Food, Primarily

I was wandering along Magazine street yesterday (as it is the street that I seem to wander along every day...), and I popped into this "Superfood Bar" place (hole in the wall). First I got an iced coconut water with green tea (the ice cubes were made of the same combo), which was lovely of course, and then I got this pineapple-basil-almond milk-coconut oil-VitaMineral Green drink, which was delicious! And then, not only did Joseph (the guy running the place) offer me a job, he offered to CREATE a job for me! And I mean, I AM pretty in love with NOLA so.....

It doesn't matter how inconvenient it is for my hair, or for anything else, I just love being in a warm humid climate. It's like walking along in a damp warm blanket that never cools down, as strange sounding an analogy as that may be. I love it! It goes so well with the mood of New Orleans too. Words to describe New Orleans: romantic, charming, and gothic.

Also at the Superfood Bar they had coupons for a free coffee at Hey Cafe, so I put that to good use. It was a cute little hipster place.

And then last night for supper we went to the Roosevelt Hotel restaurant Domenica, where the food was amazing, and the menu actually fairly progressive (veg. options, some buckwheat noodles), but everything was SO full of fat that we felt disgusting after dinner. What we had: kale (which we found out later had been cooked in meat fat, hence the heavenly bacon flavour; yeah I could have asked about it before I kept eating it, but you have to understand how tasty this kale was...) with reggiano cheese, cooked polenta with cherry tomatoes, and a cheese and meat platter with various tasty little condiments, like wasabied cherries and things. No I didn't eat the meat from the platter. Ok I know I've gone off on a food tangent, but the food I ate yesterday was seriously worth talking about. And it's my blog. I can do whatever I want!

Anyway, good day for food. Oh, and then after dinner we went to the Sazerac Bar, within the same hotel, where I ordered, of course, a sazerac. Which is actually a fairly popular drink in other bars in NOLA as well.

And that was yesterday.

NOLA part 2

Well, I ventured out and here I still am! I never thought I would actually be proud of myself at the end of a day for not being raped mugged or murdered... But I am. I went all the way to Whole Foods on Magazine St., and passed many adorable shops along the way, a few of which I mosied into, before wrenching myself away and forcing myself to stand at the bus stop so as to get home on time and also to stop spending money.

For all the fear that was instilled in me about how dangerous nola is, I met quite a few very friendly people. It's very very warm here during the day, but tends to have just about enough breeziness to make it bearable. I say just about enough because there were definitely a few moments when I thought I was going to melt into a puddle. I also popped into Cafe Carmo, which is only an 8 minute walk from my hotel, and where they have vegan ham and vegan pulled pork! I'm impressed. I knew nola must be more health-conscious than a lot of people give it credit for, and I was right. That's all for now.

NOLA

The travelling adventure has begun! I am currently in New Orleans (NOLA), and am feeling a bit trapped in the hotel room, as I seem to hear nothing but warnings not to go outside on my own. I'm having a bit of a hard time distinguishing which are "safe" areas and which are "do not walk alone" territory, and am afraid the only way I will find out for sure is if I'm walking around, safe here, ok, it's safe here, here, here, and BAM - just got mugged and pistol-whipped! Ok, NOT safe on THAT particular block, note to self..... And the thing that makes it extra scary is I have pretty much zero sense of direction and am likely, if someone warns me not to go east, to end up deep east for most of the day quite by accident. So anyway, I'm sure everything will be fine, ha ha, oh god... No it will be, I'll be fine. I've decided today to check out the New Orleans "health food" scene, so Whole Foods and a cafe that serves fresh fruit and vegetable juices are on the list, and we will see what happens!

Special Feelings Time

So it's that special lady time of the month again, when I feel my feelings too strongly and everything gets madly blown out of proportion so I can no longer see if I'm having a valid life epiphany, or if it's just hormones.

It's crazy how incredibly easy it is to just lose all perspective sometimes, ESPECIALLY during this special lady time. And then you sit back and you look at the situation from another angle, actually play the game of putting yourself in someone else's shoes, and bam-o, you realize how ignorant of the actual situation you've been. It's unfortunate, but I suppose it's the nature of being oneself, because when you're only one person (which most of us are), you just tend to be completely obsessed with everything that's going on in your own life, and there are so many thoughts and opinions on things and feelings swirling around in your own head, just about your own life, you can just completely forget the importance, and in fact the existence of, really thinking about something from another person's perspective.

So I've had my little reminder of that. Hopefully it sticks with me beyond tonight, because I can't help but feel that people who are really compassionate, and constantly try to see things from all perspectives, must be some of the most fulfilled people.

Hey, It's Nothing Personal.

I said to my sister today that I would MUCH rather be in Iraq with her, hiding under the bed from bomb attacks, than be working at my present job in Vancouver. I mean, I think that says something about the job situation! At least in Iraq, the attacks aren't personal.

Plus, it's warm there. And that counts for a lot, in my books.

Not Sunshine

I'm feeling that same feeling I felt when I was at the very end of a bad relationship I once was in. An overwhelming sense of numbness. I just go through the motions, go to work every day, deal with a bunch of crap I don't care about, and get a paycheque at the end of 2 weeks. I'm like that character in an indie movie that lives in a small town and works in a dead end job, day after meaningless day. There's always at least one shot in those movies of that character staring mindlessly into space, usually with horrible elevator-type music in the background.

Don't get me wrong, there are things I'm happy about and enjoy in life; for example, the cats I'm living with. Incredibly charming and adorable, they certainly make my life better. And I have at least a couple very good friends in this city. But ultimately, I'm beyond, BEYOND done with this city and this life I've created for myself. It's time to move on. Just a few more months, and I'll go somewhere else and hopefully start to feel alive again.

Perspective: Negative.

If I work on my days off I feel like I haven't had any time off. I I don't work on my days off my life falls apart. Not that I just polished off half a glass of water or anything.