The day began simply enough, taking a jog and shower in the state park, after calling and mapping all the listing in the Sunday paper of rooms for rent. I scheduled a few showings, ate lunch, and headed into town.
3 hours later, I wimped out a little bit on the housing part. I decided to rent a place that is not the cheapest I found, but is in a safer and more convenient neighborhood. Now I'm on the hook for $175/week. But it's an easy bike or trolley ride to downtown - even walking it is not bad. Big room with a private bath - it should be a good home base where I don't have to drive all the time. The alternatives where in neighborhoods where I and my truck would really stick out and I did not feel very safe, and I would necessarily have to drive or take cabs everywhere.
Having finished that, including moving in my stuff and getting a certified check to pay in advance. I turned my attention to the big game, now only 2 hours away. Nothing fancy here - I just rode the trolley to Canal Street. After watching the first half with some friendly Buckeyes, the game was starting to look bad, so I walked over to the Superdome. Now, it took me most of half-time and the third quarter to get over there and find an opportunity, but I was successful in finding some security personell getting slack and a gap in the fence of the smoker's corral. In I went to watch the 4th quarter! Wow, what an impressive sight and sound! It's the noise that is impossible to convey. Exciting stuff, and OSU had a chance to make a game of it, but alas - it was not to be..After the game, I walked with the crowd and the bands back to the French Quarter, where I took in the spectacle for another three hours. Crazy, crazy, huge crowd. Police on horseback, beads and drinks everywhere, all kinds of music blasting from every bar and restaurant. All good fun to people-watch, drink, and enjoy the music. But around 2am, my night ended when I either did not drink enough, or drank too much, and let my guard down. It really hit me that everybody out there was there with somebody. Their friends (at least, they started out that way..), couples, classmates, etc. And this made me feel very lonely, amidst all these people. And that was it, once that feeling gets in, I can't break out of it on my own. The choices for guys like me become drink to numbness, strip clubs, or go home. I'm not really a person for the first two choices, so I walked home.
I suppose I could have lasted longer, had I really gotten into the party, and been super-outgoing and trying to pick up women, or something. I guess my heart's not really in being that way. It does not help that I don't really fit in very well with the people that are out there. All the people my age are at home with the kids, or dancing with their beau, or just tending the bar. So I meet college students, or older people of means that are here on vacation - but it's hard to connect more than superficially with them, and like I said before -they're all here with some other group. I saw some of my contemporaries on the way home, drinking quietly in bars, playing video poker, having discontented "conversations" into cell-phones.
Ah well, such is life. I can't be too hard on myself, since I'd only been in NO for 36 hours. And I had 6 hours of fun, to only 1 hour of crappiness. So it was a good night!
Now to get on with finding a way to pay for these luxurious digs, and finding some fun people to hang out with a month from now at Mardi Gras!
5 comments:
I didn't realize you were actually AT the game. You're a pretty resourceful fellow. I'm impressed.
I like your new digs!
-Nathan
Wow - that sounds like a lot of excitement. I'm a little disappointed to read that you are a OSU fan but no one is perfect.
And give yourself a break - it takes time to meet folks and establish some roots - you're just the seed right now.
Be careful and enjoy yourself!
Marcia
Hey Mike,
You are not that old!!! As for the money situation, I hear that male stripping is a somewhat lucrative profession and with Mardi Gras around the corner you can always try out for "Guys Gone Wild!"
In another note, I am not sure if you know it or not, but some of us are vicariously living through you and your adventures, so if you feel too old, what about your contemporaries who have nothing to do but look forward to your blogs!
Take care of yourself man and remember that it is NEVER too early to start stocking up on beads... :)
That's a cool looking lil room. 700 a month is not so bad as a by-the-week sort of thing. How long are you staying in N.O.? A mere month maybe?
Ha! You esnuck in... I love sneaking into events and movie theatres(though I rarely get a chance to flex my techniques in my old age).
I hope you got a hotdog or pretzel at the game. The food was always my favorite part about sports games. Actually, for me, that's true about 80% of all activities in general. Food runs my life, clearly.
Remember what the superdome was lookin like a few years ago-
http://www.nerdylorrin.net/jerry/Katrina/photos/Katrina-NewOrleansSuperdomeStragglersWait4Evac-SunPiercesBrokenRoof-AFP-JamesNielsen.jpg
^^^Hey! You don't allow html img tags
The above link no worky. Anyway, google superdome katrina and get all these photos with "Jesus-beams" shining down from the busted roof and piles of litter and detritus and people.
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