Weekend in New Orleans

This has been a very interesting weekend. Debbie, Greg, Marianne, Rex and I flew down to New Orleans Thursday morning. It was hot as the dickens!! Or rather humid as all. So we went to the hotel and checked in. My room was ready – theirs wasn’t, so we put everything in my room. Then we started wandering downtown, looking for a place to eat. Most things weren’t open yet (it was pretty early), but finally we found a place and got food. The food wasn’t that good. I just had a burger and fries, and the fries weren’t quite done. Then we tried to get beverages, but most of the places weren’t open yet. We went over to the casino for about an hour – Greg was probably the big winner there. I was playing craps and did okay, but didn’t play any bigger bets. Then we went back to the hotel and rested for a bit before heading out again. We hung out on Bourbon Street, mainly at a place called Razzoo’s – where Greg did Karaoke to Kansas. We met up with Sandy and Sue and did some drinking. Eric and Ed sent us a text message when they were at the brew pub, so we met them there. They all had dinner and we were watching the Saints/Colts game (for the record, the Saints got clobbered). Then we headed back to Bourbon Street and met up with a guy from Greg’s work at the Absinthe house. That’s where Kim met us when she finally got in.

They were filming part of the show “K’ville,” which stands for Katrina-ville, on Boubon Street, so it was kind of interesting to see that. We asked if we could be in a scene, but they said no. We were trying to figure out what the show was, but no one could remember it.

After a while, I was tired, so I headed back to the hotel and read for a bit before going to sleep.

Friday, I had a conference call at 8:30, so I got up and hung out in the room until then. My call lasted about 5 minutes (the guy who is filing for unemployment didn’t make the call), then I headed downstairs. I ran into Debbie and Rex, and they said that Kim, Eric and Ed were at Café du Monde, waiting on Bill. I got a bit annoyed about that. They didn’t invite me to meet them or anything. I know – pretty childish of me, but that’s how they are. Debbie was feeling a bit hung over, so I asked her to let me know when she was mobile. So I went out walking. I walked over to the Farmers Market, but that wasn’t open. I walked for about an hour, then went and had breakfast. And after that (maybe an hour and a half after Bill landed), I got a text message from Ed. He said that they were at Café du Monde and asked where I was. I replied that I was wandering around. I was near them so I headed over there, to find them leaving. So that got me a bit pissed again. If I hadn’t been so near, I would have gotten over there and they wouldn’t have been there. Then Debbie called and she was right behind me. So we came back to the room.

Now, here’s the room setup. We have 3 rooms. Debbie, Greg, Rex and Maryanne are in one. Eric, Ed, Kim and Bill in the 2nd. I have the third. I was fine with that – that was mostly Eric’s doing. The beds aren’t big enough for the four of them to all sleep there. Everyone knows that. I was asked a few times if Kim was staying with me, but she had not talked to Eric about that at all. Bill had asked me one time if I had room for him and I said yes, but when I found out that Eric did reserve a room, I told Bill that Eric was probably expecting him to stay with Eric. Eric get really picky about things like that. He has to plan everything for himself, but he won’t let anyone know about it. Friday night, Kim and Eric shared one bed and Ed took the other one, and Kim wasn’t happy with that at all. I still didn’t say anything – that’s their deal. I was taking care of myself.

So later in the day, Ed asked who was in my room – I said just me. So he said he would come stay with me. And I think Eric was expecting that. I said okay for this time, but that’s the last straw with all of that. First of all, if I’m not good enough to be included in the initial planning of rooms, then why should I give up my room to help him out. I was totally fine with having my own room – I like that because I can be on my own schedule instead of someone else’s schedule. And he shouldn’t assume that I want to share my room. But he did that with tickets as well. He bought tickets for the game for the 4 of them for $175 each, then was able to get other tickets for an additional $45. And he was expecting all of them to pay $210 for the tickets. Unless Bill could sell them. How bogus is that? Bill wasn’t happy with that – he always has to do that leg work for Eric, and he never committed to buying 2 tickets. I told Bill that I had sent a message to Eric asking if he had extra tickets because I needed one and he never responded to me. So I bought one of Jeff’s tickets, which was a better seat.
Anyway, back to Friday. We were at the hotel, sitting outside while Bill got his stuff in the room. Then the 4 of them decided to roam, so they (finally) asked if I wanted to go with them. I was a bit snarky and asked if I was invited and both Kim and Eric said yes. So they knew I wasn’t quite that happy with them. We wandered all over, and ended up at The House of Blues for lunch. Again, not the greatest. Had the same thing – burger (overdone) and fries (overdone). I gave my fries to Ed. His burger was cold! Then we roamed again and went over to the casino. I was trying to explain to Bill how to play craps and poker. I had won at poker, but then lost it when I as explaining it to Bill. No biggie. Then we went back to the room to rest and freshen up before going out for the night.

We went to our bar from last time – Ryan’s to watch the Rutgers game. Kim and I got pizza for everyone for dinner. We were having a good ole time, drinking beers and watching Rutgers play well. Everyone ended up meeting us there, even Randy and Steve (the guys next to our tailgate). So that was cool. After the game, we left and headed over to Bourbon Street for another drink before heading back to the room.

Saturday, I met Rex, Greg and Sandy in the lobby and we went to get the 2 minivans. We then went back to the hotel and on the way, I ran into Jon and Pam on the street! So that was cool. They were also heading to the game so we tried to make plans to meet up later. We picked everyone up and headed to Baton Rouge. The couples were in one van, and the single folks were in my van. Bill was helping to navigate.

We got into Baton Rouge and met up with the people we were tailgating with. Kim and I finally got to talk and she was pissed at Eric again. Apparently Thursday night he kept trying to put his arm around her in bed and she got pissed at that. So Friday night she slept in the bed with Bill and Eric got mad. This just seems so high-schoolish! But she’s decided she’s done with football after next weekend (her nieces are coming to the game). Eric wasn’t talking much to her for part of the afternoon. It was so frickin’ hot outside. It rained a few times, but that just made things worse. At one time, me, Kim, Ed and Bill went back to the car and sat there for about 30 minutes, trying to cool off. But as soon as we got outside, it was extremely humid again. We hung out at the bar nearby a few times trying to get cool.

I won’t even talk about the game except to say that it sucked and we were royally outplayed. It was the worst loss in Beamer’s history as a coach. Enough said.

So going home is where I was getting mad. I was driving (Bill had offered but I was fine to drive). Because of the humidity, the windows kept fogging up. And the only way to get them unfogged is to keep the defrost on, but when I did that, I would get yelled at because it was too hot. Hello – isn’t it more important that I see outside to see where we were going?? It took over an hour before I could finally actually see outside. It was a long drive home – it took us an hour just to get on the freeway out of town!

So everyone basically sleeps most of the way. Fine, I can handle the drive, but I’m also getting tired and it would have been nice to have company. Then as we were nearing New Orleans everyone seemed to wake up. I asked if anyone knew where to get off and no one did. So we took one exit and that lead us downtown, but then I couldn’t remember how to get back to the hotel. So I turned on one street and I shouldn’t have. But no one said anything until after when I was asked why I turned where I did. I said that no one said anything else and then I shut up. Debbie called to see where we were and I told her the same thing – We got on one street and I made a wrong turn but no one said anything about it. So we finally got to the hotel. Rex and Maryanne took the first minivan back to the rental place, so Bill came with me to meet them.

As we were driving back from the game, Bill asked about the minivans and I said that I would drop them off at the hotel then go return the vehicle. He asked how I was getting back and I said either a cab or I would walk. He was the only one to volunteer to come with me. The only one.

Anyway, so we get to the rental car place and we’re cleaning out the van and of course my bag is there. You would think that the others would have taken it in – especially Ed, but no. So that made me mad. And I don’t know if one of them grabbed one of my shirts since it wasn’t in my bag. I didn’t check the back of the minivan when we left, but I don’t think Bill would have left it in there. But you never know. So I might be out a Tech shirt, which doesn’t make me happy.

Maryanne also was a bit upset because no one in the other van would call a cab for us. It would have been nice for someone else to do so, but…

So we got back to the room and I went out in the hall to read again (I did that the night before). And it was frustrating me again because why am I having to make a sacrifice when I got the room for me? But no, the light bothers Ed, so I leave. UGH!!

So here’s what I’m wondering. We’re trying to make our Georgia Tech plans. And it’s been a pain in the ass because we can’t get answers from people if they want to stay longer and go to the UGA/Troy game. So finally, Debbie got a reservation for Thursday night – for the two of them, me and Bill. But guess what happens – Eric finally tells us that he’s going to the game as well. So I told Debbie that and now we have to decide what to do about rooms. I think Eric should be getting his own room. We made these plans and he decided to join us after the fact. But no, I’ll be the one in my own room again. And I’m getting sick of that. I made the hotel reservation for Clemson – do you think he offered? No. But he’s staying in the room that I got. But he’s sleeping on the couch. I’m not giving up my bed for him.

Kim is also annoying me. She never offers to help with this kind of stuff. Lately Debbie and I have been doing all of it. Bill was supposed to make the Georgia Tech reservations but he flaked out on that. If we gave him enough grief, he would have made some, but we decided just to do it. But Kim never offers to help. She never offers to drive, or make plans or anything. She doesn’t have tickets and expects to get them from either Eric or me. And that’s getting a bit annoying as well. I think everyone should pull some weight. When I was asking for drivers for the game, Greg, Rex, and Sandy all offered. Then when we got here, Bill offered, and later on Eric offered. But nothing from her. Now, it was fine that Maryanne, Debbie or Sue didn’t volunteer because their husbands did. But both Ed and Kim should have offered. Just to be fair.

Oh, well. That’s the way it goes. Most of the time it is pretty funny to watch the dynamics. But things will have to change before everyone starts getting pissed off more than normal. We’ll see how long that takes.

Now I’m off to get food and wait for the rest to wake up to we can watch football. Hopefully today’s games will be better than last night’s games.

Oh, and I did get to spend time with Jenie! Now we have to make plans for our next girls’ weekend.