Sunday, February 22, 2009

Well, I'm back....

...and I have to admit that I'm exhausted....today is Sunday, and I haven't gotten a single thing accomplished. We left on Thursday at 2pm...and arrived at our hotel at 11pm (after a brief respite while the hard to understand police officer wrote me my speeding ticket).

After we arrived there, we decided it would be fun to go out and check out the neighborhood. Now bear in mind, that when we got there, we ran into a parade that was taking place on Canal Street. That should have been a warning of how the rest of the trip would last.

So, we went out, cameras in hand, looking very much the part of tourists. The streets were so narrow, it was incredible to look at for the first time. Neither one of us had ever been to New Orleans before. Anyway, as we walked, we encountered some amazing architecture. Where you ask? Well, in the French Quarter, which is where our hotel was located.

So, as we walked around, we realized that it was COLD. So, we had to look for a jacket. We walked and walked around, until we finally found a street that had alot of activity. We walked in that direction, only to realize that it was PACKED. So, we continued looking, and realized we were on Bourbon Street. Who knew!?! Anyway, we found a jacket, and all was well with the world.

We decided that we wanted to explore more, but that our cameras were really in the way. So, we decided to head 2 blocks north to the hotel to drop them off. Along the way, I decided that I wanted get a picture of myself outside the gay bar that we had seen earlier. So off we went in that direction. Below is the result of our little "side trip". The men were very friendly and accommodating, and posed for a pic.

Well, we made it back to the hotel, and dropped off our cameras. Then we went back out again, headed to Bourbon Street of course. We walked back and forth on Bourbon, taking in all the local "scenery". It was alot of fun, but we did have to get some sleep before our class in the morning. So, we headed back to the hotel for some much needed rest. It was 2:30 when we made it back and crashed.

Next morning, we got ready and headed downstairs, only to discover that they couldn't find my vehicle. They left the building with ALL the keys that they had at the booth, and finally arrived back at the hotel with my car, after about 10 minutes. It makes me wonder where my rig was located for the evening.

Needless to say, we were in a hurry to make it to the other hotel for the class, so we drove and drove (gotta hate those one way streets), until we found the hotel. We made it in, only to discover that I had the wrong start time in mind. So instead of being 10 minutes late, we were 50 minutes early. Go figure.

Anyway, the class was JAM PACKED with information. It was crazy! We spent 6 hours actually working and taking notes. We had a pretty nondescript lunch and returned to finish the class, and get our Certification Certificates.

So, we tried to leave the area before it got crazy with parades, etc. Too late. It was 4pm, and we were blocked in the parking garage, because the hotel where the class was located, was on the path of the parade staging area. So, we were literally blocked for over an hour.....when we finally got out, we had trouble getting to I-10. Why? That's easy to explain. Half of the streets were blocked off, and the other half were one way streets heading in the WRONG direction. Needless to say, we didn't get out of New Orleans until 6:30.

Well, we finally got underway, only to discover that traffic still wasn't moving. Between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, we were literally at a dead STOP. On I-10 no less!! We just didn't understand what was going on at all. That is, until we got to Baton Rouge and while stopping for the dinner from h*ll, we overheard a customer saying that there was a parade in Baton Rouge, and that she had been trying for 3 hours to get out of Baton Rouge. The rest of the trip was uneventful, thankfully.

We made it to Dallas at 3:30am. I made it to bed at 4am. Had to be up early on Saturday to go to the Community Center Crop in Whitesboro. So, needless to say, we were a bit late to the crop. We got there at 11:30, which was after several stops along the way for some shopping.
We arrived at the crop, and I was relieved to finally be getting a chance to sit and relax. The rest of the crop was a blast. We had so much fun, and laughed so much. A special thanks to Shelley for my "man bag" in pretty pink. I'll be using it for my COPIC markers. Speaking of which, I LOVE this picture....hope you like it too....

And finally, I'll be teaching COPIC classes at Remember When. If you're interested, please keep an eye out on their webpage....check out the Calendar page. :)

So, until next time, I hope you have a RIPArts kind of day!!