Weekending!

Above is one of my favorite architectural characteristics of New Orleans: Plants spilling over beautiful balconies that are attached to pastel houses. Mmmm, the Big Easy.

This weekend was great! Friday at work was pretty typical: I met with my boss, worked on my Excel manual, caught up on our 9th Ward Beautification Project (the free plants and trees initiative I mentioned a few entries ago), and entered some volunteer data into the system. I found out that I'll be assigned to creating the first ever NENA newsletter. NENA feels that part of the problem with rebuilding the Lower Ninth is the lack of distribution of information, so this seems like the obvious next step. I'm thinking I'd like to interview as many Lower Ninth Ward residents for the publication as possible; doing so would service both my interests and the integrity of the newsletter itself.

On Friday, some group members and I were invited to a Shabbat dinner by a friend of a friend. The group of people at the dinner represented a wide swath of America; there was literally no region that was not represented. Strangely enough, it was still quite a small world in that house-- I ran into one of my coworkers and met two people from my (fairly small) hometown! The unebelievable connections between people in New Orleans are one of my favorite things about the city. Unfortunately, while the dinner was supposed to be a potluck, almost everyone brought beer. Needless to say, it was unlike most Shabbat dinners I have been to.

Before hitting the city on Saturday, I decided to check my mail on a whim. Inside my mailbox, I found a package from Bryna:



(Jenna-
The murder rate is only high in New Orleans because of the gators.

Look out.
Love, B)





















A friendly warning and gator socks. I have the best friends.

We left for the French Quarter in order to attend the combination seafood, tomato, and Zydeco festival that was happening that day. The streets were bustling with good food, good music, and sweaty, stinky humanity. It was wonderful. We ate at The Gumbo Shop (I forget the street name, but it's right near the Cathedral near the French Market). My roast beef poboy was indescribable. A few pictures from the day:



Morgan (sideways!) enjoying some spicy crawfish rice. . .














Tents with delicious, delicious seafood beneath them. . .




















The Zydeco band, complete with voluntary dancers. . .



















And Alex and Oleg (stubbornly sideways) with a new friend.