October 2001

1 October

It's getting cold. Bed was so warm and fluffy that getting out was very unrewarding. Ah well. I did get up, and I did go to work. The insurance guy came to cehck the damage to my car today. $1500. Not bad. Now to get it fixed.

After work I did my exercise and then sat on the couch, in the dark, not moving, for quite a long time. Then I cleaned up my list mail, deleting all sorts of stuff and saving more stuff to check out later. After John and Sarah got back from their bike ride, John and I went grocery shopping. We bought stuff. It was good. Then I ate some of the stuff we bought - fresh pasta and fresh basil pesto. Yummy.

2 October

Work started well today, deteriorated, and then improved slightly. I had a meeting at Coke at 9am, which meant that I didn't have to be up at my usual time. That meeting went really well. After that I got to work and read my email. The wind was well and truly knocked out of me by same email that essentially said, "All that work you did wasn't good enough, we're going to do it instead." I really did feel despondant and apathetic for much of the day; motivation to do anything constructive was definitely lacking. A conference call at the end of the day picked things up a little, but still, it wasn't the best of days.

When I came home from work, I set about doing housework. Took out the trash, made dinner, did the dishes. Now my hands feel all yucky and itchy. I'm also sweating that yucky dishwashing sweat. Hate it.

I think John and I are going to go out for a drink. I probably shouldn't, seeing as I'm trying to save my money, but I think I could do with a drink. Granted, that's no reason to go out, seeing as we have a wall full of alcohol.

Damn, I thought Orbital were on Thursday night; turns out they're on Friday night. That alters my plans.

3 October

Work continued on a par with yesterday. Afterwards, I had a quick bike ride and headed to the pub. John and Jenny were at the baseball so I resolved to join the Bar team. Most of that team were away as well, so it was Ben, Carl, and myself who set about being supreme in trivia. And we were! We won! Outstanding work!

John turned up after the baseball (which the Braves had won well) and we had a few drinks. And a few more drinks. It was late when we left...

4 October

5 October

Stacy's 31st birthday. Eric's birthday. And Orbital.

This was probably the best day at work that I had all week. Stuff got done and nobody added to my stressload. Yay.

After work I came home, shaved my head, did six and a half miles on the bike, had a shower, and went to the pub to (a) see Stacy for her birthday, and (b) meet up with Clair, Lauren, and Rosalie for Orbital. Eric was having dinner at Fratelli's, which would have been nice, but then meeting up with everyone would have been difficult.

We got the the venue (Earthlink Live) and picked up our tickets. We watied for Scott and bounded on in. Lauren had acquired a couple of small Absolut Mandarin bottles, so we downed those while the pre-show DJs were playing. Clair and I also bought tour t-shirts. And finally, Orbital started.

Two words: fucking awesome. They played, and we danced, for close to two hours. Stuff from all over their repetoire. Heaps big fun. At the end of it we were all sweaty, but it was well worth to $28.50 for the tickets.

After the show we bounced on over to Rarity for Cyberia. This was fun, and interesting. Heather introduced me to Butch, which was kind of an odd situation, and this other girl bounded over, saying "Hi, I'm Kelly, who the hell are you?" Heheh, all good fun. I probably should have talked to her some more. But I didn't.

Lauren and I left around 2:30, tired as we were from the show. We stopped by Kroger so Lauren could get some supplies, and then I went across to the Local to seeif JOhn was there. He was, with Brett, both getting rather drunk. I stuck around and had a couple of drinks and then I drove John and I home. Kasha offerred to drive us, since she lives close to where we do, but I was okay. John wasn't. Heheh. Kasha was born in Poland and I correctly guessed her age. There's some useless trivia for you.

6 October

Heheh, John did not surface happily today. In fact, I really don't think actually surfaced properly at all. I got up and played Civ for most of the day, which was heaps big fun.

My change of pace was going out to Famous Pub at Toco Hills, to meet up with Christina. We had a drink and then played pool for about three hours. Christina beat me in almost every game; although it was always reasonably close. When we tired of pool (ie I eventually won one cleanly), we sat down and chatted over another beer. This was fun, getting to know each other better. Eventually I was getting a little tired of Famous so we decided to head off somewhere else. Unfortunately we couldn't work out where to go, so in a slightly awkward moment, we both went home.

It was cold outside. The temperature was ridiculously cold. When I got home I had to put my PPG comforter on my bed to achieve a decent temperature. And it was sooooooo nice.

7 October

Christina called this morning to say that she had been involved in a car accident on her way home. Ugh. She had hit a car that was stopped at a stop sign, where she thought it was a yield sign and had expected the car to move on. Fortunately she is well although the front of her car is a mess. Damn; I really wish we had worked out a post-Famous plan last night. Not good.

I spent the early part of the afternoon continuing my game of CivII. And then it was time for scotch. John had purchased a sherry barrel finish Glenmorangie. Steve brough Edradour, also aged in sherry barrels. Stuart, a friend of Sarah and Alice, brought a bottle of regular Glenmorangie. I supplied Laphroig and Glenlivet. Tim also turned up, and, of course, Sarah, Alice and Charlotte were in attendance (although Charlotte stuck to white wine). It was a very pleasant afternoon, and then Charlotte made an awesome dinner of glazed ham, mashed potatoes, steamed vegetables, salad, and biscuits. Very nice.

There was no Sunday night TV, so at 8pm we all went on down to the Local. I had another scotch (Macallans) and followed it up with Newcastles. Steve brought his Edradour along, so I had a bit more of that, too. Lauren popped across for a couple of drinks. All in all, a very fun latter part of the evening. Someone was complaining about the reggae so I threw some songs on the jukebox. Ah, very good and fun. We got home about 11:15 and watched the end of South Park.

8 October

A long day at work (8:45 until 7:15). I think that is going to be a common theme this week. Came home and had leftovers for dinner. Woohoo - I didn't spend any money on food today (Warwick picked up the lunch tab).

Watched some (American) football, then Just Shoot Me, and ripped some Barry Adamson CDs.

9 October

Michele's birthday. Happy birthday, Michele!

More coldness. It's not going to improve. Chicago is even colder. I really could do without that. But I will enjoy being in Chicago again.

Work. Home. Dinner. Record more CDs. Watched PPGs. Exchanged emails with Christina. She now has my web page and has checked up on me and my thoughts. Hi! Heheh. Not often I do a call-out on my web page.

Also watched Meet The Parents on HBO and The Daily Show on Comedy Central.

10 October

Nick Cave has rescheduled for May 6 next year. Saturday October 20 is the Decatur Beer Festival. After last year's fun, there is no way I'm going to miss this.

Went to Trivia and lost. Fortunately, the Braves didn't and now they are two games up in the playoffs. And the A's won over the Yankees tonight to be one up in their series. It would be nice for the Yankees to not make it to the World Series this year, because they have been there every year since I've been in the US. Surely there is more depth in the AL than that.

11 October

Check this out. And this is also interesting.

Work was work and then I came home. Woo...exciting....Ashe asked if I was interested in going to a play at Kennesaw State University tomorrow night, but I declined seeing as it would be a return to Cobb COunty, which I really don't want to deal with on a Friday night.

12 October

Short version: Work. Local with Lauren. John and Charlotte came up and we went to Susan's party. Returned to Local and I went to Cyberia. Hung out with Grace for a while, then hung out with Kelly. Got home around 5am.

13 October

Short version: Woken by cellphone at 11am. Ugh. Don't really accomplish much during the day. Lunch at the Dark Horse with John and Charlotte. Charlie picked up the food tab. Very tasty. Tried to sleep in the afternoon. Picked up some Shiner Bock and went to party at Grace's. Turns out Jessee and her are now dating. That was a surprise. Went to the Highlander to meet up with Clair, Stacie, Rosalie, Wendy, Carl and Karen. Went back to Rosalie's and Wendy's place to play board games with them and Carl. Came home around 5am again.

Coloured in a a picture in a colouring book while at the Highlander.

14 October

Had the most bizarre dream. So many people were in it. And I realised at one point that it was a dream and started to analyse what I was dreaming about. It was very cool. Participants included Amanda (The Amanda), Ashley, John, hrm, now it's starting to get a little fuzzy.

Another day of not doing a hell of a lot of productive stuff. I did watch Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which was really cool. Sarah hs started to pack up stuff for her impending move out. Feels kinda odd.

15 October

16 October

17 October

Went to the Local and then to Nomenclature

18 October

Bianca's 25th birthday. So I sent her an email.

19 October

We picked up Amy from the airport and came back home to drop off her stuff and for John to get changed. Then we headed over to the Local. I ordered a hamburger with mushrooms and no bun. This diet I've put myself on is upsetting me :-)

Lauren came over and then we headed up to Rarity, where I saw lots of cool people who gave me love (Ashley, Sandi, Heather, Michael, rockabilly Michael), and me and Amy talked and danced and generally playeed silly buggers. Oh yeah, British accents - that was fun. Oh and Father Ted accents. Fack. Arse.

Then it was time to go home so we could be up and at'em for The Great Decatur Beer Festival.

20 October

I woke up at a decent hour and eventually so did everyone else. Sarah and I went over to Einstein's Bagels to pick up some breakfast for the crew. Around 12:30 we began the trek to Decatur.

This was only my second time on MARTA, but it was fun. Even though I lost my token and had to buy another. D'oh! We switched trains at wherever it is you switch trains and went on past Sarah and Alice's new loft. Then, we were there. In downtown Decatur. And we found the line to get into the festival. It was long, but fast moving.

We did a lot of drinking at the festival. Details to be filled in later.

Photographic evidence: Charlotte and Amy eating pizza, ??, John, Charlotte, Alice, Amy, people, Sarah and Alice, ??, Ben and Bill, Alice and Ian.

Ben also got pictures: John, Walter and me, Bill and Damon, Bill and Damon, Ben and Damon give love to John.

After the festival closed we decided to head to the Highlander. So we caught MARTA back to 10th St and wandered down there. As we passed Zocalo we saw Sandy and Kelley, so we stopped to have a margarita with them. Then we continued the journey down to the Highlander, where more beer was in effect. I think I switched to whiskey and coke at some point.

It was then time for me to leave. So I did. I wandered home and sat in front of the computer for a while. Thompson was online and I chatted to her for a bit and then decided to go watch a DVD at her place. I grabbed a couple and zoomed over. I really should not have done that, considering the alcohol content in my body. Hindsight is 20/20.

Anyway, we watched Go! and then I headed up to :Lauren's. It appears I had knocked the battery on my phone and hence people were unable to get hold of me and were a little concerned. I love my friends. Everything was put right and I went out with Lauren to the new 80's msuic night (actually a rebirth of Destination Unknown) at Karma. This was very cool. I loved the furnishings, huge couches, dark, private crannies, two rooms. Good fun. I also continued my binge, ordering several more whiskey and cokes. Lauren and I chatted for a while, and were visited by Heather. Erika and (the other) Heather were also around, as was Phaedra. We popped into the other room and encountered Michele, Heather, Billy, god knows who else. Too much fun!

21 October

We all eventually got up, feeling kinda rough (some more than others..). I realised that I had left my credit card at Karma. Damn. John, Charlotte, Amy and I went for brunch at Virginia's. This was really nice. I had eggs benedict with salmon. So good. And lots of water. Then we went to Little Five Points and wandered around for a couple of hours. We met up with Sarah and Alice at Aurora and then checked out Criminal Records, where I bought Alan Moore's Halo Jones compiled comic series. I stopped in at Lucky Devil to say hello to whoever was there and then we checked out the used bookstore.

We came home after that and chilled for the afternoon. I alternated between the deck and the couch. Eventually it was time for John and I to take Amy to the airport. It was very cool having her around for the weekend. John and I returned home to watch the baseball.

22 October

Work. Preparing for the trip to Chicago and the office move. Not pleasant. Add to that the fact that I still hadn't properly recovered from Saturday's excessiveness.

23 October

John stopped by Karma to pick up credit card today. They weren't going to give it to him until he had me on the phone explaining that I was travelling and needed the card. Almost a tricky situation.

24 October

The Great Chicago Adventure

My alarm went off early, way too early. So I got up and showered and the last of my bits and pieces in my bag. John was going to take me up to the MARTA station but Sarah was just getting out of the shower when I came out, so she offerred to take me. So we let John sleep. I have the coolest roommates.

I arrived at the airport good and early. There was a Delta check-in station right at the airport MARTA station with five people in line. So I was checked in and ready at 8am. The flight was not until 10:10. Time to wait. So I got a shoe shine while on my way to the gate, where I caught up with the rest of the Marconi Atlanta crew going north: Peter, Yvonne, Brad, and George

Peter and Yvonne were an the earlier flight, so Peter was giving us hassles about the wait we were going to have, but within a few minutes of their plane leaving the gate, it was pulled off the take-off line. Peter called to say that they had been stopped because of bad weather in Chicago. I checked at the gate and they eventually indicated the same to us.

So we waited. And waited. And waited. Until we boarded around noon. The flight itself was pretty boring. I read my Economist, watched a little bit of Tomb Raider and started into Halo Jones.

We landed, fond our bags, and then Brad, George and I hunted down the rental car place, found the car in the rain and headed into Chicago. The traffic was horrendous, but we eventually found our way to our hotel in one piece. We checked in, but our rooms not ready so we dropped bags at desk. Don had called to say that he needed me to set some stuff up so we went down to the convention center. We found the McCormack Center without too much difficulty. An even bigger miracle was that we found the right part of the center with not much more difficulty.

Brad and George hung around for a bit and then went to find some food. I set the server up (with some assistance from NZ, as the server was having some problems), Peter turned up and we met with a few people. Jason showed up and we chatted to him for a bit. But food was calling, so away we dashed.

We went to dinner at Dublin's (Peter, Yvonne, Don, Greg, me), which is on Rush Street; not too far from hotel. Food was average, service was poor, beer was good. I called Amy and she came down to meet me when the others moved on to their next destination.

We drank quite a bit. In amongst the beers was a buttery nipple to keep us warm and happy. Yum yum. We caught up the past two days activities and laughed about our weekend fun. It was getting late so we decided to have a drink at the hotel bar. The wind was pushing hard against us, especially crossing Michigan, and it was rather cold.

Back at the hotel we discovered to our dismay that there was no bar, so we crossed over to the Doubletree and stopped in at their bar (Mrs Park's Tavern). There we encountered some slightly odd, but very friendly gentlemen from other places in the world. I ordered up a couple of Hennessey's (VSOP) and we sat back at a table to warm ourselves up. One drink was enough and then we headed home to the hotel.

Once back in the hotel room, Amy went hunting for porn on the hotel tv. Unfortunately (?) there was no porn to be found. Amy was very disappointed in the Residence Inn. Oh well. Rather than daring the cold, Amy stayed over, but had to get up at 6am to go home and get changed for work.

25 October

After Amy left I stayed in bed for a little bit longer then got up and showered, and went to meet the others. A little tired from last night's festivities, but a good breakfast of eggs and sausage helped the cause. Then it was off to the show.

It was a fairly long day, although there was not a large crowd at the show. I chatted to some interesting people and a lot of uninteresting people. I also drank a lot of water. Had a pretty awful chicken caesar salad for lunch.

Then I went off to met up with Amy at her place, from which we wandered up Clark St to a Mongolian Barbeque place for dinner with Shawn and his friend, Matt. This was much fun. A couple of bowl-sized beers (Honker's Ale), a cute waitress, and really good food.

Shawn suggested that we go to a bar called Delilah's, so off we went. This is where the night's downfall began; Shawn had educated the bar staff in the joyousness that is the Nuclear Ice Tea. Shawn, Matt and I had four of them. Amy had a sip or two of mine and decided to stick with some a little less potent. However, the damage was going get done anyway. We spent a couple of hours at Delilah's, talking about all sorts of things, from Atlanta and the people (Shawn sends his hello's), to music and comics. All good fun.

Then we headed off to Neo. On the way, Amy fell over and damaged her head and knee. Icky mess. But we were drunk and kept on going. I don't actually recall arriving at Neo, but I do remember being inside and buying alcohol.

We left there after a while (it was slow) and I crashed over at Amy's.

26 October

Left Amy's around 7:45am. Got back to the hotel, showered, changed, checked work email. Had breakfast of eggs and sausage again, regaled the team with tales of the night before and then off to the show.

The show was much of a repeat of yesterday. Talked to a lot of people. Drank a lot of water. Didn't get lunch. Nibbled on some bite-sized gyros from an adjacent table.

After the show closed for the day we had a dinner to attend. I jumped in the elevator and bumped into George, who was suit and tied. A couple of floors down we encountered Greg, who was similarly attired. I was dressed in this manner, so Greg offerred me a tie and jacket as he had spares.

We congregated in the lobby and headed for the Marriott, where the dinner was to be held.

We got there and got stuck into the open bar. Vodka tonics for me. Then we moved into the dining room. Our table was right at the back near the doors. A perfect spot to be a troublesome table. And we were.

Wine was okay. Salad was okay. Main meal was pretty good. But the diet I'm on meant no potatoes, so I was still hungry. We had a purchased a table for ten and there were only eight of us, so I asked Peter if I could order up one of the uneaten meals. The server at first wasn't going to do it, but he eventually came round. We did give him some hassles. Talked aobut extra people that weren't there, etc.

The awards part was boring.

The scheduled entertainment couldn't make it, so we ended up with some guy who turned out to be the former lead singer for Styx. It was hilarious. He did several Styx songs and solo material and did some comedy. The patrons were gettting into it; we weren't. When they stopped serving wine we knew it was time to move on to greener pastures.

The formerly open bar had been made a cash bar, but by the time we hit it, it was closed. We headed downstairs to the public bar and decided against that, in favour of heading to Dublin, where Jason was to be. We headed out to catch a couple of cabs. Kathy, Brad, George and Don were in the front cab, Peter, Yvonne, Greg and I were in the second. We were asked where to, to which I replied "Follow that cab." Much amusmement at this turn of events and off to Dublin we went.

Jason was there and in fine form. We had several beers and I got Amy to come on down, which she did. Many comments about the band-aid on her head. At the bar was a girl in the navy who was getting very drunk. She was highly amusing. The bulk of the crowd moved on to other locations. Jason, Brad, Amy and I stayed on for some more beers and then we headed over to Kingston Mines to see some blues bands. Amy and I stayed for a couple of drinks. Carlos, a former employee of one of the bottlers we work with was there. Amy thought he was cute :-).

We got in touch with Shawn and headed out to meet him. Found him and wandered to Red Lion for a couple of beers. No Matt tonight; apparently he had no recollection of Neo last night. They had actually headed onto another bar.

On with the story. Shawn suggested going to Exit, which met with both of our approval and away we went. We went in and I was kinda surprised; it appeared to be a bit of a biker bar. However, upstairs it was very gothic. This was heaps of fun. We sat at the bar furthest from where we came up the stairs and talked for hours. Hours. More drinks. Whiskey, tequila shots. We closed the place down at four in the morning. Amy said "you staying at my place or the hotel." I said, "Your place." And so we went back to crash.

27 October

Last day of the show and I awaken at Amy's again. I was running a little later this time and actually arrived at the hotel just as George and Brad were about to head out. I got them to wait for me to have a shower and get something to eat. Yay. Brad was looking a little pale from his night out. Heheh.

Drank plenty of water. Chatted more with the gyros girl. No lunch.

After the show George dropped me at Amy's (George rocks). We hung out there for a bit, had a drink, and then I had a nap. This was a very smart move. After the nap (about an hour) Amy and I headed out for dinner at Nookies. I had cream of brocolli soup and roast chicken and vegetables. I again refrained from the potatoes and the bread. Good Damon. We headed back to the apartment and started drinking.

I called Shawn to see what he was up to and he was nearby with Matt so they stopped in. We had a few drinks and then wandered down to Chicago Comics to check out what was new. This was heaps of fun in itself. (Say "hello" to Mr Winkie, Amy). We checked out heaps of comics and posters. I bought the last installment of Preacher and a Grendel short-piece compilation. I was introduced to Grendel by a schoolmate back in the late eighties or early nineties. A bit of nostalgia.

Next stop, the liquor shop for a bottle of vodka and a bottle of tequila. A little after midnight came round and there was no more tequila and about a third of the vodka left (we had already polished off a half bottle of Stoli Oranj). Shawn suggested it was time to hit Neo again. David joined us for this adventure,

We arrived and got a drink and then Underworld's Cowgirl started. So Amy and I went and danced to that. Dancing in my All Blacks jacket was hard, so I checked my and Amy's coats. Then we continued to drink vodka tonics. Once again, a whole heap of fun was had, and much alcohol was imbibed. At around 2:00 or 2:30 (no real idea, really) Amy and I headed home.

28 October

Apparently I snored loudly. In the morning, David made a comment about it (when he came home there was a loud odd noise...). Oh well. Amy said she hadn't noticed me snore the other nights, but that it was rather loud llast night.

The excessiveness of the weekend was now beginning to take its toll on me. I was very very tired, but still no real hangover to speak of. Amy and I went for breakfast at Clark's. Great omelette. Then we returned and watched WHitnail and I, a british movie. Very entertaining; sad but hilarious.

Then we spent the afternoon just chilling out, being silly, laughing a whole lot. We summarised the week/weekend in a little notebook for Amy. Amy then wrote me a note. That was very cool. Four-thirty swung round and I was off to the airport, an awesome adventure coming to a close.

Read the Preacher comic and started on the Grendel. George arrived and we chatted about our respective Saturday/Sunday's. Then we jumped on the plane and headed for home.

John met me at the airport, and the first thing he said was "You ready to go for a drink." Came home, watched some TV and then went to bed.

29 October

My alarm went off at 8am. I turned it off. And got up at 9am.

30 October

I got up at 5:15 this morning, threw myself at the shower and then charged on over to Russ' place. Tori, Kelly and Jason were there and ready, so we loaded everything into the car and took off. I was pleasantly surprised that my car has sufficient luggage space for five people going on a four day trip.

We made good time out of Atlanta and breakfasted at McDonald's in Montgomery. Russ took over driving responsibilities from there and I tried to catch some shut-eye as we made the three hour drive through Alabama to the Mississippi side of Mobile. Between Atlanta and here there had been very little traffic, which was rather nice. This is what you get for travelling on a Tuesday.

We changed drivers at Mobile and I took on the last stage of the drive. There was one more stop before we made it to New Orleans, and that was at Slidell. It is now tradition (we've done it twice :-) ) to stop at a little liquor store in Slidel called The Beer Box to pick up some liquor. We initially took the wropng exit, but we got back on track and found our little store. I picked up some Jack Daniel's and some Absolut Mandarin, and Jason got some beer. Next stop, The Big Easy.

We came off at Elysian Fields and charged into the Quarter. We did a few loops before we found the right part of St Ann Street that our bed and breakfast (A Creole House) was on. We were able to park the car right out in front and charged in to see if everything was ready. It was, and the guy showed us to our rooms, which were located in the Marie .. Annex. My room was on the ground floor and had a full-size bed. Yay. The others were upstairs with three bedrooms (a single, a queen, and a king). All very cool.

Russ and I did two passes at unloading the car, and on the second pass there was a tour group stopped outside, talking about the annex we were staying in. Among the group were two gothic chicks who were seriously checking us out when we came out the gate and when we went back in. Heheh....

There was one potential problem - the person who had been staying in my room hadn't yet shown up when he was supposed to have checked out. So there was a note on the door telling him to collect his stuff from the office. Oh yeah, an additional complication: he's Polish and doesn't speak good English. Great...

Anyway, we settled ourselves in, Jason and I had a drink, and then we all went for a walk in the Quarter. We stopped in at Pirate's Alley Cafe for some lunch and a drink. I had brie with a toasted baguette and salad (the vinegarette dressing was divine) and a glass of chianti. Granted the baguette doesn't fit with my diet, but hey, such things sometimes just have to happen.

Nobody we we knew showed up at Pirate's Aley, so we wandered over to the Cathedral of St Louis on the square. It's a very nice piece of work. I got to demonstrate my (very) rudimentary Latin and French skills. One thing I found particularly interesting was the number of flags rasied inside the cathedral. I recognised the flags of the US, the UK, France and Louisiana, but there were several more I didn't know.

When we were done with the cathedral we wandered over to Gargoyles so that some shopping could occur. Unfortunately, my budget for this trip did not really extend to new clothes or toys (and especially not at Gargoyles prices). Food and drink (of both varieties - alcoholic and nonalcoholic) were the only expenses in my budget. After checking out all three Gargoyles stores (and waiting for Jason to buy some clothes) we headed back to our rooms to get prepared for the night ahead.

Once again, out came the Mandarin and Sprite and the Creamy Stout. Several drinks (and just plain shots of vodka) went down. A nice buzz was settling over both Jason and I. The hotel guy came across at one point and mentioned that the Polish guy had turned up ion jail for drunken behaviour. Poor guy. Oh well.

Dinner was taken the Clover Grill, a little diner run by gay men. It was great. The food (I had pork chop and eggs) was diner quality (ie no four-star restaurant was this) but the environment was fun.

After eating, we went back to Pirate's Alley. Jason and I each had a glass of wine And then another. And then another. And then the proprietor came out and gave us the rest of the bottle for free. Rock! Then we switched to a Penfold's Shiraz-Cabernet blend for yet another glass. Things were going swimmingly. We then decided to head for the Crow Bar (formerly The Crystal).

On our way over, we walked around the square looking for the palmist who had done a reading on me back in 1999. Jason also knew of him and was keen to get a reading also. We found him and got readings (very astute readings at that) and a tarot reading to answer any three questions. I asked about my recent career path decisions and my love life. Fairly inane questions really, but I think I was happy with the answers. NOTE: I do not believe in any form of fortune-telling being to be sound; it is merely fun entertainment. Jason asked the guy (whose name is Jerek) if he could do a regression experience. He agreed, for $100, at 11:30pm on Friday. Lot of money...

So it was Jason, Kelly, and I who got read, and then we all headed on down Decatur St to Crow Bar. More excessive alcohol consumption ensued. Whee!! Jason and I had been pretty much keeping up with each other as far as the drinks went, and I felt it was about time for a change of pace. I made the chartreuse call. I don't think he had ever had it before. His face scewed up as he tasted it, and it was downhill for him from that point onwards.

Soon enough it was time to move on. We wandered next door to Cafe Angeli, the scene of so many late night meals in the past. I had a mushroom and olive pizza. It was awesomely good. And then we wandered back to our rooms. Yay for a good night out, even though we did not see Gabby.

31 October

Halloween

Following in the tradition of last week I was awake early, around nine o'clock, even though this week I did not have to work. I called Russ at 9:45 to see if he wanted to go get breakfast. He did, so we met up in the courtyard outside our rooms, where we were joined by Tori. This triumvurate went across to the main part of the hotel, where it appeared the breakfast selection consisted only of bread products. This did not please me, as I knew I needed eggs. And, well, bread is on the not-allowed list of my diet. So we elected to visit the Clover Grill again, but I first went back for a shower, and then our wee group was joined by Kelly. Jason was not in a good state and would not be joining us. So off we went.

Breakfast consisted of the same as dinner last night, plus has browns. They're not allowed on my diet, but today a line had to be drawn somewhere. The diet was to go on temporary hold for the remainder of this trip.

As per yesterday, the weather was gorgeous, so we wandered up to Canal Street, bought some water and film, and then headed to the trolley stop. The trolley took us out to the Garden District and we got off at Napoleon Street. We wandered up here to Magazine Street, passing Anne Rice's house and a group of people waiting to do a guided tour. We also passed many beautiful (and large) houses.

We wandered down Magazine St, past several not-so-beautiful homes, to the Westgate House, also known as the House of the Dead. It was cheesy. It was being visited by a couple of groups of goth kids, which was kind of cute. But the stuff inside was pretty naff. Mostly nouveau-goth paintings (which, in general, sucks arse), but there was some interesting sculpture. There was one painting, which was very eh in general, but in which there was a very cute - ie she exhibited the attributes of that phenotype that I like best. But still, just a crap painting :-)

We then wandered back to the trolley with the intention of going to St Louis #1 cemetary. But during the ride it was abvious that I was fading fast, so instead we headed back to the hotel for a nap. Russ went off to find out about the Damned show. I went to my room, got changed, and took a one hour nap. I probably could have (should have) gone longer, but then I might have been flirting dangerously with staying the rest of the night, which would not have been a good thing.

I got up, put on some clothes and sat outside with my bottle of Jack, some coke, and my notebook, writing down the evens of the past two days. I saw several of my temporary neighbours, watched a girl get locked out of her room, encoutnered Russ, freshly returned from The House of Blues and Pirate's Alley. Jason finally arose; he and Kelly went off to get some food so that he could do battle again tongiht. Russ Disappeared to put on his costume and makeup - a dead 18th century gentleman. Tori came down to borrow my shower. Too much action!

Just as I was writing this peice, one of my neighbours arrived in from their adventures, and has popped back outside to give me a candle wo write by. You know, that is just so cool, and soehow fits in with the historicity of this place: a candle to write a journal by. Rock the fuck on. And to drink by - my fourth whiskey reaching its conclusion. Our neighbours (with the candle) were Chad and Leanne. The joined us for a drink. They had just driven in from Oklahoma.

Soon enough, it was time to move on, so we headed once again to Pirate's Alley. It was really crowded there, and there was a troup of street actors performing commedia dell'arte. It was very cool. Once again, I got stuck into the red wine. Snow turned up with her baby boy, Zachary, dressed in a cow suit. He's a cute kid. I don't quite know how, but I ended up with baby-holding duty. I think I was doing all right - Snow and Russ kept on making fun of me. Soon, the Cafe started to show the 1922 version of Nosferatu, projected onto the wall across the alley. Food was necessary, so I ordered a portabella focaccia - mushrooms on herb bread - yummy!

Around 11ish, Russ, Tori, and I headed over to the House of Blues to watch The Damned. I didn't see much of the show, as one of my contact lenses decided to fall out. So I had to head back to the hotel to get another. What I did see of the show was pretty fun though. Rather than returning to the House of Blues, I went straight to 735, a club on Bourbon Street, where Tommy (Snow's boyfriend, aka Dj Vulture) was DJing. I eventually caught up with Russ and Tori there. Things are very fuzzy from this point on. Actually, things were getting fuzzy at Pirate's Alley...

We hung out on the balcony at the club. This allowed us to watch the partiers on Bourbon St. Sean (aka Tigger) was around and we also encountered Chad and Lianne at the club. Russ with chatting with some cute girls (isn't he always) dressed as boy scouts. I really am sketchy on details from this point.

From the club we went to Angeli for food. Apparently there were a couple of times during the night that I staerted to nod off and I was told that I would have to leave (735, Angeli) but I pulled myself together each time. I don't recall what I ate at the cafe, but I do recall chatting up a nun (or person costumed as a nun) at the table next to us. I think she was cute. I think her name was Brandy. On our way back to the hotel we travelled with a group of girls, one of whom I ended up attaching myself to. I gave her a goodnight snog where her entourage headed up Dauphine. I think we got in around 5am, and I just crashed out.