Two Point Two

And it has been two days since my last post--New Orleans is still great. Jason has to work today, as he did Monday, Tuesday, and Yesterday (Wednesday), so I've been on my own during the day. Usually I go back to sleep for about an hour or so after he goes to work, but today we decided that I would get up. So Now I'm sitting in the CC's right by Jason's house on the free wifi and getting ready to do some homework and such. I really need to figure out what this summer is going to consist of, aside form working at the Winery. Speaking of the Winery, outside, at Cafe Rani, there are the same plastic tables and chairs that we have at work. I might need another job, just to make a few extra bucks while I am in town. Anyway.
New Orleans: On Monday, I went on a long walk, 2.2 miles to be exact, from Jason's house to the Whole Foods at Magazine and Arabella. I wanted to get out of the house, so I decided to go buy some Quinoa and other stuff for dinner and get lunch there. While I sat and ate my salad, the rain began to pour. Well crap, I thought, but I knew that it would let up if I wait. So I waited, walked around, looked at food, at wine, until it stopped. I found the Aussie Viognier that I looked for in Bloomy for $9.99. I might take some home. Anyway, so I started to head home, and Evan called me to see if I wanted to hang out, because he was leaving NOLA Tuesday. So he picked me up and we drove to the Ninth Ward, and I saw destruction. It was very humbling. When I saw where the levee is, it became obvoius that the place is a flood plain. We didn't see a soul aside from a few very sparse work crews. Many houses had lifted off of their foundations and moved feet, yards, even blocks away. I saw the bottom of a house. A few cars in trees. A boat on a house. The Ward is a huge neighborhood, and everyone is gone. And it's not the only place like that. It's really hard to fathom the real insanity of it all, because I never went there while there were people living there. Anyway, enough of sadness.
I came home, made some quinoa and brussel sprouts for dinner, had some Argentinian Syrah, and hung out with my man. Tuesday, the weather was gorgeous, and I slept in a little, and sat on my butt all morning until about 2:00, and I decided to go on a walk up Washington to Prytania, which, both are beautiful Garden District streets, past the amazing cemetary on Washington. I went to the Garden District Book Shop, and did not find what I needed, but it was cute. Then I walked down Prytania, where we are going to live someday. Prytania is a street that isn't a tiny side road, but it's not St. Charles, so it's still nice and quiet, a little richy-rich, but beautiful and safe. I'd like to get a nice humble place there. I talked to mom on the phone then turned left down Louisiana to get back to magazine. When I got there, I went left and then decided to stop by Martin Wine Cellars which is only a few blocks west of Louisiana on Mag & Aline. I had to go there because it shares my name and sells wine. It also sells a lot of the same stuff that we cell at the Winery. So I meandered around the shop, looked at everything, was very impressed by the perfect variety, good balance of whites and reds, sprinkled with sparklers and a few roses, unlike Big Red, which is mostly reds unless the region is redless (like Germany or Alsace). Then some guy who works there came up to me and pointed to some French white and talked about how good and unique it was, I think it was a Languedoc or something. Then he coersed me over to the Italian section. Remember that I never asked about anything or said anything. He pointed me to this Sicilian white called Insolia (the name of the grape), and said that it's not like chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, or pinot grigio. I asked him about body, oak, and food, and then he realized that I sort of knew what I was talking about. Then I told him about the Winery and that I'm in town and love New Orleans' wine stores and that I was impressed with his store's wide selection, which I appreciate. He told me tha this Insolia would be on sale on Friday (not that it needed to be, it was already $11.99). I told him that I'd be back and I'd check it out. So I left and was very pleased that he so emphatically recommended something unique and cheap, and I appreciated it, and that gesture alone convinced me to buy it. Also, I saw a bottle that would be great for Miss Amy. I walked home, checked out Sip, which is only a few blocks east, and while I was there a couple had a quesiton about the label on a Chateneuf-du-Pape, and I was able to explain , maybe in too much detail, what the label stood for and what the wine was like. They bought it and liked it when they opened it outside. I should totally work there. When Jason got home, we chilled, and then went to Sip 'n' Spin, where we tried six wines. They were good, especially the Malbec from Argentina, but we hadn't eaten dinner, and you can bet that I was drunk really fast. The guy pouring poured was super nice and went to get us some real glasses (and nice big Riedel ones, too), but he poured huge tastes, equivalent to a small glass of wine for me. And we drank them too fast. So we needed to eat ASAP. Lebanon Cafe, here we come! We had the lovely sauteed veggie platter and a hummus appetizer (my favorite hummus EVER!!!!!!) and some Lebanese Tea (tea with pine nuts and rose water). Mmm, but then I was full and we were still a little tipsy, so when we got home we totally fell alseep at like 10:00 pm. At midnight I woke up and got ready for bed for real, and we went to sleep good and early. I ended up sleeping until about 9:00 am the next morning, enough sleep for me. Yesterday, Wednesday, I did my regular morning walk to CC's for some coffee, ate some oat bran hot cereal with dried blueberries and honey, and watched a little Ellen and then showered and got ready for my day. My day was a walk down Magazine again. I stopped at Beaucoup Books, no luck, then walked more and went into a few more stores, down to Octavia Books, no luck, but I did buy The Accidnental Connesour, an entertaining book about the wine world. So I went back to Whole Foods, which I have the biggest crush on, and got some salad and some shrimp salad after a long time of browsing their lovely selection of ready-to-eat food stuffs. I went outside, where it was actually a little chilly in the shade with the breeze. After lunch I headed back down Mag, went in a few stores, got a small coffee at the CC's at Mag & Jefferson, sat outside and wrote for about an hour in my notebook. When I picked up to leave, I walked the for a long time, stopped at the wine cellar for the Insolio and one other bottle, and headed home. When I got home, I did a lot of reading until Jason arrived from work, then we cuddled and I went for an amazing dinner. Lola's, on Esplanade in MidCity, is a Spanish restaurant, specializing in Paella (!!!). They impressed me immediately, by taking my wine (by the way, BYOB is the best thing ever), opening it, and putting it in an ice bucket to keep it very cold. We ordered appetizers of a bown of Ajoblanco soup (cold almond soup with grapes as garnish) and a Crabmeat appetizer (crabmeat on an avacado with some aoli and romaine). Both were amazing, but he Ajoblanco was so unique, garlicky, smooth, and strange, I am now obsessed. It also tasted very light and healthy while being creamy at the same time. Oh, and the Insolio surpassed what I thought it would be, and it went perfectly with everything. We shared a meduim seafood paella, which was incredible, absolutely perfect. Cooked to perfection, moist, and the perfect amount. All in all, an amazing dinner. Then we came home, sleepy at about 10:00 and muddled around and fell asleep a little before midnight. And today, I woke up at about 8:00-ish with Jason and here I am! Yay! Life is good and I think I should move to New Orleans. Enough said.