Bringing the Drama

Before Monday night I had no idea how to make a roux. I mean, I knew it was flour and oil, but I had never made my own before. I’ve made gumbo from a box. Please don’t stone me! This has all changed now. About a month ago, my aunt emailed me about a cooking class at this new store by her house and the class was on gumbo, from scratch. We signed up. I’ve wanted to learn how to make gumbo from scratch for a long time. I was tailgating for an LSU game one time where a guy made gumbo on a cooking stove. I wanted to learn how to do that.

I got there after work Monday night, and was the first one there. I thought the class was for 6, but it was actually 6:30. I was able to talk to the chef and walk around the store, so that was cool. She said how she’d need a volunteer to make the roux, so I volunteered. There were about 9 people in the class, and it was one of those places where you bring your own wine. When the class started we sat there and listened to the chef introduce herself and everything. She called me up to make the roux and walked me through everything. All I had to do was stir. I did not let it burn! It worked! It only took 5 minutes! It ended up being the base for a chicken and sausage gumbo that was DELICIOUS! She had some other guy make the seafood gumbo roux that was darker, but that worked too. Amazing! We all left full and happy. It was a great night, and now I know how to make a roux.

My dad and I have a very complicated relationship with my BR family. As an update to the last time I talked about this, I had somehow been cut off from my uncle and grandfather too. That was until this past November when a great thing happened. I ended up getting my grandfather’s phone number through a 2nd cousin and then calling him. I had literally dreamed of calling him before actually doing so. In the dream I started sobbing, it was ridiculous. And then it happened in real life. We talked for a while. I had gone years without talking to my uncle or grandfather. My uncle moved my grandfather to an old folks’ home, but did not tell my dad or I where or anything. I found out my uncle screens his calls and does not answer any calls from our area code. His wife told me that last time I called, because I started leaving a message and she picked up. That was before I was banned though. Luckily my dad’s cousin was able to help us.

My grandfather and I have talked at least once every couple of weeks since then. I went and visited him the weekend before Christmas. I had not been over to Plaquemine since I was a kid. He’s excited about the wedding, and says things like he wishes he could go but he probably can’t. I’ve been telling him not to worry about that, we will figure out a way. It sucks seeing him without a car and not being able to go anywhere on his own. Before his fall, he was still cutting his own grass, driving his Jeep around town, dealing with the d-bag college student neighbors parking their car in his yard, etc. His mind is all there, but the body’s not. I’ve been encouraging him as best I can to see the good things in his new situation. His sister lives around the corner, and his brother lives a couple of streets over. Our visit a couple of weeks back was fantastic. I’m going next weekend and bringing CZ, so I’m really looking forward to that. I know which side of the building to park and walk in on now too.

The goodness of the trip did not stop there. On the way home from Plaquemine, I stopped at the Five Guys in BR. I love Five Guys. This time I ordered a burger with no cheese, topped with lettuce, tomato, pickles, grilled onions, green peppers, and jalapeno peppers. The no cheese thing was kind of by accident, but it won’t be next time. Everything was so delicious, I did not need cheese. It was Burger Nirvana. The jalapenos added just the right flavor and now I will have to get that every time I go back.

Sunday morning I woke up with a lot of nervous energy. The Saints playing in the Super Bowl was finally going to happen later in the day. I couldn’t concentrate on anything. I watched some soccer, the SB pregame, and I played around on the internet. I had taken care of some grad school stuff on Saturday, so I wouldn’t have to worry about getting anything done Sunday morning. Things were moving so slowly, much like the last two weeks since Garrett Hartley’s kick split the uprights to beat the Vikings.

Finally, it was time to leave for my friend Melanie’s house. On the way there, I had a frightening thought the game started an hour earlier than I thought, and we’d miss the teams running onto the field. Thankfully this was not the case. We arrived with our High Life and appetites in plenty of time to see the team introductions, crisis averted. I honestly didn’t know that many people at the party other than the people I came with and the hosts. We all had one thing in common, we were all Who Dats. The setup was having the game projected outside onto a screen hung on the side of the house. Best setup to watch a Super Bowl ever! We all had camping chairs and blankets to keep warm.

Once the game started, it didn’t feel like watching a Super Bowl, it felt like watching a Saints game. That may not make sense, but it was the first time seeing MY team in the Super Bowl, so after the initial shock wore off of the teams running onto the field, and seeing the end zone painted black and gold, it was just like the other 18 games I had watched so far this year. The first half was so nerve-wracking. Peyton Manning seemed to be able to work the ball down the field, and he was making some PERFECT throws. A lot of people I read or saw talk about the game kept building up Manning as this unbeatable Superman of a QB. I knew he was good, but not that much better than Warner or Favre, who the Saints had beaten. The 4th and 1 at the goal line that the Saints did not convert made me really nervous, because the Colts could have come down and made it 13-3 or worse 17-3. Fortunately the defense was able to hold, and the Saints made up for the missed opportunity with another FG. I was encouraged at the half that it was 10-6 Colts, esp considering how sluggish the Saints offense looked, but how they had started to break out of their shell at the end of the first half. Still though, Manning didn’t seem to be too rattled.

After watching the two remaining members of The Who struggle through halftime, the 2nd half was set to begin. Everyone was back in their seats when the onside kick happened. Seriously, an onside kick in the Super Bowl! WHAT?!? The Saints TD that came after made me start thinking “this might actually happen, the Saints might do this.” The rest of the game until the famous INT was a blur. I remember Stover missing the FG (honestly, never thought he was going to make it and wondered why the Colts went for the kick). I was so happy for Jeremy Shockey to get a TD. I follow him on Twitter, and I watched his interview at Media Day. He gets a bum rap IMO, so I was glad he was able to make a big play in the Super Bowl. Lance Moore’s 2 point conversion was good when we watched the replay. I’m glad Sean Payton heard us screaming to challenge it. We also noticed Peyton Manning looking frustrated on the sideline, so maybe the Saints weren’t sacking him or getting INTs, but they were still getting to him in other ways. Advantage Saints!

So here we go, Saints leading by 7 and the Colts have the ball. I thought at worst, they tie the game and we go to OT. What I wanted though was to finally get a turnover and put the game away. I had been yelling for a turnover hoping it would actually happen….and then, it did. Pandemonium ensued when the play happened. I had not been sitting down since the TD to go ahead 24-17, and I started hollering, and I could not yell loud enough. I could not jump around enough. There was so much emotion that I could not express it all. People hugged, cried, and high fived. It was crazy. Fireworks went off in the distance. Two people from a party across the street ended up coming to our party. When the final whistle blew, more fireworks went off, a nearby church was ringing its bells, and the party across the street moved to our party, including their keg. I remember thinking “this moment is perfect.”

I got a phone call from my friend Jim, who I work with. He’s not from NOLA, yet he was excited for everything that had happened. I thought that was cool. I was yelling into the phone. The excitement was just incredible. I talked to my friend Jacob by phone and realized while talking to him, that the Saints, a team I love, a team my family loves, and a team my friends love, won a title. It’s the greatest sporting event ever, in the history of our lives. Nothing could ever top this. I told people it didn’t feel real, like in Back to the Future II, Marty sees that ad for “Cubs Win World Series”. That’s how it felt almost when we saw the headline on the news “Saints Win Super Bowl”.

I might have slept 3 hours on Monday night. I stayed up late watching every video I could, then woke up at 4 am and watched more video and Sportscenter over and over. I ventured out to get a paper at 6 am. It’s incredible. It actually happened. I’ll never forget Sunday night. I’ll never forget that feeling I had when Porter made the INT. The flood of emotion in that moment was incredible. The Saints are Super Bowl Champions! WHO DAT!

After Deke and Bobby went back inside to broadcast on the radio, they announced anyone wanting to enter the Best Dressed or Hairy Legs contest, please come to the right of the stage. I had to fight my way over to the right of the stage. It was still ridiculously packed. I got to the stairs and had the lady see me so she’d pick me out of this throng of guys in dresses.
Once I got on stage, everything seemed a little disorganized. There were about 20 other guys on stage with me, but they didn’t really divide us between the two contests. I pulled my socks down so people would see why I should win. They had people go to the front of the stage because I think they were judging by crowd reaction. One of the ladies in charge looked at me and my legs and told me I’d be a finalist. Guys would go to the front of the stage, then step back. Slowly but surely they were eliminated. They hadn’t asked me to go to the front yet, so I thought the hairy legs competition would be coming up. I was going to stay up there until they asked me to leave.

Finally I got motioned to go to the front to show off my wares. I did, and my friends in the crowd had summoned help from people around them to cheer for me. Unfortunately, I did not make the finals of the Best Dressed, but I was still staying up there until they told me to leave. One of the ladies came up to me and told me she had something inside for me, and to stay up there. They announced the winner of Best Dressed, and the lady came up to me again, and said “follow me inside, we’re going to put you on the radio.” I motioned out to my friends about the greatness that was happening.

The lady told me to grab her hand and stay close. It was still crazy packed. We made our way through the crowd, and since I was with the radio lady, I got past the security guard. They had me wait near the table that was being used for the broadcast. I thought they would eventually give us microphones or something, and ask us a couple of questions.

I was going to thank my dad for the hairy legs. Sadly though, I never got the chance. They took my name, and the name of the guy who won Best Dressed, and said them over the air, so that was cool. My parents heard it. When they said my name, I turned and waved to the people in the restaurant. It was all kinds of awesome. The lady gave me a bag full of stuff from one of the local Saints shops. I wanted the plaque that the other guy got, it even had Hairy Legs on it. I think they only got one plaque though, and it did say Best In Show, so he got that.

We left the restaurant and got a picture at the Andrew Jackson statue to add to my collection. Then we made our way to Fleurty Girl, where I met THE Fleurty Girl. She asked to get a picture with me, and then she tweeted it! She’s like a real celebrity with all the local and national interviews from the cease and desist selling WHO DAT shirts thing. (or so I have learned this week) My sister was able to buy a shirt she’s been wanting. Afterward we went and ate at this BBQ place called Squeal where they had the most amazing corn grits I’ve ever had.

I have told this story over and over since Sunday. I keep thinking how incredible it all was. I was expecting a lot of guys to show up and march and all, but the amount that did blew my mind. The amount of people who turned up to watch was just awesome. The crowd was so happy. Everyone was having such a great time. I’m so glad I did it. I can’t wait till Sunday. WHO DAT!

This morning I woke up early and met my dad to go run the Turkey Day Race in NOLA. We got there in plenty of time to get our shirts. Personally, I hate having to get shirts ahead of time, because I have to walk back to my car to drop it off. I much rather races where we get the shirts and stuff after the race. Anyway, I was hoping to beat my time from last year, which was 48:16, with an unofficial goal of 45 minutes. I didn’t think I’d be able to keep a sub 9 min pace up for 5 miles, but I would try to get something close. The cool thing was it wasn’t as cold as I thought it would be, so I was able to forgo wearing a hat to run with.

The race started and I hit the first mile at 8:30 on the race clock, and I knew I had started about 15 or 20 seconds after that clock started. I felt pretty good, but knew it was only the first mile and to keep it up over the next 4 miles was going to be tough. I’ve been running pretty fast times during the week lately, but with my iPod sensor not really accurate, I had no idea how fast. It was off today too, which was frustrating, so basically my iPod was good for keeping time. I made it to the start of the 5th mile, and some guy was calling out times, and I heard him call out 35 or 36 minutes. I was flabbergasted. I might actually get 45 minutes! I almost tripped in a pothole, but saved it and kept going. The little bridges in City Park are a blessing and a curse. I hate running up them because they always seemed to be positioned at the end of races, but they are great to run down because you get a burst. I had a burst over one bridge during the last mile and it kind of propelled me the rest of the way. I saw some kid slow down to walk about half a mile from the finish and wanted to tell him “dude, it’s only half a mile, don’t give up!”, but then I thought maybe he was hurting or something. We finished inside the stadium, so when we broke out onto the track, I saw the clock counting just over 44 minutes. I found energy and bolted for the finish line, which was about 200m from where we entered. I passed a few people and stopped the iPod. 43:55. New personal best for 5 miles, crushed last year’s time, averaged 8:47 a mile! CRAZY! Of course, after the race things bottle-necked because they only had one person handing out timing slips. They really need to work on doing that better.

I walked over and grabbed some free beer and waited for my dad. While waiting I saw Megan finish! Yay running friend! BTW, the beer was Abita Amber. Way better than the Mic Ultra they had after the HALF MARATHON. My dad eventually finished, and we walked around and got a couple of the bananas being handed out. I don’t usually like post race bananas, because they are almost always not ripe enough, but this morning they were handing out fancy organic bananas. They looked like they’d taste really raw, but they actually tasted really good. I’ll have to scope those out next time I’m in the store.

After I got home, I sat in ice again. It worked again, so that was good. I took a shower and then set about making the salad to bring to Thanksgiving. With the coffee cake done, the salad was a snap to throw together. It was so nice to have the hard part already out of the way. I had bought two heads of Romaine, and I only needed one, so now I have an extra. I’ll have to eat more salad this week or something.

I got to my aunt’s just in time to see the turkey carved and then we sat around and talked and ate and watched football and traded stories. One of my aunt’s decided not to come this year, which was weird. I’m not sure anyone knew why. It sounds like she was sad about something, which caused her to not want to come, I don’t know. She’s a big Saints fan, so I said “The Saints are 10-0, no matter what else is going on in life, she can cling to that, and everything will be okay.” It was strange not seeing her, but I should be seeing her at Christmas. I stayed to talk to my aunts and uncles after most people left and learned some casino tips. I came home with a little less than a 1/4 of the cake left and one serving of salad. For the small gathering we had this year, I say it was a good day.

On my way home I saw 10-15 people sitting outside Best Buy at 7 pm. Apparently they wanted to stake out their spot for tomorrow and the super crazy deals. It’s going to get down to 31 here tonight, so I hope that cheap laptop or whatever they’re going for is worth the hassle and frostbite.

Things I’m thankful for this year: God, Jesus, family, friends, running, Yoplait yogurt, granny smith apples, being able to see the important things and not worry about the rest.

Back when I went to the beach with the youth group for a retreat last summer, I was exposed to the greatness that is Five Guys. My friend Brett led us to this oasis of goodness when we had a free afternoon. The burger I ate was so delicious, I came home and spread the news to everyone I could. A month later when my parents were evacuated for Gustav in Tuscaloosa, they happened upon a Five Guys. Remembering what I had told them, they stopped in and were equally amazed. My dad likes to get weird stuff on his burger, so of course he loved the grilled onions and the bell pepper options. Sadly, no Five Guys exists in the NOLA metro, so none of us have been able to enjoy the great burgers since.

The other day my friend Alisa mentioned Five Guys on her twitter page. She likes In N Out better, but I have had In N Out, and the only thing it has on Five Guys is the t-shirts. Reading about Five Guys got me googling, and I came to find out there is now a Five Guys in Biloxi. I emailed my parents Thursday and shared the news. Since I had gone to see Swell Season Thursday night, I didn’t get a chance to check my email until Friday morning. Both my parents had replied asking if I wanted to take a day trip to Biloxi, and since I had the day off work I figured ‘why not?’.

I called them up Friday morning and the plan was set in motion. I dropped my car off at Honda, and my parents picked me up. We made it to Five Guys and it was everything we had remembered. The bell peppers, the fries, the grilled onions, it was all there. We also found out while there that franchises for the NOLA metro had been sold, so there is hope of a Five Guys opening closer than Biloxi. No matter though, a day trip for a fantastic burger like that is completely worth it.

So apparently while everyone was worried about the Saints and getting ready for Thanksgiving, there was a hurricane in the Gulf. Big deal right, it’s NOVEMBER! Just last week on the radio in the morning they were talking about how hurricane season was going to be able to be called early because there were no storms. Oops.

Ida I guess is technically still out in the Gulf as I write this, and will make landfall sometime in the next few hours. The way it came to shore has meant light rain and some wind, but nothing like when tropical storms have come directly over my house, or insane like Katrina. I was reading what I could on the incoming storm today and saw this official briefing from the city of Slidell.

The city spokeswoman’s quotes made me laugh. She actually said ‘hunker down’. Everyone says hunker down for some reason. My dad, my uncle, the weather guys, whenever there is a hurricane the instructions are ‘hunker down and be careful’. I definitely hunkered down once I got home from the gym and the store.

Speaking of those things, the gym usually is the most crowded on Monday nights. I guess everyone thinks “yeah, this week’s going to be different! I’m going to work out everyday this week starting tonight!” Tonight though the gym was pretty empty, most people must have been hunkered down! I’ve been going long enough that I recognize people, and the dude who drags his wife along was there, with the wife in tow. I felt bad for her. She was having to watch him and his workout buddies do something on the bench press while she did nothing. It’s always the same with them, and I don’t know whether or not he makes her go or she wants to spend time with him that she’ll do whatever. It just looks awkward.

As for my hunkering down tonight, I was able to set up Maggie II and also watch MNF. I won one of my fantasy football games thanks to a big night by a Denver WR. Unfortunately my work league game was a lost cause before tonight’s game even started. Did I mention I have a living iPod again? Awesome.

On Saturday after the HALF MARATHON, it was time to go back to Chalmette for the big Halloween party. I was anxious to go again after the fantastic time last year, and then my aunt sent me an email in September about it. I was going to dress up this year, and do more than tape black circles to my shirt. I was not going to have work on a Saturday, so I had no excuses. I struggled for a costume idea though. I posted on Twitter about it, and the only response I had was from my friend Adriene whose suggestion was disappointing. I mean, I figured she’d suggest a Twilight character at least…..but she didn’t. So the week of the party, I’m thinking about not dying in the HALF MARATHON and what costume I’m going to wear. I went to Target, Walmart, and a Halloween store, and nothing. I wasn’t wanting to pay $60 to dress up like the BK King, although that would have been cool a couple of years ago. I had a fake mustache, wasn’t there something I could figure out???

Two days before the big day, I noticed I had a new follower on Twitter, and it was the Quiznos toaster oven. You may know him from the commercials where he talks to Scott, the Quiznos employee. Apparently he had started following me when I asked about costume suggestions, so clicking through his page I came upon a page full of suggestions related to Quiznos. A couple of them were dressing up as the oven himself, but I didn’t have a box big enough to pull that off. But behold, dressing as a Torpedo! BRILLIANT! It’s unique, it’s something I can make, and it’s cheap. I could even wear my fake mustache!

On Friday I went to WM and bought a white sheet for $4. FOUR DOLLARS! I’m not sure how many other people were going to be dressing as Torpedos, but I got one of the last white sheets. After running the HALF MARATHON on Saturday, the costume was put together. I had some help drawing the logos on and pinning it, but I thought it came out fine. The result is below:

And yes, that is my HALF MARATHON finishers’ medal I had EARNED earlier in the day that I was wearing no matter what.

One of the highlights was a drunk lady who tried to befriend me by showing me her Star Wars shirt and saying it was vintage because it had Jar Jar on it (she kept saying it was a jabberwocky). That doesn’t mean it’s vintage, that means it sucks. I didn’t tell her that though because she was really excited about it. She was going around by herself and told me she lost the rest of her family, but she was still collecting candy in 3 bags; two for her family, then one she said was for her dog. You know you’ve hit rock bottom when you are trick-or-treating for your dog, or worse….LYING about it.

I had signed up for the Jazz Half Marathon a couple of days before the deadline for registration. I’ve mentioned how it’s been a goal of mine since April, and even in spite of that, I was hesitant to run it. Three guys died running a half marathon in Detroit a few weeks ago, so since then I couldn’t help be worried what would happen to me. I mean, I’d been training for the race, I had run TEN MILES with no problems, surely I could run a HALF MARATHON with no issues. I thought about sending a FB message pretty much saying “if something happens to me, tell my story” (REALLY!), but didn’t. I thought about leaving a note in my garage with instructions for divvying up my stuff, but didn’t. Part of me wanted to believe everything would be fine and I would run the HALF MARATHON and come out alive.

I got dropped off before the race about 6:35 am, and the race was supposed to start at 7 am. It was still kind of dark, and a little cold, which was fine because I got to wear my long sleeve Nike compression shirt. I LOVE that shirt. Other than that I wore the same ensemble I wore for the TEN MILE race. I borrowed a pen to fill out the back of my number of my medical history. With that done, I walked over to the start area and waited. I met up with my friend Megan and we shared a fist bump before the race. We were going to do this.

The course was going to go from the Warehouse District, out to Audubon Park, then back. Starting off I wanted to keep a slow pace, and even that was too fast for some people, so I had to do some weaving and passing of people. Once we got onto Poydras, things loosened up. Not that I was trying to run faster, but it was easier to run without a lot of people around me.

Running along St Charles was interesting. They told us not to run on the median, which I remembered, but it was weird to see streetcars passing with the passengers looking out at us. It made me feel good that I was RUNNING down the street while these people were lazily taking public transportation. (BTW that’s a joke) We passed a bunch of restaurants I’ve been to, Loyola, Tulane, then came the big loop through Audubon Park. I had told my parents that I’d like them to come out to see me, and initially my mom told me “it might rain so we might just stay home”. After a couple of days, I finally told them “it would mean a lot to me if y’all would come.” So right before the race turned into the park, there were my folks on the right side of the street. My dad fished his cell phone out and approached closer to get a picture. The result is below:

The loop in the park was along the running/bike path, which was fine, up until we started seeing people out jogging who were not in the race. They didn’t even try to get over. One set of like three guys was jogging against the flow of the race and we had to avoid them. WHAT? Anyway, once we got back out to St Charles, all I had to do was get back to where the race started. There were little kids along the route who were trying to high five people as they passed, so since I was running close to the neutral ground the whole time, I was able to high five almost everyone. I even high fived a kid that was probably 3 or 4 years old, even if I did have to bend down while running.

We got back to the Warehouse district and ran past the D-Day Museum and then finally to South Peters, the final straight away. There was the finish line. I clicked on my powersong (which is The Veil by DCB) and somehow found the strength to finish strong after 13 miles. Once I started speeding up, I kept it up. I passed 4 or 5 people in the final block. It was great! I got my finishers’ medal and found the water. It was over, and for now, I was alive.

I drank water, then found the beer, pizza, jambalaya, fudge bars, smoothies, I ate it all! I realized after I was dropped off that I was going to have to figure out a way to meet up with my sister after the race. I telepathically sent her a message, hoping it would work, and it did! I was walking around in the post race area and there she was! I was still alive!

On the way home we stopped off so I could get three bags of ice so I could sit in my bathtub in my shorts in really cold water. I had gotten the tip from Megan, and had tried it after the TEN MILE run and a 7.5 mile run last weekend. I have gradually gone from one bag to two bags, to yesterday THREE bags. My legs were sore after the run, but after sitting in the ice and then a hot shower, they were fine. They were tired, but they were not sore.

I ran it faster than I thought too. I had run the TEN MILE race in 1:37, so I figured probably 2:15 would be good. Yesterday, according to the racing chip, I ran 2:04. Awesome. They had people at each mile marker with stopwatches who were supposed to be calling out times, but not all of them were. The times I did hear that I remembered, I realized I was running less than 10 minutes per mile, but I didn’t think I’d be able to keep that pace the entire time. I did though. Awesome.

until i can type something about how awesome the PM show was, here are some stats and a link to all of the pictures.

180 – times I sang “Na” during “Hey Jude”
81 – total pictures I took
53 – times I realized why taking family vacations is hard
27 – times i randomly yelled “MACCA!” at concert
16 – times I said “that’d be a cool/lame name to have” at Twisted Root
14 – times I said “these guys suck!” referring to the opening band
12 – bottles of Fat Tire I brought home
9 – PM songs i stood for
4 – times I was referred to as Ari Gold when eating at Twisted Root
4 – times I used the hotel’s computer for the internet
3 – number of assassin teams I think were in Dealey Plaza
2 – Thin Mint Blizzards I consumed
1 – margaritas at Pappasito’s
1 – waffles I ate that were shaped like Texas
1 – free beers I had at the hotel