weekend numero dos

Yesterday was a very New Orleans day. I'm totally a local now: I went running down the St. Charles streetcar tracks, because the sidewalk are for tourists, obvi. It was kind of fun dodging streetcars and seeing the half-buried mardi gras beads embedded in the dirt path. There was a heavy cloud cover and the humidity was oppressive until it finally rained, which was really refreshing.

I meant to go running in the morning before work but I slept in instead, so I was glad to have the time that afternoon. After showering I drove with several people in my group to meet Tatiana and a couple of her friends for dinner at Midway Pizza: the most delicious deep-dish pizza I've ever had. It was a late dinner so directly after, I drove everyone downtown to a concert at a nightclub. I would have joined them if I didn't have to work so early this morning. But being able to enjoy the market this morning was totally worth not being able to go out last night.

Tati and I ate breakfast together at 5:30am. We tried Creole cream cheese (like yogurt but not as sweet, and with the consistency of cottage cheese) on our cinnamon raisin toast (made from homemade bread from the market) and also ate some of the blueberries a farmer had given me at Thursday market. We got to the market at 6am and jumped in with helping set things up (as always). This week it was held inside a giant garage since the weather forecast was rain. I didn't like that as much since it got a little stuffy, and nothing is as nice as being outside, but at least we weren't under the blazing sun.

This market, Tatiana and I were in charge of one of the special Saturday events CCFM regularly hosts. We managed a cookbook swap while promoting upcoming market events. It didn't demand a lot of attention, which I didn't mind because people-watching at the market is really fun. And I am immensely grateful that Tati and I get along so well, because activities like that could be boring but instead are really fun because we get to just hang out and talk while doing our job.

Probably one of the highlights of my day was meeting this adorable farmer who gave me corn and a cantaloupe just because he was a sweetheart like that. He had blue eyes and curly hair and overalls and a precious country accent, the whole shebang. And this way of talking to you where he looks deep into your soul but smiles shyly the entire time in a way that just melts you. But then you see him talking like that to the old people who visit his table too, and you just laugh because he's charming like that. I didn't get his name, so in my head I call him Farm Boy (in the vein of Princess Bride— he can respond to everything I say with, "As you wish.") but on Tuesday I'm definitely talking to him again.

Later in the afternoon, several of us went to the Creole tomato festival downtown in the French Market. It rained, which was a disappointment, but I still managed to snag some sort of tomato and crab dish, which was delicious. And then we went to Cafe du Monde, which was perfect for the cooler weather.

We got back to the condo pretty late in the evening. Some of us showered and changed clothes (being damp and bedraggled from the rain) and a little later went out to The Boot, a bar Krissi and I had been to earlier in the week. I had a great time hanging out with the other Robbies, since we haven't been out in a big group like that since last weekend. As always, I also had fun meeting and talking to new people there as well.

I was really glad we went out, especially because we almost didn't. After getting back from the tomato festival, I was lying in my bed feeling so very comfortable and unmotivated to move. Krissi came upstairs and sat on my bed and said, "What do you want to do?" I looked up from my multiple fb chat conversations, groaned and stretched and snuggled deeper under the covers. I said, "I don't know... I'm pretty low on energy right now." She said, "Yeah, I could easily go to sleep right now." We sat there for a few moments, and then I suddenly jumped up and exclaimed, "What are we thinking? We're in New Orleans! We're going out." And she jumped up too and said, "We don't have many weekends here! We can't waste a Saturday night like this!" And then we went and motivated all the others to come with us, and ended up having a blast as always. Hurray for happy endings! (and for fun weekends)