I’ve now been down in New Orleans for roughly two months. Some interesting things:

Visits: Yes, I love to see a familiar face or two. Rick made the trek all the way from CT, to attend an important conference on health care with Dianne. Who’d of thought? We had a temporary setback when the restaurant that had been recommended was inexplicably closed, but managed to find some okay grub (with a great view) on Burbon St. Rick, if you are reading this, next time I’m taking you to the Upperline (more on that below.) Later that night we visited the Polo Club, a fittingly named establishment, for some upscale entertainment and cocktails. It was a lovely night that I hope to repeat. // Kate and Nate also have come by casa lui Barison. While in town visiting Nate’s brother, who is working hard with Habitat, they all found some time to enjoy the culinary delights of the city. We visited Upperline restaurant, which I had been salivating over since visiting their website and perusing the menu. It wasn’t cheap, but it was all New Orleans. During the course of our meal we were greeted by the owner and the chef. Dishes included: turtle soup, gumbo, fried green tomatoes, lamb shank, seared tuna, etc… We topped off our evening of culinary delight with Blue Bell brand “Butter Pecan” ice cream, a sumptuous and fatty indulgence.

Parties: Tulane is a bit of a party school, and since law school is often equated with high school, there is lots to be done. I’ve been to a few birthday parties, quite a few happy hours, bar reviews, religious themed parties, pool parties, some seriously odd bars and one desert competition. As a poor student I’ve discovered two things: 1) if you look hard enough, you will find a drink special on whatever night of the week you may be craving libation, and 2) when one holds a party in one’s own house, all leftover goods become the property of said householder. Should you require any further details, feel free to contact me…

Trips: Not including my trip to Athens during the hurricane, I’ve gotten around a bit. A bike trip with the Environmental Law Society brought me and a handful of schoolmates to Lake Pontchartrain. The trip was leisurely and the only disappointment was the the amount of litter strewn about the lake-shore and the rather unpleasant condition of the water itself - there’s work to be done yet! Next week I may be going on a canoe trip, and there is a chance that I will soon visit the state’s notorious prison.

Improvement: I always feel the need to improve wherever it is I am. This tendency is currently being manifest in our house’s backyard. It seems as if the previous tenants decided to go with the “total neglect” theme, thus resulting in a wild lawn, trees overrun by vines and a pathetic remnant of a garden. It’s still a work in progress, but I’ve taken great satisfaction cleaning up this area. My great goal is to restore an old brick grill that is built into the ground out back. If I get that baby going, I’ll be sure to post some pictures of the resulting feast.

Cool Peeps: I won’t go into too much detail, for fear of not mentioning someone, but suffice to say that I have some pretty cool classmates - and by cool of course I mean interesting, articulate, funny and with lots of perspective from which I can learn. It’s re-assuring to know that not all future lawyers spent the majority of their college days in frat-house basements conceiving ways to torture one another… it’ll be a fight, but there may be some justice ahead. And to my former cool peeps, a blanket apology if I have not been great about being in touch. You see, while all this great stuff is going down, I still have to go shopping, pay the bills and, oh yeah, study. Best way to get my attention is to buy a plane ticket down here, you won’t regret it

I just made the best soup. It consists of a chicken broth base, cubed pork (marinated with garlic and chili powder,) sweet potato and cilantro. Perfect for a day with 8 fresh inches outside.

Tonight I attended a dinner party at my boss’ house. It was a get together themed around Romania, being that her neighbors recently returned from a 17 day package holiday there. We planned the night to consist of purely Romanian food and drink. I made a vat of my famous cauliflower cheese soup, and she made Hungarian chicken, both straight from Pofta Buna (the Peace Corps Romania volunteer generated cookbook.) In addition, we started the evening with a shot of high quality Romanian plum brandy and accompanied the meal with wine imported from Romania (yes, a label that I’d never heard of, but from Romania, is available in Freeport, ME.) After a delightful meal I presented an updated slide show of my Peace Corps experience. It was enjoyable to make the presentation both to my boss and this couple, the latter of which had some particularly insightful comments due in part to their extensive pre-trip reading and limited exposure to the country. When I showed the iconic picture of the town in which I worked, they both immediately recognized the “palace of culture,” a national landmark.

They visited the house of Elie Wiesel (something I was not able to do,) and were impressed with my reports on Jewish life (both past and present) in the country. I guess part of me just liked being teacher, or presenter, again. It’ s enjoyable to have such social events, and I recall fondly the man telling me that he enjoyed living in Brunswick because there was a whole mix of people, not just old folks. Although I grouse about the state of American culture, it is good to see community thriving in some places.

What’s worse than waiting on former frat boys?

Stumped?

Waiting on future frat boys.

Today wrapped up, thankfully, the christmas party weekend at ___ Country Club. The first night was all the adult members. This party rocked. We’re talking: huge ice sculpture raw bar, sushi bar, peking duck, prime rib, and a chocolate fountain. The chocolate fountain was awesome…. the lady brought it back to the kitchen and hooked it up after they were done outside, and the whole staff gathered round it, dipping strawberries and pineapple into the warm chocolatey goodness.

But, all good things must come to an end, and these past two days kinda summed that up. Here we had the children’s christmas party. We need to have it twice because there are so many damn kids (lots of Roman Catholic members…) So we set up a kid buffet, with like fries and mini hot dogs. And we prepare 20 pitchers of shirley temples and another 20 of chocolate milk, and set up unlimited self serve soda stations. Add this to the extensive cookie and cupcake bar, and you can imagine that we have many many kids on a wild sugar high. Then santa arrives via helicopter in front of the clubhouse! After santa arrives, the kids wait in line to visit with him, which takes about 2 hours from start to finish.

So, as you can imagine, though they were mostly well behaved, I’ve been around way too many kids for these past two days. Tonight I intend to relax with a new creation I’ve come across:

Blended: A few scoops of chocolate chip ice cream… some milk… a handfull of peanut M&M’s… Kahlua.

Reading that, it’s kinda a kiddie drink except for the Kahlua… so what can I say? Though we may not all run around screeching with baloon swords and reindeer hats anymore, we all still have a little cupcake on our faces.

Today I received two cans of the absolute best canned salmon one can buy. It came from my friend Jon as a way of saying thanks for some memory I gave him when I upgraded my machine. This stuff has the bones and the skin on and is just delicious.

Oh, and by the way, welcome to the new blog feature of my website. Although I kinda wish I’d had this for the last four years (college,) I guess I never had the time to really sit down and figure it out. But in line with my redesign of the entire site, I finally did, and now you are lucky enough to be reading my first ever post.

I will try to be somewhat amusing / thoughtful /etc, although I feel my mind going already.