The last time I was in NOLA we went out for live sushi, it was one of the best meals I have ever had and one of the best times as well. It was Connie, Erin, G and I. We wandered around the Garden District on the same day as the sushi. Erin and I had the live sea scallopps and when you tapped it with your chopstick it actually moved. It was the freshest tasting morsel I have ever put in my mouth and tasted like a clean ocean.

We also went to the Quarter, where Connie and I entered a dance contest for free beer. Little did we know, "dance contest" in New Orleans means "stripper contest". We chose to pay for our drinks.

Man, that was a fun weekend.

I worry about the people and pets in Louisiana, Mississippi and Fla- the trip to clean up after Hurricane Charley has forever changed me. I remember all the homeless animals in the make shift shelter behind the operations center, it absolutely broke my heart. Working 18 hour days and being away from Zippy right after we adopted him made me even more emotional about the whole thing. I could not believe how many displaced animals there were. Look at these guys - there were rows after rows of hundreds and hundreds of cages.

The people in Florida reminded me of mean zombies. They area walked around looking confused and angry. Those feelings soaked into your skin and I felt stressed, sad and helpless the whole time I was there. People had been without water, electricity, phones or clean clothes for weeks. Enough talkign about getting a generator, I'm going to buy it. We are not going to find ourselves in that position.

I hope that New Orleans is not demolished. It's one of my favorite cites in the world, Rob has never been and I want to take him there with me, but it's going to be pretty icky for a while - there is going to be floating scunge everywhere. Ugh, the streets of NOLA are the most disgusting tings I have ever seen. They were a constant mix of spilled hurricanes, rainwater, vomit and misc food, cigarette butts and urine. It was pretty bad before the hurricane hit, I can only imagine what backed up swears and drains will do for that area. Ugh....

Suprise shower

The mystery present was actually the polker set - like I thought. Kudos to me.

Megan and Tiffany were in town on Friday night so I went out with them and sucumbed to "lets do a shot" and "one more bar". I was shaky on Saturday which was pretty funny since when I got to mom's house there was a suprise shower for me. Good think I went with the linnen instead of the comfy jammies I would have prefered to be wearing.

I was totally blown away by how far people came for the shower. My sister from California, Connie took my godson on his first flight to make it from Florida, pregnant cousins, grandparents and aunts from NY, PA and NC. It was amazing and interesting to see the different sets of friends and family hanging out - weddings are truly about bringing worlds together. My godson is just starting to walk and he took a liking to Grandma's walker. I looked over and he was holding on to the walker staring at Grandma and she was completely charmed by him.

I can't belive how many presents we got, it's very overwhelming. I feel a little bad that everybody spent so much money but I suppose I really didn't care how expensive the presents were for any of the weddings or showers I have been to in the past. I got a little bit sassy and registered at Sephora which was a total treat for me.

Since the shower was on Saturday, I got to spend time with my sister and Connie on Sunday which was awesome but really rushed. I love that everybody was there and I want to spend hours talking to everybody on a one on one basis but I better put that thought out of my mind since weddings are not the place for deep intellectual conversations.

I got another microdermabrasion last night and I don't think it looks as good as the first one. My skin is a little more raw this time and I do'nt notice the 'miraculous' change like I did last time. Maybe today is the recovery day and tomorrow I will have perfect skin. Today I just look a little sunburnt/puffy.

I have had the urge to go look at my dress again, actually - it's the veil. I want to look at the veil again, I absolutely LOVE it and would like to prance around the house in it. I have decided to have my hair up like this and Connie pointed out the hair do actually matches my dress.

I just talked to 2 friends who went to Playa Del Carmen/Cozumel and wish Rob would revisit his opinion of Mexico. I loved that area and had such a great time when I went. It was cheap and it sounds like it's still a fun place to visit. The people there were a little bit creepy - there was a wierd German guy there with his girlfriend and they both bragged that they shaved thier entire bodies, they did have eyebrows and hair on thier head but according to them that was all. Stubble makes me itch all over, I can't fathom stubble everywhere. Then there was this strange woman there who had the wierdest piercing I had ever seen and this was at least 10 years ago before it was acceptable to have a belly button piercing. She had a hoop that went through the skin on her breast bone so the piercing hung in the same place as a charm on a necklace would hang. It was very wierd. Oh yeah and then there was the wierd 'local' guy who told me that his saliva would cure the horrible jellyfish sting I got on my chest. I wasn't drunk enough to believe that one. When we left we assumed that Playa Del Carmen was where all the perverts and wierdo's went to holiday. It's pretty funny that I am wishing to go back..... jeez am I turning into a perverted wierdo?

The first present came in

We decided to have all the registries send our packages to my work address. If a crate and barrell box sat on the front porch I have a sneaky suspsicion that one of the local crack heads would swipe it.

Anyway - I got my first Crate and Barrell box today. It has been lifted, hefted for weight, gently shook for substance and I think it's silverware or the polker set.

Durring our walk last night, Zippy started to get sketched out about a trash can. We looked over and there was a mouse circling the trash so we let Zippy get closer to catch the scent of the mouse. Big mistake. Apparently, Zipp-o-potomus'es are not only good at catching bunnies, baby birds and bugs.... they are good mousers. He zipped after the mouse- running through Rob's legs and getting him all cought up in the leash and actually caught a mouse on the run. Rob grabbed Ziop and pried his mouth open then shook his head untill the mouse fell out of his mouth and before either of us could grab the mouse off the ground - Zippy hit the deck and grabbed the mouse in his mouth again.

We finally shook the mouse out of his mouth but the entire thing was so funny we laughed the entire walk home.

Relatively Quiet

Things have been somewhat quiet lately - the incredibly long checklist has been slowly but surely shrinking with some help.
The dress came in and it looks exactly like it should and the veil looks awesome with it. What a releif!

I went to the make up trial last Sat and was very unhappy with how they did the makeup. What part of I don't want foundation did she miss and I have come to the conclusion that shimmer eyeshadow is just not attractive once get over 35. It reminded me of the nightmare florist who said she COULD do the bouquet the way I wanted it but she wouldn't do it that way. She would do it her way.

Argh.