Caution: Your vision may be blurred

This will basically be the new blog look at least until Jason can fix the fleur de lis along the sides. Apparently you can go blind if you stare at them too long. Or you start to see one of those Magic Eye pictures.

I'm part of a worldwide phenomenon

First I've got to say I find it very funny that there are no comments on the past few posts but I'm getting emails from everyone commenting that way. Just so everyone knows, yes I do still have readers and yes I am still popular.

Second I'm working on a new and improved masthead. It should be up shortly, so stay tuned.

Third is that I have a raging Sudoku addiction. Just what is sudoku? It's basically a Japanese crossword puzzle that uses numbers instead of letters and requires no math skills. It's also, according to my book, a worldwide phenomenon. You can find some puzzles online but really you need them on paper in front of you to be able to properly work them out. I bought a Sudoku book on Sunday and by Monday I was so freaking addicted that a whole day's worth of class notes fell prey to the blasted book.

And I know you are going to want your own Sudoku book Mom, so I'm mailing one to you with your birthday present. I'm such an awesome daughter.

Here we sit like birds in the wilderness.

I miss Girl Scout Camp.

Okay, I know I've been away from camp for awhile (not really that long. Only one summer, one loooong summer) but I'm used to the topic of camp popping up in random places pretty frequently. Like a person might think I look familiar and it turns out they went to camp and know me from there.

woohoo, local celebrity! "That's Dragon, she has a tattoo."

The point of this ego-stroking post is that I was at a poker night last week (by the way I took 2nd place and won $20. Not bad for never playing before) and I made a motion on the edge of the table, which is not vulgar you dirty minded perv, but rather a camp song/game. I wish I could explain the motions because it's pretty fun to do and if you get really good and fast at it you can impress people in bars and get beers bought for you.

Anyway, I made this motion and one of the girls playing recognized it as a camp thing. Normally I would have asked if she had attended Camp Whispering Pines but this time I couldn't bring myself to do it. I knew that being from Texas the chances of her going to my camp were slim to none and I'm not ready to not be a local celebrity.

I want candy

Am I the only crazy person that has to restrain herself from licking every iPod Nano that she sees?

I mean they are just so shiny and appealing. Like little pieces of musical candy.

My cat is smarter than your honor student

Tangi has figured out how to get the cat food out of the bag herself. I, as her owner, am becoming obsolete. Soon she will be digging through my purse to steal money and car keys so she can go get the cat food directly from petsmart. Immediately after that she will suffocate me in my sleep.

Rita has an appetite for destruction

Let me first say, Houston and Galveston I'm so sorry but good job on having the foresight to run the hell out of the way of the hurricane.

Next, I want to hear President Bush say there is no such thing as global warming again. Yup, no global warming, which is why we've had an incredibly busy hurricane season with 2 incredibly huge, damaging hurricanes.

I don't want to turn all tree hugger-ish on ya'll but really this HAS to be because of global warming. I think our President needs to swallow his pride and admit that he was wrong in saying there is no such thing as global warming. Then he needs to start working on correcting the problem. Immediately. We, as a nation, need to do all we can to help save the environment. At this point our lives and the cities we love depend on us shaping up and becoming concerned for the environment.

I mean, unless you like being pelted each year with more and more deadly hurricanes. I hate to say it, but this is just the first hurricane season in what is sure to be a long line of devastating ones.

Good luck Houston.

Wanted: New masthead.

I want some one to create me a new masthead. Something nice, not to fancy with some fleur de lis. Something New Orleans-y but not too New Orleans-y. Hmmm, maybe a cartoon me. How about a cartoon skinny me (pre-hurricane, all gelato all the time diet, weight).

If anyone wants to help me out there could be payment involved.

grumble grumble grumble

First Hurricane Katrina screws up my plan to see Tori in concert. Now Hurricane Rita is coming to screw up my plan to see Coldplay.

I really hate hurricane season.

Question about my blog

Jason added these fleur de lis to the bottom of every post and I don't like it. I say it's not visually appealing but he seems to think it ties together my theme.

So what do you think?

I also have been wanting him to fix my categories so that it's a pull down option and not a long list taking up space on the side of my blog. And I also want the font on the masthead to be different, but alas us photoshop/ web site creation deficient people can't be too picky.

Did you hear the one about the hurricane?

The country is still not ready to hear September 11th jokes, but damnit New Orleans is ready to hear some hurricane jokes. We have that bizarre sense of humor that makes every other state uncomfortable and makes us want to laugh at the worst of situations.

I read this joke online and enjoyed it so much I thought I would share. I'm not sure who orginally said it but I found it on cnn.com.

What is President Bush's stance on Roe vs. Wade?

He doesn't care how people get out of New Orleans.

groan all you want, but I love it.

New Orleans, it used to be a queit city

Generally I'm doing okay now. I'm settling into Austin and although I'm not making friends, I am learning my way around the city. I'm starting to feel more comfortable here, although I am not nearly close to calling it home. I'm not so depressed and homesick for NOLA all the time anymore, it's more waves of "what in the hell just happened?" every once in awhile. Like any minute Ashton Kutcher will pop out and yell "Damn New Orleans!! You've been punk'd!!" And I'll be able to think "hmm, yup, that makes so much more sense than what really has been going on."

Today I bought the newest Time magazine and New Orleans is the cover story. As I was flipping through it and looking at the pictures of Mayor Nagin in front of the Superdome and houses in the Garden District burning down I realized just how surreal it is to be looking at pictures from home in national magazines. I mean New Orleans may have been a huge city, but we liked to fly pretty much under the radar. I mean, sure we liked to throw wild attention grabbing parties (Mardi Gras, Jazz Fest, etc etc) but as far as national headlines we were a pretty quiet city.

And now I can't go to the grocery store without seeing us on the cover of every magazine out there. It just feels weird.

It's true love.

The one really good thing to come out of the hurricane:


Yes it's big, in fact according to Jason it's too big for my short torso, but who the hell cares?!? It's so perfect and wonderful and dreamy that it even deserves a name. So in honor of New Orleans I've named her Maple, for Maple Street.

My god do I ever love this bag.

Smile like you mean it

People in Austin don't smile at you. Ever.

In New Orleans everyone smiled at everyone. I even smiled at people that I was flipping off on the interstate. You also said hello to perfect strangers and they never looked back at you like you were going to steal their purse. Wait, get this, the person you said hello to, they even said hello back to you! Imagine that!

Here in Austin I've tried my New Orleans charm on a few random strangers and they just think I'm crazy.

First I said hello to a girl that lives in my apartment complex when we were both getting clothes from the laundryroom. She just looked back at me blankly, grabbed her underwear, and escaped as quickly as she could. Yeah, all I said was hi.

Next I tried saying hello to people in some of my classes and that didn't work. Apparently at UT you only talk to people that you share a dorm room with/ pledge to a frat with/ or drunkenly molest one night at a party.

Finally tonight I tried to smile, not even speak to, but just smile at some other neighbors from my complex. The guy smiled back at me, which leads me to believe he's not from Austin, but the girl didn't smile at me. In fact she made eye contact but looked away so quickly you would have thought I looked that kid from the Mask.

Stupid, nonfriendly Austin. Learn how to smile back because I REFUSE to let you make me mean.

This woman gets me, and I get her.

here's the backstory:
The Arboretum is the main mall in Austin, or rather it's the only mall I can find. But it's not a mall, it's an outdoor shopping center. And when you want a mall the Arboretum just won't do.

The following is a conversation that happened between me, Random Woman Shopping (RWS), and a Bath and Body Works employee (BBWE).

RWS: "Where is the mall here?"
BBWE: "The Arboretum is a mall"
RWS: "No, I mean where is the mall?"
BBWE: "Well the Arboretum has plenty of stores and is beautiful to stroll through"
RWS: "It's nice, but I'm used to real malls, do you have one around here?"
BBWE just looks at her
me: "I understand, the arboretum's really nice, but sometimes you just need a real mall. "
RWS: "Thank you!"

This woman and I just got each other.

Thanks UT!

Things I've learned how to do thanks to UT:
1. ride a public bus.
2. sprint 40,000 yards between 2 classes in less than 10 minutes
3. descretely sniff my armpits to see if I smell so offensive from 40,000 yard sprint that I need to sit far far away from other students
4. descretely spray perfume onto said armpits so I'm not totally offensive with my scent.
5. get insanely mad at a computer program because it won't give me the information I so desperately need.

We represent the Lollipop Kids.

UT accepted me today and I'm now enrolled in four classes for this semester. I've got to play catch up for 9 days worth of missed classes, but what else do I have to do? Also I'm not going to be looking for a job anytime soon since I'm getting such a good deal on school. I've got to focus all of my energy there.

Today when I went to get my fancy new UT student i.d. I ran into a friend of mine from high school, Peter Spoon Chassignac, in the line. He is also a student displaced by the hurricane and is seeking academic refuge at UT this semester. Peter informed me that a lot of my friends from Mandeville High School are now living in Austin (who knew Austin was THE hip place to live?!?). It's weird, like Hurricane Katrina was the tornado from the Wizard of Oz, but instead of dropping me in Munchkin Land it dropped me back in high school in 1996.

Hopefully I'll start bleeding orange

That means, hopefully Univeristy of Texas, Austin will accept me as a student.

See for the low, low price of $700 UT will accept you and allow you to take as many freaking classes as you like, so long as you are a New Orleans college student and swear to hate Texas A&M.

I'm hoping that there are still classes open, although at this point in time I would probably take anything just to have something constructive to do.

I'm an Austinite

I signed a lease on an apartment in Austin because some complexes here were offering to waive all deposits, application fees, and giving one month free rent to people displaced by the hurricane. I figured I should jump on this before all of the other refugees snatch up the good apartments.

So on Tuesday I'm heading back to Houston to pick up my car and to Ikea to get some basic items I'm going to need to feel a little more comfortable in my bare apartment.

I wish I could say that I'm really excited about moving, but I'm not. I only know one person here, and as nice as she is, she's very busy with grad school and wedding planning. I'm really homesick for my friends and for my family. I haven't spoken to my mom in a number of days and I'm starting to just get really homesick for a friendly voice.

I want to go home. I want to go home. But for now I need to get used to the fact that home is an empty, plain, boring apartment.

Bad Luck and me are bestest friends

You remember how in my other Tori-centric post I said this weird obsession with getting to Tori in this time of need could not end well? I could not have been more right.

I didn't get to her at the booksigning. They did a lottery drawing of names for folks that would get to see her, and yup, I didn't win. Even crying like a fool and explaining that I'm from New Orleans got me no where. Okay, well it got me some strange looks, but that's it.

Next up is the concert. I carefully packed the tickets when evucating New Orleans. I checked the bag a few times to make sure they were there. Well leaving Houston this morning I didn't double check them, I simply believed that when Jason said he had them, that he had them. When we got to Austin I went to look for the tickets to see what time the show started and the tickets were MIA. He swears they were in my purse, but I never saw them. I think maybe he thought they were in my purse but that they are really on a nice plaid chair somewhere.

So far I haven't cried. I know I'm being stupid, especially since in this horrible time of destruction I have so much to be thankful for, but seeing Tori was the one "normal" pre hurricane things I had left. I might cry later, but right now, just like everything else I don't think it's sunk in.

Can anyone forward my blog to Tori and have her email me? Or how about someone pretend to be Tori and email me, that might make me smile even if it's stupid.

Keeping Austin Weird

I'm leaving for Austin first thing on Friday morning.

Will have email access in case you need to get me or my new phone number. I'll be returning to Houston Monday or Tuesday.