NOLA: Part One

New Orleans should change their city motto to :

New Orleans: It's ridiculously hot here.

But we will get to that later -- because I have to start at the drama from the airport

Oh yes,  before we even GOT to New Orleans.

I am in the car on the way to the airport and I get a call from Stephanie. You see, all the AT's from the surrounding schools (I call them all my co-workers even though we don't technically all work for the same school .. but we spend a lot of time taking care of each other AND each others kids ... so... we consider us all in the same boat) coordinated to fly out all together so it was easier to book all tickets on school's cards and for cab/car ride purposes, etc ...so ... where was I? okay, Steph calls me and I answer

Me: Hey, I'm almost to the airport...

Steph: Please tell me that you printed out my boarding pass

Me: Yes, I have yours and mine -- are we going to meet up? or did you print yours out too?
Steph: OMG, I love you. No, I need the one you printed. Warning: when you get to the airport is it going to be chaotic...come in the C entrance and Ill meet you at security.

I walked in the doors to the airport and the ticket lines were ABSURD. US AIR's computers had gone down and there was no way for anyone to check in if they hadn't printed their tickets beforehand. There was no standing room, there was no breathing room ... people were missing their planes .. .it wasn't pretty.

3 of us made it to the gate just fine. The other 3 on the other hand...had to wait and try to get their bags checked and boarding passes. They had to literally sprint to the gate with handwritten, looked like pretend, tickets - we finally all boarded the plane. Now ... one of these co-workers has not flown since 9/11 and she was quite stressed with the chaos at just trying to check in.

THEN we get on the plane and as we are pulling away from the gate -- the wheel on the door is hit. So we have to wait for some cable to come and someone to fix it. (Poor girl is sitting behind us saying she is never flying again!) We wait...they come with a cable. IT was too short. So we wait some more ... they bring another cable...fix it...then we have to wait for some paperwork. So we wait some more - finally we take off from Charlotte when we should have been landing in NOLA.

It was a LONG time sitting on that plane. Half of us were exhausted from running across the whole airport, the other half of us - simply has trouble sitting still. I offered to have a dance party in the aisle...but JE wouldn't sing Justin Bieber for us. LAME!

Upon arriving in New Orleans … 8 million hours after our scheduled arrival … we had a set plan

a) Check in at the Convention Center
b) Check into everyone’s hotel
c) Find food … and possibly also the Phillies/Mariners game. (former Tar Heel, Dustin Ackley, made his debut this weekend, which is causing problems for me and Chase Utley)

"Let the Good Times Roll"

I'll be honest -- I just got excited that it says "Bon Temps" ... you know, like True Blood?!

heyyyyy Bill Compton....

Task A was pretty easy … although navigating through the city with suitcases and realizing exactly how how it was … made it a little bit more difficult. Task B was a little more difficult…because I was in the Marriott. And there are 19 Marriotts in NOLA. So after about 3 strikeouts, and the Gremlin in full force (my friends call me Gremlin when I'm hungry and I start to get angry) I dumped my suitcase in Steph’s hotel … said I would figure it all out later – can we JUST EAT?!

JE carrying my suitcase -- I was struggling to say the least:

We sat down at a corner pub and immediately got a table. They didn’t have the Phils/Mariners game, but no one really cared. We just wanted food. After 30 mins went by and NO ONE came to us as a waiter … I couldn’t take it anymore. We sent Steph to run down (yes, literally run down) to another place we had heard of, Huck Finn’s off of Decatur St…. she called- - said come on and so we FINALLY sat down to a meal and some baseball.

Fed, rested – and yes, we eventually checked me into my hotel – we regrouped for an outing on Bourbon Street.

Bourbon Street

I have never seen anything like it. Very colorful, very busy, very … very … interesting. Oh, and watch out for horse poop in the middle of the road. AND for small children too – it took everything I had not to look at these people and ask “WHY are your children out here?!?!” We were in town over a Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday night ... I can't even imagine the amount of people over a weekend, a Saints game (let alone a Super Bowl win), and I don't even want to imagine Mardi Gras.

the Charlotte crew (minus Marianna) about to tackle Bourbon St.

I found a new friend!

and then Marianna and I found another new friend!

We popped in and out of places saying hello to co-workers, friends, alumni – and enjoyed just being out the heat of the day, we grabbed a hurricane from Pat O’Briens and just took in the city of New Orleans.

MONDAY we sat in some good talks about concussions (even though in my opinion we still haven’t learned anything new regarding their effects on kids than from the last time we had our meeting) But there were some good talks on nutrition and heat illness and some other good topics.  But that's the boring stuff, ya'll don't want to hear about that ...

While walking around the city, we noticed a lot of “film” trucks and asked a worker what was going on. They were in the process of filming the new movie 21 Jump Street, which also meant that Channing Tatum was running around somewhere in New Orleans. Sadly, we never “bumped” into him, although I kept my eyes peeled and tried to walk down the street with all the trucks as much as possible.

the area blocked off for filming 21 Jump Street

Lunch at Lucy’s Retired Surfer Shop – and it was Monday – so were supposed to eat Red Beans and Rice because that's what you do on Mondays… but no one at our table ordered it! Oops! I then took the rest of the afternoon off to watch my Heels battle against Texas in the CWS. Also, I just wanted to sit in the air conditioning.

ME: Excuse me sir, we're trying to find Lucys? Its on what street?

NOLA native: Tchoupitoulas

ME: what? Toolahruh ... c'mon Eileen, what? one more time, please.

NOLA native: Tcho-oupit-oulas.

ME: (blank stare ... confused look ... just need food.gremlin coming out)

NOLA Native: go three blocks up, and turn left. You'll see the sign.

OHHHHH, Tchoupitoulas. literally. DUH!

That night we held our WUAT reunion at the House of Blues that night and we had a GREAT turnout! Props to Goose and Tim for handling most of the logistics! It was so good to see some older faces .. and creepy to see some of the younger kids, because to them WE are the older faces!

Class of 2007 representing ...

wait what class again?

ohhh, 2 ... 0 0 ..... 7

my favorite was Dinika asking if she was indeed holding up 7 fingers. smh.

Randy and Kristy --- Randy even presented at the NATA!

the whole WUAT crew

give me attitude!

Afterwards, round II of Bourbon Street included the Cat’s Meow and some epic karaoke. I may or may not have gotten up there with Goose for a duet … hey, when in NOLA, right?!

Tuesday and Wednesday's adventures to come tomorrow! Stay Tuned! xoxo