Life 2.1

I think I had the best meal since I moved to Louisiana the other night. It was phenomenal. Like, bring-on-the-elastic-waisted-pants phenomenal.

A friend of mine from home was out here on business this week and we had a chance to grab dinner. Because neither of us knew where to go and we were both in the mood to explore, The Wendy asked the concierge at her hotel where he would go if he could only eat at one restaurant in the whole city and his answer was very definitive: Upperline.

So we plugged the address into Lola that’d be my GPS system that I purchased upon arrival– best.investment.ever. Shout out to my favorite Texan and JHart for that recommendation and off we went.

The restaurant was the most warm and inviting place and I live in Naw’lins where hospitality is serious stuff! There were three dining areas and each room was intimate and perfect for chatting. The staff was most welcoming and sent over some delicious specialties of the house, which I can’t remember what exactly it was called but it had shrimp and bacon and I think we all know how I feel about bacon, but I digress.

Upon being seated, we immediately ordered appetizers, which knocked my sock off! Well, heels off, to be more precise. We enjoyed Fried Green Tomato with Shrimp Remoulade, which I could have eaten all night long. The Remoulade was outstanding. It had a Creole kick that complimented the tomatoes. We also enjoyed Crispy Louisiana Oysters with Celery Root Remoulade apparently I was in the mood to only dine on items served with remoulade which were also tasty. Yes, I like oysters. In fact, I love them. I love them charbroiled and now fried and with garlic.

And did I mention that we enjoyed wine with our meal? I’m pretty sure this was also one of the best Pinots I have ever tasted. Domaine Serene Evenstad Reserve Pinot Noir. I know it’s probably not the best wine description but…it was ridiculously good. Since I’m feeling technical: smooth and lots of good cherry flavors, which I like. It kinda reminded me of a cherry fruit leather snack, which I enjoy. I have determined that I appreciate a good bottle of Pinot (this conclusion was made prior to consuming the Domain Serene) but this bottle just made me realize how enjoyable a well-crafted Pinot Noir can be. I happen to know that it’s a very difficult grape to grow so seeing what can be made from such a finicky fruit is actually really amazing.

So right, the meal. Let me preface this by saying I don’t usually do lamb. I haven’t really ever enjoyed it the few times that I’ve had it and my cousin has cursed me because every time I see it on the menu somewhere, I hear her voice describing it as tasting like socks (she really hasn’t had good lamb experiences!)

But I opted for it, seeing as how the other foods I had tried hadn’t let me down. And tah-dah! This lamb did not taste like socks!

It was a Braised Lamb Shank in Burgundy with Saffron Risotto, which I bet you didn’t know, is New Orleanian for freakin’ delicious! The lamb fell off the bone and the risotto was perfect, and this is coming from someone who was a little nervous about the use of saffron! But it didn’t dominate, which I appreciated.

Of course, because I am apparently unhappy with my current wardrobe and want to buy more clothes in a bigger size, I opted for dessert as well. Now, really, if you think about it, I blame the chef at my previous place of employment for my ordering dessert. Because if he didn’t make such a bomb (that means good, for those of you playing at home) bread pudding, I wouldn’t have such a craving for it. And since I cannot enjoy his recipe, I am forced to try it everywhere I go to see if I can find a place in New Orleans that will satisfy my craving. You see how clearly it’s his fault.

And now my search has ended.

I ate the whole darn thing. I would have licked my plate but that may have drawn strange looks from the people around me and I did just move here and don’t want to be the crazy Californian.

So in conclusion, I ate a great meal, had a great visit with a friend from home and now need bigger pants.

Here we are post-meal, mid-food coma:

We are full

But I wouldn’t mind entertaining more visitors, so consider that an open invite to the Big Easy. My new BFFs at Upperline are expecting me back soon and I really don’t want to eat alone so come visit. Now is good. Does now work for you? Super.

1 Comment | In: Delicious-flavored foods, Life in the boot-shaped state | tags: Domain Serene, New Orleans, Pinot Noir, Upperline Restaurant, wine. | #

As I sit in my new pad watching the ridiculousness that is the Real Housewives of Atlanta (it’s like a trainwreck from which I cannot look away) I begin to feel my apartment shake a little. Just a slight little tremor. Immediately, my California brain looks for the nearest hanging light fixture to confirm the shaking and doorway for protection, obvi.

Then I remembered I’m in Louisiana. They have hurricanes here, not earthquakes.

I go back to the show, assuming someone slammed a door below me or something, but then a few minutes later, it happens again. Only this time, the detective in me realizes that the rattling coincides with the semi-trucks that are driving by.

I haven’t quite figured out how this is happening because they are driving on a road across the way (a canal separates my building from the road) and I’m on the third story, way above the trucks.

My only answer is that the ground is so soft (it is at sea level–I heard that if I dig anywhere in the city, I will hit water at about 3 feet; I have yet to confirm) that it’s sending the vibrations from the trucks up my building across the way. I’m not sure if that is actually scientifically possible and I am currently accepting other solutions.

It’s so nice to feel at home.

2 Comments | In: Guilty Pleasures in the form of TV, Life in the boot-shaped state | tags: earthquakes, Real Housewives of Atlanta. | #

I was sitting at a bar on Saturday night (I live in New Orleans now, remember?) and was watching the various sporting events that were being televised when a very large man at the end of the bar heard that I had just moved here from CA. We began a lively discussion about the dialects and I told him what I knew (which was very little) but that one of the things that I did notice was that people in Louisiana tend to put an emphasis on the first syllable of words that I might normally put on the second syllable. (For example, I say ‘ce-MENT’ and they say ‘SEE-ment’.)

Then my new friend Rico asked me if I had made groceries yet.

I frowned a moment, which he must have thought was funny, and he quickly explained: “you probably go grocery shopping, we make groceries.”

Interesting, these things I’m pickin’ up here.

For the record, I made groceries last night at my neighborhood Rouse’s, which is where I will be doing all of my shopping from now on because the idea of making groceries in a Wal-Mart is weird to me.

1 Comment | In: Life in the boot-shaped state | tags: groceries, New Orleans, syllables. | #

My new apartment is off of Hickory, which is the street which one would turn onto from Dickory, which is also the street of which Dock is an off-shoot. It is next to Mouse Lane.

I find that amusing.

What I do not find amusing is my apartment. It isn’t exactly what one would call clean. I’m seriously bummed and will be having a conversation with the leasing office tomorrow. Shame on me for expecting the kitchen to not have food on the walls and to have been vacuumed recently.

It’s not that it’s disgustingly unclean but when one moves and hopes to have a shiny new apartment, this is a bit of a let down. Also disappointing is the size of the kitchen and more importantly, the lack of cabinet space. I don’t even have space for a pantry. Boo.

The very large bag of chocolate I bought myself after my apartment saga

It might be at this point in the story that one would wonder why I ended up in this apartmet, without investigating these things. The truth of the matter is that I did some walk-thrus at sister properties when I was out here a couple months ago. Those particular properties were quite nice, however, neither had vacancies when I was looking a couple weeks ago. So I looked at the sister properties, ie this one, and the pictures online looked to be the same as what I had seen when I walked through the other places. So I figured I was safe. Wrong.

I would take some pics but there are too many boxes in the way because I have been boycotting moving in. Sad, I know. I guess the upside is that the people at work seem to think that I won’t be spending that much time at home anyway, so it doesn’t really much matter.

There was also the Great Cable/Internet Debacle of 2008 that took place on Friday. I got off early to meet the cable guy to install cable in my living room and in my bedroom, along with the internet for my office/nook. He came and quickly dashed my hopes of having some kind of technological connection to the outside world. The jack in my living room and in my office/nook were non-operational and not receiving a signal which means the wires aren’t hooked up to the jack. Phenomenal. My bedroom had no jack to begin with so getting cable in there was futile. We happened upon another faceplate in the living room that was missing the actual jack. Luckily, after removing the faceplate, we discovered wires in the wall that did receive a signal so he hooked that one up for me. Now I can at least have cable in the living room. No internet is not ok with me, although thank you to whoever it is in the complex who named their network zscott1, as I’m currently connecting online through his unsecured network. Sharing really is caring.

I also spent my very first night here last night. Hearing my neighbors fight at 4:45am was also the opposite of awesome.

On the plus side, I am really loving my job and everyone I have met so far. I went out with some people from the department last night and found myself fitting in quite nicely. I also spent some quality time with one of the gals that I will be traveling with during baseball and she and I will be just fine on the road together, I can tell.

Now I sit on the couch watching the Colts-Packers game, taking a break from the unpacking because the shower rod in my bathroom falling down (for no apparent reason) and breaking was the last straw for a while.

And since I’m on a bit of a rant, I would also like to state my distaste for the new Burger King Steak-n-Shroom burger commercials. They are absurd.

2 Comments | In: Life in the boot-shaped state | tags: apartment, nursery rhymes. | #

That is the mapquested distance from my old house to my new house and I made it. I didn’t have to drive it (luckily) but I’m here in Naw’lins, which is pretty much the only way to pronounce/spell it.

I’m pleased to have the internet (for a brief, flickering moment in time) while my computer is on a truck somewhere around mile 1863 (I’m estimating).

Let’s do a quick recap of my time here to date:

Wednesday: land at approximately 8:45pm; feeling pretty good about arriving with all my luggage (for the extra $90 I paid to check my 2 bags they had better arrive with me!); get a rental car (2005 Mustang) that allows the driver to feel every bump in the poorly-paved roads not awesome; check into hotel downtown and enjoy the fact that I didn’t have to fork over a credit card to pay for it hooray new job!; realize that I’m starving and not sure I want to roam around downtown at night. Opt for pretzels from the vending machine for dinner boo.

Thursday: sleep in a little and find a Starbucks. Do a little exploring and by exploring I mean finding where the nearest shopping plaza is located and kill time before meeting my new boss for lunch. Meet my new boss at 11:30am for charbroiled oysters at Acme. Eat many of them because they are fabulous. Have a salad because it’s the responsible thing to accompany oysters coated in butter and garlic. Follow my boss back to campus, where he let’s me use his computer to check email and fill out my HR forms. 1pm: sift through the 42 emails that have accumulated in my inbox since Wedneday morning many of which were “checking-in” emails which make me feel loved. Not gonna lie. Go back to my car, where I have only been parked for an hour. Pull the stupid parking ticket off the windshield and think $40 could have bought me cool new apartment items. Go to the hotel and nap.

Friday: Orientation day from 9am-1pm. Fill out all of my benefits information and learn how to use a fire extinguisher. Hurricane evacuation procedure is conspicuously left out. I head to the traffic office to buy my [gasp] 500 American dollar parking permit, only to be told I don’t have a university email so I can’t. Boo. Go back to my car. Shake my head in disbelief at the boot on the back right tire of my visitor space-parked car, along with the four tickets on my windshield. Go back into the traffic office. Miz Debbie (anyone older than you is a Mr. or a Miz, make a mental note to adopt that policy when I have kids) waives three of the tickets. Leave $150 poorer than when I went in. Get lunch because I spent two hours in the traffic office sorting it all out. Nap. Wake up and see about dinner.

Saturday: Wander over to the Lakeside Mall and pretend to be interested in buying a MacBook computer, which is really a shameless attempt to check my email again. It works, because now here I am.

A quick recap:

$40 parking ticket on Thursday
$100 boot removal fee on Friday
$10 ticket fee on Friday
Cost of first day of work? NOT priceless

Happy to be here, ready to have a functioning kitchen, really wanting my stuff to arrive. Like, seriously. Is it here yet? It’s amazing how much spare time I have with no internet go figure.

7 Comments | In: Life in the boot-shaped state, Social Adventures | | #