran upstairs to Accounting to grab a few things I was working on yesterday, one of ladies up there was on the phone, and she made some comment I didn't really hear. She came down later and told me what she had said, "Giiirrrl you got some shapely legs!! I want your legs!!!" First and only time I will probably ever hear that, so I am gonna love on it for awhile.

Happy Hump Day!!!

I seriously thought I would throw my phone (aka my alarm) out the window this morning. Then I remembered a few weeks ago I was almost out of my mind when my phone didn't work. So I got up. I shouldn't be complaining about sleep. Cuz for some people like Zoot? Sleep is non-existant right now.

But let me tell you how stressful my evening was. Oh wait it wasn't!! I read for awhile, then I watched Scrubs. Then read for awhile more. So far, this is a damn boring blog post. I am back downstairs on the phones today and tomorrow, so expect more posts.

Oh here is something....right now on accuradio, Broadway channel, they are playing "I should tell you" from the Rent soundtrack. I know some of you are saying "you said soundtrack and you always correct us when we refer to a soundtrack with a Broadway show." Well the difference is, this IS the soundtrack from the 2005 Movie. Not the cast recording from the Broadway cast. So there!! I was so happy that the movie is out on DVD now. I can watch my girl crush Idina Menzel (aka Taye Diggs wife) when ever I want. I want to be her when I grow up. She has an amazing voice. I also get to watch the fantastic, beautiful and amazing Jesse L. Martin whenever I want. Okay so I could always just switch to TNT or something and catch him on Law and Order....but he SINGS in this movie just like he did on Broadway, and he makes me cry when he sings at Angel's funeral. I haven't delved into the extra's on the DVD yet. I may do that tonight. Wait is Lost new tonight??? I heard it wasn't...anyone??

Rant and a Rave

Rave for the day: I don't remember if I have mentioned this here, but even if I did it is SOOOO worth mentioning again. Arabi Wrecking Krewe had a good Mardi Gras. How good you ask? Well, Extreme Home Makeovers was in town. They were working on, I believe a church. They also contacted the Krewe and filmed a little bit of them/us!! Okay I wasn't there. I could have been there. I could have met Ty. I didn't go for several reasons. I know they didn't want a shitload of people there. What I didn't realize is that several of the key people DID want me there. Oh well. I also had to hang out at the house that day for Lisa and Hank to come and pick up a portion of their beads for their ride in Orpheus. I know I could have arranged to have them pick them up earlier and all that good stuff, but like I said, I didn't want to be in the way if I really wasn't suppose to be there. The eppie should air in the first weeks of April. When I find out the exact date, I will let everyone know. Also with the show and Gibson Guitars, there was a presentation at Howlin Wolf the night of the taping (I again missed it, was at Bacchus and Endymion doh!) The presentation was for $50,000 to the Krewe to continue on our work and of 40 insturments for musicians here that have lost theirs in "the thing" WHOO HOO!!! There are pictures up from the presentation and work on the house (yes there are pics of Ty)

Rant for the day: My mail is being returned as undeliverable to various places. I had placed an order with Amazon. I got an email today saying it was returned to them, as my address is undeliverable. Interesting. Since I RECEIVED MAIL YESTERDAY!!!! I have received items from Amazon at the house since "the thing" no problem. They have either left the items or left the little note saying come and pick it up. Which I have. Its not only packages. They have returned a W-2 and check stubs from my temp service. After I got the call from the temp service saying they were returned? I went home and guess what was waiting in the mail slot??? Some check stubs from the temp service. Its like the carrier just doesn't want to deliver on some days or something. Or someone within the post office is royally screwing up. I have called and talked to someone several times, in fact she has called me back. Trying to figure this out. In the meantime, things I have been waiting for for months? Most likely returned as undeliverable. This is so aggravating. I need to go down and complain at my post office. I can't do that until Saturday however since my damn car is no good!! They have shortened hours so I can't go during the week when I get home. Stupid.

Just What I needed.

This weekend was so nice. It was the perfect way to wind down from the Mardi Gras madness that had consumed our lives. Friday night we went to Cafe Amelie on Royal St. It is across from the Cornstalk Hotel. It has a beautiful courtyard area, delicious food/drink, and with the music of John Boutte (with Leroy Jones and Todd Duke) it was even better. Rob Savoy, the former bassist for Cowboy Mouth was there with his wife!! We made it an early night, as in home by 12. Saturday was relaxing with a trip to the grocery store and to Tower so I could pick up Rent on DVD. We then watched the movie and relaxed the afternoon away. Earlier in the morning, I had gotten a text message from Craig telling me that the New Orleans Nightcrawlers were playing at Blue Nile. Kristen and I headed out to d.b.a. to catch some more of the trio from the night before. Uncle Lionel was there and got me to dance with him. After they finished up (they played the early set) we walked down to Blue Nile, just in time for the NONC set. Matt was in a funky mood, happy to be playing there I guess. He is off in Europe again for 2 more weeks. Uncle Lionel even showed up at Blue Nile!! There is nothing like hearing "Funky Liza" by NONC. Even if it was slow!! It was a nice night, again a fairly early evening, we left at the set break. Yesterday, I laid on the couch and read, and watched the Oscar coverage ALL.DAY.LONG. It was nice. I was happy my boy George won, and that Crash won best movie. As soon as I saw it in the theaters earlier this summer, I knew it had it wrapped up. My roomies were amazed I didn't bet on the Oscars cuz I called all the major winners before they were announced. I just like my Oscars that is all!! I do have to say that John Stewart annoyed the shit out of me to no end. Oh well....he was easy to zone out after awhile. Now its back to a full work week, I think I can handle it. :)

The Complete Wrap-up

Yeah right like I can remember everything that happened in the past week. Its been a week! since all the kicked into high gear. If you saw any news coverage, that was only a very small part of Mardi Gras. I have heard they showed a lot of Bourbon, which was expected. Um, Hi that is the tourists down there not all the locals. But whatever. There are people out there (and here) that still don't understand how/why we could have had Mardi Gras. You don't understand and you don't get it. For the people, a large majority of the people, who have made it back home and have been here since "The thing" happened or home right after, this was much needed release, forget for a few days if possible, need to remember that there is a life beyond mold, muck, depression, failed levees, lack of leadership. People needed to have fun. And fun was had. Here are highlights of my Mardi Gras:

• Dr. Love on Frenchmen street. (Pic can be found over at Lisa's)
• Flat Stanley, it was all about you wasn't it???
• Blur
• Muses those girls are one of the best Krewes around.
• Sassy bands
• Ugly Dog fun
• Bonerama/Krewe of Oak (Lisa and Wendy have pics of this night)
• Gayle and Mike actually showing up.
• Mike falling asleep during the gig.
• My sister being here.
• My sister getting to see Bonerama for the first time at Harrah's.
• Copper Monkey.
• Field sobriety tests given by Trooper Mulvey (yeah you didn't pass either)
• Bacchus.
• Orpheus Ball.
• The sunny sunny sunny wonderful weather on Fat Tuesday which left me sunburned, tired and happy after St. Ann's.
• Cherry Bombs.
• $60.00

Have I said how much I love living here???? Even today walking to work, I got the goosebumps when I thought "I actually LIVE in New Orleans" and to think that 6 months ago.....I had the fleeting thought that this was not going to actually happen again. Just proves that you need to live everyday to the fullest.

Recovery

I have spent all evening messing with pictures. Mardi Gras was amazing. I was so glad to see all my friends, my sister, and well party. We all needed it.

More later....for now...if you wish...enjoy some pics