again. shimmer by fuel. had a long week this week. found out my cat was infested with fleas, my poor baby. luckily i have a family willing to take care of her while i deal with the situation i'm in. got an email from all the parties i owe money to, thats always fun. also, the one place that has actually felt warm and welcoming to me over the past month had a slight ripple. i feel as though i'm an excellent judge of one's likes, dislikes, interest, and can often find a common frame of reference. black, white, indian, native american, body builders, musicians, 12 year olds and 60 year olds. i've always been very good at reading people and finding that common ground, then 'exploiting' it, not sure if thats the word i want to use. its not done to harm anyone, more to entertain them or myself with conversations where we both are familiar with the content. so, this one individual didn't follow suit. it normally wouldn't bother me, but i really wanted this guy to be a friend. i kind of need him to be. its imperative for my comfort and everyone's happiness. which is my personal goal, to all be happy and comfortable, by any means necessary. so, after the long week, i had to work saturday night, had some friends meet me there, i did okay that night, made a little money, then won a few bucks on the poker machine. thats always nice. i wake up sunday and someone suggested a sunday-funday, she didnt have to do much convincing, i was down. there's nothing really to do in LaPlace, so lets hit the quarter we thought. we got up, dressed, picked up the items necessary for travel to the quarter. well, except for an inspection sticker which is 2 months overdue. that and a license thats been expired since december 18th. oh well. lets ride. we stopped at the family business and grabbed a bloody mary and a captain and sprite for the ride, totally legal, i swear. we just held them for the ride, we didnt drink them. what do you think we are delinquents? i spend the 20 dollars there and fill up the busted ass silver xle camry with gas for the first time in a while. 50 dollars. ugh. anyways, we were on our way. if i remember right we started with some stevie wonder, then a little outkast, sisqo, and as we arrived to the french quarter 'cherub rock' came on as we tried, desperately to find a parking spot, a free one. no luck. we paid 20 dollars to park in a lot, that was shitty, but oh well. first stop, the tropical isle for a hand grenade, why not? it was good. seemed warm, but there was ice, so I'm not sure how that happens. we made a brief stop at my cousin robby's place en route to the city and his wife amy was there also. they are two of my favorite people to hang with. we've been to a few tiger games together, always a good time. digression, i know. back to the quarter. so, i just enjoyed my hand grenade and we were on our way. we stopped at several other places, razoos, cats, blacksmith shop, chart room, amongst several shops. we met up with my friend randy, who i've only met once, but he's a good guy. so, my girlfriend, randy, and i are marching throughout the quarter when i spotted an music store. i havent purchased a cd or any media in quite some time due to the piracy that was available to 'someone i know'. they had the jimi hendrix album 'electricladyland' on vinyl. yep, i'm gonna need that. I purchased the record and we were back on the prowl. there were several artist's paintings on the fence somewhere in the quarter, they were asking entirely too much for them, so i passed. then another artist was actually sketching the fence near where he was set up. i complimented his work and told him to have a nice day. i moved about the crowd that was growing pretty fast. they have
some shouting contest, 25 participants only, and you have to scream some word, not sure i know what it was though. i saw the word, just dont recall. it wasnt that important to store in the old memory bank. so, randy was the lucky 25th contestant, we got there just in time. being the super friendly new orleanian, randy is, he gave his spot to a lady from out of town. i thought to myself,"sweet! not only was that polite, but now i dont have to sit through this entire contest." I had to go to the bathroom pretty bad at this point, the corner bar had a public restroom, not too dirty. this is surprising in the city. most bathrooms in the quarter are capital G-ross, gross. anyhow, on my walk to the restroom, i was passing by that same artist i had complimented several minutes earlier, he was watching the contest, facing away from the sketch he had completed. His steel folding chair was a good 2 and a half feet from the easel he was drawing on earlier. I simply stepped on and over his chair to cut through the crowd, which was still growing for this contest. this guy turns to me and says,"Now thats just stupid!" I thought,"really?" this old crappy artist that i complimented earlier to try to make his day was now gonna pop off at the mouth. not to this guy. I say to him inquisitively,"what was that?" He says,"You heard me, thats stupid! you cant just walk around!?!" to which i responded in the most appropriate fashion i could. "Sir, i'm sorry. I didnt really wanna cut through this crowd and me stepping over your chair was harmless. With all due respect, if you ever call me stupid again, I'll slap the taste of dick so far out of your mouth, you'll need to pack up your shitty doodles and go looking for three days." he replies,"just like a LSU fan", I cut him off there, "no sir, just like LSU's last quarterback and not afraid to kick you in the face after i take you down." I turned to the people in the vacinity, and said, "dont buy any of this guys crap, he's a real dick and he cant draw better than a 8 year old." then i was off to the bathroom, finally. relief. then back to meet the two others, still watching the contest, making sure to pass by that same artist. I went around the easel as he requested earlier, i'm not disrespectful. I listened to him and respected his space, but had to be sure to tell any new onlookers near him, not to buy any of his crap. its the only thing i could do. next, we head off from the contest and hit another record store where i was able to pick up Bob Marley "Legend" and Jimi's "Axis:Bold as Love". Two of my favorite albums of all time. I think its those two, Stevie Wonder's "Songs in the key of life", and Alice in Chains "unplugged" and "Jar of Flies". So, I dont have a record player, but I felt I should buy them. We made the block and put the vinyl in my trunk and made our way to another bar where they had a mechanical bull. Just FYI, fellas and ladies. The guys who control the thing are in total control of how foolish or sexy they make you look. I mean, this high school dropout couldnt make me look bad, but he damn sure made sure i fell off of the damn bull on the fly. I rode three times for a collective 27 seconds. Meanwhile, the girls who looked good climb aboard, with ass-istance, if you smell what i'm cooking. The bull mysteriously no longer bucks nearly as hard and cant move as fast and as if that wasnt bad enough, there's a black gentleman with a can of oxygen, spraying the girls hair, shirts, skirts, etc. as they gently take the 4 minute ride. Reminiscent of a see-saw. It was dumb. that pretty much wrapped up our journey to the quarter, Randy went on his way and as Lilly and I turned to leave, I ran into my old friend Tootie. So, I guess we can have one more drink with them. We sat on the back patio at Pat O'Briens, home of the famous New Orleans drink, the hurricane. I had a redbull, I was driving and kind of tired, sure there was vodka in there as well. come on. its the french quarter. so, we enjoyed our beverage and said our good-bye's to my old friends Tootie and the city of New Orleans. Pretty successful day. No one got out of control, no one went to jail, and we left at 730. On our way back in, we stopped at the bar where my brother was working in LaPlace and said hello, always great to see him. Then it was off to my good buddy Steve's place to crash for the night. Great day. It was no St. Patty's day, but it was fun. We all had a blast. Seems that every time Lilly and I hang out, we have a good time. Whether its out in Baton Rouge, the grocery store, the car rides with me cranking the volume to the max and singing my heart out, cooking together, sitting in the room talking, with the TV off, or, get this, watching the rock do his thing on raw. We have plans to watch Wrestle Mania on April 1, praying Cena knows his role. The great one will put the boots to his candy ass. I hope. My prediction, Rock wins in a battle, then raises Cena's arm to try to get the fans to respect him. Fans of the Rock tend to do anything else he wants us to do. If you dont get it, its a 'team bring it' thing. you should check out Raw tonight at 8 and see the rock do what he does best, lay the smackdown, with words anyways, on Cena's candyass. til next time. tell the one's you care about that you love them, we may not see tomorrow. live for the moment. leave the past behind and dont plan a future you're not guaranteed. later. thanks for reading. oh, one more thing. that paper i wrote for a junior in college on concepts introduced as i wrote his paper, i got a B. Technically, I'm a college freshman. happy monday people.
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