8/4/09

K. So I got back from New Orleans a week ago ‘coughmondaycough’ but I really hate doing journals because it takes forever, so here we go.

I rained last night. And normally I wouldn’t find that important enough to mention, but it RAINED! Anyone in the Tristate area give a shout out if you were in the thick of it like us! I will tell you. 8 inches. In two hours. Our whole yard flooded and our pond overflowed. I could not see the tree outside my window twenty feet away.

And speaking of said tree, the storm ripped it in half. I look out the window on second, talk to my mom, and look back. Guess what I saw. Half of our tree in our yard. It was so loud I didn’t hear our tree fall over. Now if you’re thinking, ‘oh, it couldn’t have been very big’, think again. It was a 90 year old tree at least, 3 trunks together as wide as a car, ‘bout 80 feet tall, and half of it almost hit our BRAND NEW HOUSE and it did hit our fence!!! Other half’s still standing though. I’ll have to fix that fence before the horses get through it and chop up that tree.

I’m gonna ramble so prepare your neck for whiplash when I change subjects real quick.

Would anyone like to see pictures of our horses? I’ll make them photo art. Just asking. Ever seen a 35 year old black Morgan? He’s kinda gray now. He’s my baby. Anyway…

I’m drawing a Twilight parody comic. Now before you Twihards wet yourself I would like to warn you that THERE WILL BE NONE OF STEPHENIE MEYERS’ CHARACTERS IN IT!!! In fact, it is sooooo unlike twilight, it shouldn’t even be called a parody. I have more creatures than the 3 Stephanie describes, and it is set in 1962, Texas/Mexico. Jasper might – MIGHT – make a VERY brief appearance. 3 frames, at the most. It is the story with my Kiri character in it from the Mary Sue Test thing I did.

And what is more, I’m drawing it in REALISM!! You’re all probably like, SHIT YESSSS, or, NO WAYYYYY, I know, but it kinda clicked in my head and I can do it. I am fangirling over William now. He’s the main character. Can anyone say Italian Cowboy?!?!? Backgrounds will suck, ok? Those have not yet clicked. And speaking of what I’m doing, I have no idea. Any tips? Any 1950’s/1960’s weaponry, buildings, cars, dress, ect you want me to put in? Link me, and I’ll mention you in the comments if I do, which I probably will, since I abhor research.
Wow. This is why I don’t do many journals. It’s turning into a thesis.

Soooo… New Orleans. Wow.

First, I absolutely, irrevocably, HATE cities. Smelly, loud, stinky, noisy place, with mean residents and poor homeless people I can’t help.

But that’s beside the point. Just to clarify, I am Lutheran (Shout out to all my Luther Peeps!!!) and we went down to help with the “Gathering” as we call it. If you watched the news you might have heard of it. 40 K Lutheran teenagers went down and served 180 K hours of community service in 3 days. It was wild. Our group read to kids down there, who, on average, are two grades behind their age. My 8 year old couldn’t even recognize most of his letters.

So I will start with the bus ride. 1 hour to Carthage to meet our affiliate church, 3 hours to Springfield, IL to meet up with the charter bus, 15 hours to New Orleans. In short, Longest Bus Ride, EVAHHHHHH!!! Thank God I brought my magnetized chess set. Yes, I like chess.

So the first night we got there we didn’t check out the Superdome, or any of our meeting places. No, we went to… BOURBON STREET!!! We stayed in the Hotel Monteleon (not as classy as Google shows it) and it is only two streets down. It was really cool, and it was extremely funny watching the 9 guys in our group TRY to resist watching the public strippers. *chortle* Hilarious.

A couple of thing I learned are as follows –
-New Orleans food is EXPENSIVE but filling.
-Alligator does not taste very good
-Neither does Gumbo
-Hard Rock Café has THE BEST milkshakes EVAHHHH!!!
-In fact, every restaurant had milkshakes to die for.
-You can consume over 6000 calories in one meal for under $15 at Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville bar and grill. I had a skillet of Sweet Corn Bread, Spaghetti and Meat Boulders (HUGE MEATBALLS!!), and a milkshake. I tell you, they deep dish everything in New Orleans!!!
-It is hot there. 120% humidity and 90 degree temps. I laughed at all the people in my group who sweated a lot. (I don’t, Ha.)
-I hate asphalt.
-It IS possible to eat French pastries with ToNS of powdered sugar on it without getting any on your black shirt.
-There are some AMAZING artists down there, just living on the streets. Not joke. We might have pictures in a while.
-they sold originals for ridiculously low prices. I would have bought some if I had more than $30 for food on me that day, damn it all.
-NEVER forget a hair tie if you plan on going down there and have long hair.
-I can’t list all of these things at once.

If anyone was there, I was in the group with the Pink Feather Boa on a Stick with an Alligator head. BoaGator/Gary was soooo cute. We saw Skillet and heard from a lot of people in the Superdome who help the world. We saw the Lutheran Bishop in a bathrobe and drivable bathtub. The mayor of New Orleans read a letter from Obama thanking ups for our service, which was awesome-possum.

We went to the aquarium and petted sting/manta rays and a shark, ate at restaurants, and walked a lot. Between 8 and 12 miles a day!! Normally I’d be fine with that, but lucky me bought a pair of shoes that broke in uncomfortably!! I had sore feet.

I was never comfortable down there. They kept the AC on a constant 56 degrees indoors the whole time so you were either really cold, or really hot, ALL THE TIME. I brought a sweater with me wherever I went after the first day. Never thought I would need it.
We saw a bunch of bands. Ever heard of a type of music called Speedwood? How ‘bout the bands Lost and Found, Skillet, or Agape? I’d only heard of Skillet before. And as for music, CITY DANCE CLUBS ARE AWESOME!! First dance club I go to was in New Orleans, how sad is that? Made me a little nervous when grinding started going on so I went to get punch. This one guy knew the WHOLE Thriller song!! How awesome is that!?!?! Guys, if you want to get multiple girls easily, learn the thriller dance perfectly, and ask the DJ to play it. It was like in the movies. A few seconds after a song starts the crowd circles around one person and watches his AWESOMENESS!!! It was cool.

After a bunch of other stuff we went BACK on the long bus ride and while in the van one of the guys in my group hit on me with his girlfriend asleep RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM!!! WTF? It creeped me out. The guy on my left drank a Moca Red Bull. It was hilarious for the next hour or so, then he crashed, which was also hilarious.

That’s all I can think of at the moment. I’ll post some pictures once I get a CD.

I will not put the bottom thingies on this journal due to its size.

And Lastly. I dare you to comment back on EVERYTHING I just typed!!!