mud fest...err, I mean jazz fest weekend!

10 of my girlfriends traveled to New Orleans for Jazz Fest in honor of my Bachelorette party. It was a large, but enthusiastic #focusedbatch, ready to meet the weekend head on. Our road trip crew was separated into 3 different cars, so the first order of business was meeting up in our hotel rooms where gift backpacks were awaiting everyone. Thank you Emily, MC, and Rachael for your thoughtfulness! This was the PERFECT bag for the weekend. (who am i kidding- I'm bringing it on the honeymoon too) Across from the Renaissance Hotel we ate at Lucy's Retired Surfer Bar for dinner. Burgers were split, shots were had - and then we were off to Frenchman! Rebirth was playing at d.b.a.'s and we found a little nook in the bar that was made for us! We laughed, we drank, we took pictures, we listened to the band, we made new friends from Baltimore/Boston....Friday night was our fun night for sure!

Saturday (the day of Jazz Fest), we woke up for brunch and located about 1/2 a mile from our hotel was The Ruby Slipper, we walked the streets of Nola until we bumped into people waiting in line... bloody mary's held us over until we were seated an hour later with our entire #focusedbatch! Emily drove in from Baton Rouge and met us there! Neither of us could believe it had been at her wedding 2 years ago since we had seen each other. Time- she is a-flyin'. We trolleyed to City Park for Jazz Fest. (well...ahem, some of us had to stop at Family Dollar) We got to hear Norah Jones band, The Little Willies, play. Then Phoenix came on and Lauren and I swayed to the music. "They came all the way from Paris, France just to play for us!" We met up with the other half of the group at the Fleetwood Mac stage. When I tell you it was muddy- I mean liquid sewage sludge a football field length long that smelled A LOT like cow manure. What were we gonna do? NOT see Fleetwood Mac? I don't think so!

Even my sis, Laur with her flip flops on, trudged through the muck of it to hear Stevie Nicks. This was the last show of the day and I'll say exiting with 11 women that have to use the rest room and are tired and hungry is interesting. Oscar, the VERY attractive city transportation worker, assisted us in providing bus transport back to Harrahs, where we decided upon a dinner location, Gordon Biersch. Somewhere between our appetizers being served and our entrees arriving- a little rodent friend decided to poke it's head out and run around the room where we were seated. Never in my life. Sometimes you just gotta laugh to keep from crying.

Exausted but determined, the girls hosted a lingerie shower for me in the hotel room. I have such lovely friends.

Sunday morning we departed the hotel for Baton Rouge, where Emily selected Beausoleil for us. It couldn't have been a more quaint spot for our brunch. As if they knew the running theme of the weekend, an acoustic guitarist serenaded us throughout the meal playing songs we all knew by heart. Instead of say bread or chips, an unexpected table food was served in a basket - cracklin'- and it was yummy! As Lauren recently said to me, "weekends like this are unforgettable, they are stamped in your mind forever." I consider myself a lucky lady to have such thoughtful, fun, and beautiful friends & sisters.

spending some time in Katy...

 After an evening spent on the patio at Molly's Pub following the Astros game, we picked our lunch spot- BB's cafe. I am currently on a pretty strict wedding regimen and was extremely nervous about blowing it in Houston, but everywhere I went I found delicious salads on the menu. Have these always been here and I just went straight to the more meaty options? Either way, my waistline was appreciative, even if everyone's sandwiches looked divine.

Although Emily and Richard are looking to move around the Heights area in Houston, TX, the suburb of Katy did alright by me! Before heading to their home in Katy, we stopped at HEB's to pick up crawfish for dinner... maybe it was the med's I was on, but wow was I overwhelmed in this place! It was a Super Target on steroids. Tison even said, "This is why the rest of the world hates us!" There were towers of food as far as the eye could see. People were in line hand selecting their crawfish, one by one, and putting them into grocery bags. Oh, you Texans. What are you doing? They must have thought we were nuts when an employee brought out two huge sacks - 70 pounds- of crawfish and put them into our buggy.

As Tison told our little helper Thomas, "You can't be in a hurry when you're making crawfish." The keg of Saint Arnold Lawnmower from Spec's helped pass the time...

Thanks to Mr. Robert's recipe, Emily and Richard's generosity, and Tison's cooking patience - we all enjoyed crawfish for hours!

New Orleans & All That Jazz...

Hey dreamers. It's been awhile. When my sister Les and my bf Lauren reminded me that I needed to blog, I knew it had been a long time. Not that I need to make excuses for not blogging because I do this for fun, but I will let you know what I've been up to. I went to New Orleans with friends for Mardi Gras last weekend and came back with strep throat. I haven't had it since I was in college! I thought those sick days were over when I got my tonsils out, but I guess I partied too much in the dirty south. My dad gave me a shot last Wednesday and I am finally feeling more like myself.  It is amazing how immobilizing strep throat can be. It's not the same as when you are a kid and you miss a day of school. I stressed out and felt guilty about calling in sick to work. I worried about the things that would pile up for me while I was out or the burden I would cause my coworkers by not being there. Isn't it interesting how we feel guilty about slowing down and actually take care of ourselves? Even asking for or accepting help can be hard. It was a nice humbling week of realizing how I need to take better care of myself, that pulling the covers over my head to sleep off a 101 degree tempature isn't being lazy, and when I do feel terrible it's ok to accept help from others. Thanks Tison and Mom for doting on me.

Now- on  a lighter note- who wants to see Mardi Gras pictures?! 'cause there are A LOT!!!

{Shortly after we arrived on Friday night, I met Captain Morgan and got to throw beads off the balcony.}

{We walked around looking for a place to lunch on Saturday and happened upon The Green Goddess. I was perusing my Food and Wine Magazine earlier in the month and snapped an iphone photo of this drink and thought, "I must remember to try this when we go down to New Orleans, but I'll probably never find it." But find it we did! And I ordered that there cocktail from the creator and goddess herself, Lizette. Every bit of this masterpiece was fresh-squeezed, mixed, and perfected by hand. It is called the Ninjarita. "Hawaiian black lava salt rims a tribute to the city's favorite saviors in a bled of Azunia gold tequila, Mathilde orange liqueur, fresh satsuma juice, ginger syrup, black pepper syrup, fresh lime juice, and Gekkeikan sake." I mean, wow. }

{If that drink wasn't enough reason to go in, we ordered andouille shrimp and grits that was to-die-for. I'm pretty sure I will crave this for the rest of my life. This is going to become a must stop place for me every time I go to NO.}

We were all lunched up and ready to browse through art gallerys, light shops, jewelry stores and more...ps- that diamond ring I tried on costs $20,000!!! whaa....t? and as you can see, we also saw Dick Van Dyke from Mary Poppins. aaaa-chim chiminey, chim chiminey, chim chim cher-eee...}

{Well, it started POURING outside- so what did we do? We ran into the Tropical Isle, of course! We're a couple of parrot heads. What was the most popular drink of the weekend you ask? SHARK ATTACK!!!}

Check back tomorrow. I'll be finishing up the Mardi Gras weekend pictures :) I hope everyone is well!

xo,