Oh wait…I forgot.

So. My very favorite band ever is playing Jazz Fest this year! I’m heading down to New Orleans tomorrow just to see them. And I can’t wait.

I’ve only seen Iron & Wine live once, about a year and a half ago at the House of Blues. It was totally awesome.

Surriously, y’all. It was amazing. Certain friends of mine were convinced that there’s nothing in the world more boring than an Iron & Wine concert, but they’ve never been to one. Sam Beam played songs to the music of other songs, and I thought my head might explode.

That was a good trip.

Welllll, a few months ago, I saw somewhere that Iron & Wine is playing Jazz Fest, and I was, like, ZOMFG IRON & WINE IS PLAYING JAZZ FEST I MUST GO. Keep in mind that this is the only band I would travel like this for and that I hate Jazz Fest. I used to go when I was a teenager, but it got soooo crowded. Then I lived about two blocks away from it for a few years. I might have gone once during that time. Until now! Sam Beam will pull me out of my I Hate Jazz Fest funk, and I will brave the crowds with a smile on my face.

So! If you’re in New Orleans this weekend, and/or you’ll be at Jazz Fest on Sunday, hit me up!

BONUS: Thanks to Spotify, I’ve cooked up a little All Iron & Wine All the Time Time playlist for your enjoymentz.

I went down to Houston this weekend to visit Palmer, who is working there for two weeks. We had a great time (though, considering all the shopping, I think I probably had the better time), and I figured I’d share some photos. That’s right: this is a (relatively) non-book-related post!

The day I drove down there happened to be our nine-monthiversary. Palmer had a romantic date planned in which we would go to the Grotto, a fancy Italian restaurant, and then drive down to the boardwalk and look at Christmas lights. I’ve been having weird issues with Italian food lately, though, so I suggested we go somewhere else. Once I got there, and after a bit of research on Yelp, I found the perfect place: The Hobbit Cafe. Yep, it’s a Lord of the Rings-themed restaurant. I was surprised at now non-nerdy it was, though. It’s just an english-style house with some memorabilia hanging about. That said, I had the most wonderful curry chicken salad sammich. And, of course, Palmer and I took the obligatory grainy front-camera photo:

The next morning, we went to Mamma’s Cafe, a fairly well-known diner-style restaurant. We both ordered blueberry pancakes, and they were terrible. The worst pancakes I’ve ever had. They were obviously made from a store-bought mix, and the syrup wasn’t even good. And the blueberries were fermenting. I ate a few bites and had to stop. And I looooove pancakes. Here’s Palmer being a good sport:

After breakfast, Palmer had to do laundry, and since it would take so long to do it in the hotel, we went to a laundromat, where I read Midnight’s Children.

And Palmer won me a reindeer from the claw machine! (Which I think I left in his car.)

Laundry didn’t take long, but once we were finished there, it was almost time for lunch, so we headed to Central Market, where I roamed around and wished I lived in a bigger city. Oh, the food I could make!

Lunch was much better than breakfast. Next, we shopped around Westheimer, and I spent lots of money. No spending spree is complete, though, without a trip to the Galleria, so we ended up wading through insane crowds to go to the few stores I really wanted to check out. Like the Apple Store, which was packed:

The Galleria was decked out for Christmas.

The weather on Sunday was pretty nasty, so Palmer suggested I leave at 1pm, which would have landed me back in Shreveport around dark. Of course, I didn’t take his advice. Instead, we did some more shopping, most notably at my favorite bookstore, Half-Price Books. Look what I found on the clearance rack!

Palmer got a photo of me taking this one:

On Facebook, he labeled it, “The wild Lindsay Hickman blogs her kills before whisking them to her cave to be devoured,” which, I think, is pretty funny.

After a less-exciting trip to a second Half-Price Books (in which I snagged a copy of Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood), I headed home through the dark and the rain and the lack of interstate. Palmer won’t be home until Friday.

Every time I go to a big city, I remember how much I liked living in one. Sure, New Orleans, even before Katrina, is small compared to Houston, but at least there was Whole Foods and a bigger Barnes and Noble. And a La Madeline and an Apple Store, and, and, and. On Saturday night, Palmer and I went to a bar I really liked called The Next Door.  We were talking about Houston, and he agreed that if I finish my Thesis Monster and an MLIS (so I can get a full-time job), we can move there. And when Palmer says he’ll do something, he does it. Which is as rare as it is awesome.

Now, with fresh incentive to finish said Thesis Monster, I’ve actually made some progress. Which means a trip to Houston that turned into a shopping spree might be responsible for my finishing the Thesis Monster and, of course, getting me out of Shreveport, both of which are good things.

Saturday was awesome. We went to my second-favorite restaurant IN THE WORLD, Sake Cafe, for a late lunch. I finally got some decent squid salad – I hadn’t had good squid salad in years. Then I got a tasty, tasty bento box dinner – we’d just missed the lunch menu, which would have saved me a good deal of money. I wish Shreveport had good Japanese food.

I had to take a nap after that meal.

Then, it was prep time. Saturday was my ten-year high school reunion. I wore heels. And makeup. And jewelry.

We rented out the Saloon at the Bourbon Cowboy with an open premium bar. I had more fun than I’ve had in years. About forty of my class of sixty-something showed up, and we had a blast. It was really cool to catch up with several people I hadn’t talked to in years.

I lifted this picture from a classmate’s profile:I didn’t take many photos at all, which is kind of weird for me.

I especially like this one:
And then there were the videos, like this one, which I strongly suggest you view without sound because your head just might explode if you listen to them.

Really, though, much of that night is a blur. We had the bar to ourselves until ten, and then the general public came in and ruined things. You can see some of them in the group photo above: the girl who forgot half her shirt was not with us. Once too many of them came in, we all moved elsewhere, to the Goldmine, which is eight blocks away on Dauphine Street. I didn’t have any problems with my heels until that dangerous trek. Here I was, not having worn heels in ten years, drunkenly stumbling down Bourbon Street with forty other girls. By the time we got to the Goldmine, I thought I might die, and we left reasonably soon after that – pretty soon involves dancing and a couple additional beverages. Eventually, we gathered ourselves, called a cab, and drove back to Metairie. There was an interesting adventure at my friend Rosie’s house that I’ll refrain from telling you about.

I slept so well that night.

Oh wait: I forgot to mention my souvenir. I now have a blue toenail, and shoes are really painful. On Sunday morning, I had to borrow Sneha’s flip flops until we could go to Walmart to find some cheap ones for me to wear home because I simply could not wear shoes. All that was competely worth it, of course, since I had so much fun.

I should be reading The Sun Also Rises, but I’m at work, and people won’t stop talking. So here’s part two of Friday in New Orleans.

So. After the Apple store, etc, things got interesting. Sneha and I went uptown to meet a classmate neither of us had seen in ten years. We went to the PJ’s near Magazine and Jefferson, where we hung out almost every day after school. That was weird in itself. I hadn’t talked to this classmate at all, and Sneha had only begun talking to her recently. I was so convinced things would be awkward since we didn’t exactly get along while we were in high school. Ten years makes a huge difference, though, and we had a lot of fun.

When PJ’s closed at nine, which seems unreasonably early to me, we all went to my very favorite restaurant in the whole world, Lebanon’s Cafe. Seriously. This is my favorite restaurant. Mona’s in Shreveport was a cheap knock-off, though for some reason, Mona’s usually beats Lebanon’s in the Greek/Lebanese section of the Gambit‘s annual Best of New Orleans feature. I had a falafel appetizer and a gyro sandwich, like I usually do when I go there. Oh God, it was tasty. And after the carnage:

That was my Friday. Oh, it was so lovely. Every time I go to New Orleans, I want to figure out how to move back down there. Maybe I’ll get lucky, and in SEVEN YEARS I’ll get a job teaching at Tulane or Loyola. That’s a long time.

The drive here was…interesting. I didn’t leave Shreveport until 5:45 or so, so most of my drive was in the dark. I. hate. driving. in. the. dark. Especially when it’s raining, which it was for at least half the trip. At one point, all I could see was the backside of the 18-wheeler in front of me. I was surrounded by thunderstorms. I took a video, hoping to show the CONSTANT lightning, but was unsuccessful. So here’s another one:

I made it to Sneha’s, in one piece, around 10:30. We goofed off for a long time. I slept better than I have in months.

So much for Thursday.

Yesterday was awesome. Sneha’s parents are out of town for a wedding, and we’re staying in their house. Before they left, her mom cooked. I had this lovely uppittu, which I think might be my new favorite food, for breakfast yesterday. I’m going to try making it when I get home. (Sneha suggested this site for southern Indian recipes.)

After this lovely breakfast, we went on a field trip to the New Orleans DMV. I tweeted that I was sure we’d die there. It seemed half the city was there – we stood in a line for over a half-hour just to get to the desk where they give you the ticket. Here’s what Sneha thought about that.

We were there for almost two hours. There were plenty of interesting people to watch, or we probably would’ve gotten bored. In the end, of course, Sneha was victorious:

After that, we had a tasty, tasty lunch at la Madeleine. It’s the only chain I really like. Shreveport was supposed to get one at some point, but it fell through. I’m pretty sure it was supposed to be in the strip with Dick’s and DSW. Anyway, I had my first Napoleon in a couple years – except it was strawberry. The bakery woman said they don’t sell regular Napoleons anymore, which made me incredibly sad. Here’s the Napoleon mid-massacre. It was so tasty.

Then we went to Lakeside Mall. Since I moved away, they’ve added two parking garages and a Macy’s. I get disoriented every time I go there. But we went. Because there’s now an Apple store. Mind you, every time I go into an Apple store expecting the religious experience I should have, I’m disappointed. This one, specifically, appears to be the afternoon Catholic schoolgirl hangout. As Sneha said, the stools are just the right size to do each other’s hair. I made it out of the Apple store (and the mall) with only the things I “needed:” a new cover for my iPhone (which looks exactly like the old one) and a car charger. Yay!

My tenth high school reunion is this weekend. Creepy.

So I’m driving to New Orleans this afternoon. I’d have gone earlier, but I have to wait until five to pick up some jeans I had altered at the cleaner’s. I was going to do it myself, but, when I actually looked at the price-tag, I figured I should leave it to the professionals.

So off I go. I don’t visit New Orleans very often anymore – once or twice a year at most. Even though I lived there for twelve years, I feel rather awkward when I go back. I’m not quite sure why.

Anyway, this is a rather special occasion, and, sadly, I’ll have to dress up. Someone rented out a bar in the Quarter for Saturday night, which should be awesome, considering there’s an open premium bar. It could turn ugly, of course, since I just bought these lovely heels. I haven’t worn heels in ten years. The last time I wore them was my high school graduation, when I swore I’d never wear them again. My dress is awesome enough to warrant them though, and it looks pretty awkward in flats.

Wait. Why am I talking so much about heels?

Granted, I do suffer from the all-too-common woman-disease, the lust for shoes. Which, I think, is pretty funny because I’m so not like that. You see my chucks in the bottom corner of the photo. That’s what I wear. My lust is, sadly, not for the shiny, expensive shoes that everyone else wants. Or maybe that’s a good thing.

Enough about shoes. I’m driving to New Orleans tonight. This should prove an interesting trip as I haven’t seen most of these people in ten years. Not that I’ve really wanted to. There are about five people out of the sixty or so I’m interested in seeing. But I bet it’s like that for most people going to reunions.

By the way, I blame my newfound textiness wholly on the education majors.

I’m in South Dakota for three weeks visiting my dad and stepmother. I haven’t done much beyond sit around the cabin and go to the bar at night. Here are some of the photos I’ve gotten so far. I think I’ve taken more pictures in the few days that I’ve been here than I did for the entire two weeks last year. The most interesting thing I think I’ve gotten is a 360 degree panorama of the cabin (of course it’ll look better if you look at it bigger):

Yesterday, the forest service was burning wood from trees they’d thinned out, and it looked like sunset all day.

My dad got some hay to attract deer to the backyard. There’s one out there now. I got a decent picture this morning (well, at least as decent as you can get through a window).

Last night we went to a party at the bar my dad’s been going to for years, but Lindsay-who-always-has-a-camera left her iPhone at the cabin and didn’t bring the Nikon. I didn’t realize how stupid that was until I got there and saw the huge setup for what I was sure would be a horrible band. Funny thing was that they weren’t too bad – for a cover band in Rapid City. But alas, there are no pictures.

I haven’t organized the pictures yet, so there’s no set to post.

Charlotte, Jacob, and I went to Texarkana yesterday to take some pictures. On the way down Highway 71, we discovered that Louisiana, without any federal funding, is trying to extend I-49. I really like the colors in this one:

I was tempted to use my l33t h4x0r skillz to take the wires out, but I decided I like them.

We got to Texarkana around 3 and headed downtown. Here are my favorites (and here’s the set):

This weekend, Aaron and I went down to Austin for the Maker Faire. We spent two days exploring lots of really interesting (and often really weird) stuff from robots to a lunar colony. It was Nerdville – and totally awesome. Here are some photos, and here’s the set.