Food of New Orleans

When I return to New Orleans (note when, not if) I hope the trip either includes a braver me or an friend who is also an omnivore. People were not exaggerating when they told me there is no such thing as a bad meal in NOLA.

Ashley was a wonderful travel companion. Her interest in trying new things was right on level with mine -- what I would grade a medium. We were both willing to try new things like gumbo, jambalaya, and po'boys, but afraid to commit to fried alligator and all sorts of seafood. In a different time (such as one with Covid is no longer a concern), we probably would have gone to an all you could eat buffet so we could sample some of the foods. That was not this trip.

Squid. Alligator. Shrimp. Octopus. Most seafood. All not happening on this trip.

If I brought a friend willing to commit to these exotic foods, maybe I would have tried them.  

At the recommendation of a friend we went to Mothers. We went early enough there was not the line they are famous for -- the line that evidently they pay people to stand in to make themselves look busier than they are.

We also ate at Hard Rock Cafe, and Horns, and the Corner Cafe near the cathedral. I let Ashley have a say in where we ate, and full control over what she ordered. She did surprise (and please) me by trying new foods.

Even airport food is tasty in New Orleans

Hot Chocolate 5k/15k

Something else that has returned are large races. Last year we signed up for the Hot Chocolate 5k/15k race for the swag as we were pretty convinced the race would be cancelled. I ran (walked/stumbled) the 15k distance through our park, in the woods, through Lawrenceville Green, over to Denow, etc. It was not pretty. I did not enjoy running that distance alone. Though Don signed up, that was the day after he received his second vaccine and he was not up for running. 

I have not even attempted that distance since then, or any distance greater than 10k. Nor do I have a desire to try that distance. I keep waiting for my running mojo to return. That's why when I was talking to Christine, my hairdresser, about whether I should sign up for the 5k or 15k distance for this year's Hot Chocolate Race and she kindly recommended the 5k distance I have not looked back.

This year I feel as if I have overcommitted myself emotionally. Grand Jury Duty really wore me out. Hosting an exchange student has been a bigger emotional strain than I expected it would be -- part of it is making sure Don does not feel neglected. Running the gala has been draining, too. I decided to treat myself with kindness, the same kindness I would tell a friend to treat themselves. I allow myself to say no without apologizing. We are all climbing out of a rough couple of years.

That said, not only did Don and I sign up for the Hot Chocolate race for the swag, we ran the Hot Chocolate Race. In the end, I am very glad we only signed up for the 5k. One reason being that the 5k ran earlier in the day, meaning it was finished earlier in the day, and we made it back home in time to join my Red Hat friends for tea without being too exhausted.

The course starts as many others do in Philadelphia -- in front of the Philadelphia Art Museum. After posing for a sunrise picture with the Rocky Statue, we were off. Somehow we were in B Corral (I think it went up to H) so we got a decently early start.

The race goes up the Ben Franklin Parkway, turns around, passes Boathouse Row, turns around, and ends in front of the Art Museum. It is a flat and scenic course.

The swag -- a running jacket, is "sweet," but so was the post-race food: 

Along the route I saw someone wearing a Philly Phanatic head carrying an American flag, someone juggling while running, a woman walking the race with a cane, and a man in a banana suit. To think I only took pictures while running.

We were both very impressed with how well the race was organized, and how much fun we had. Would we do it again is open to debate. Don was planning how we would do it differently next year, and I was thinking it was a one and done experience. I enjoyed the race, but we to wake up at 5 in order to get to the starting line in time. It is a lot of running around for only 5k. Maybe if I can convince myself to train for the 15k. Maybe.

Some pictures from the day:

 

March Madness 2022

For years we have referred to March as March Madness, not because of a certain basketball tournament, but because of the sheer number of plays we try to squeeze into a month. Seems most high schools have their musicals in March so as to not interfere in Spring Break. A quick search in the Pillsbury Press archives brings up 2013, 2014 did not get written, 2015, 2016, and 2017. I don't see posts for 2018 and 2019, and, of course, 2020's March Madness was cut short due to Covid.

While we enjoy seeing shows year-round March has become the month where Ashley was involved with shows at SAS and ND. Plus friends and their children were involved with plays.

This March I saw:

February 27 and 28: Miss You Like Hell at Muhlenberg -- Ashley was the stage manager. (practically March)

March 12: Bye, Bye Birdie at Notre Dame High School. It was a treat not knowing the drama behind the scenes and being able to sit back and enjoy the show.

March 26: Princeton High School's musical Curtains, starring Isabelle (my friend Laura's daughter).

March 27: Rider University's Showcase

March 31: Lawrence High School's production of Once Upon a Mattress.

By the end of the month I feel as if I was finally hitting my stride. While this year I saw a lot less shows (Don only went to one with me), it was far more than we have have been able to see since 2019. Live theater is returning. May we never lose that feeling of awe when the curtain rises again.

He Is Risen!

One of the pandemic losses has been the end of our beloved WiNK (Worship in a New Key) church service. It was a lifeline during the pandemic as we met on person and were a support system for each other. We still reach out to each other when we need prayers. When we began to meet again in person, it didn't gain traction. One couple moved out of state. A few weeks I was the only parishioner. The church is rebranding the service and in its new form at 11:30 am it is thriving. 

The transitioning of the service has left us feeling adrift as Presbyterians. I haven't been able to reconnect to online services or bring myself to worship at the traditional service. For Palm Sunday, though, I made an exception. I'm glad I did. Don and I then returned to church for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Sunrise Service, and the 10 am Easter Traditional Service, all at the Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville.

I realized I miss worshipping in person. Don realized he enjoys Pastor Jeff's sermons. 

I don't know the answer. I'm still not thrilled with the timing, but I'm also not interested in online worship anymore. I want to worship in a community. Since no one else in the area seems to have an evening worship service, we'll have to go with what is offered.

It truly felt like a blessing to be able to worship again in person. May we not lose ground in this pandemic.

He Is Risen Indeed!

Exchange Student Update

With the end of the third marking period behind us, we are now entering the final quarter as being exchange parents. Youth for Understanding started the year optimistically anticipating it would be as it was before, including having three (mandatory) in-person gatherings as check-ins, as opportunities to bond with other host families. 

The first session was soon switched to virtual. I did attend, but got nothing out of it. The second session was optional. I tuned in for a bit, but left early. The third one is a pre-recorded session I will likely not even attempt to participate in.

One of the things I remember most from my year in Belgium was meeting other exchange students. I'm still in touch with some, and have seen a few over the decades. I'm glad the Valhalla (NY) High School trip happened for Yoran as it was the only opportunity for him to meet other exchange students. ("Belgian" flag signed by other exchange students, classmates, and people I met that year. A gift from my host mother.)

I was glad he had the opportunity to make some new friends. I wish there had been more opportunities for me. Personally, I finally appreciated how much those weekends must have meant to my host parents, a tiny respite. Don and I went on a date night to Grounds for Sculpture, and met Ashley to redeem our dinner with the dean (an opportunity we won at Parents Weekend, sadly a photo was not taken). It was nice not having to plan a few days around when he needed to be picked up.

People ask how the experience is going. Honestly, it is going very well. The next question is would we do this again. Honestly, the answer is no. We are tired of following the school calendar, of having a non-driver in the house. He is a great person. I've followed up with his teachers and coaches and they assure me he is a wonderful asset to the high school. The exchange program was on hold for a few years (I think they had an issue with a former exchange student, though that has not been confirmed.) Based on Yoran, they have no right to suspend the program again.

Here is what his swim coaches said about him at the Swim Banquet: 

We wanted to give a special award for this swimmer in an immense thank you for his contribution to the team. Even though he was ineligible to swim in meets, he attended the most practices of everyone and consistently worked hard in the pool. He has great team spirit and volunteered himself to help out the team by managing meets, teaching other people how to manage and back up time whenever we needed him. He truly was a great teammate to everyone and his presence from just one year on the team will be greatly missed. We can only hope that other swimmers would follow in his footsteps as he was the perfect role model for a good teammate. Honorable mention to having the best belly flop the team has ever seen. We would like to present the Ser-Best Teammate award to Yoran Serbest. 

 

Though he wasn't allowed to compete due to his having already graduated from high school, he was an asset to the team. He missed perfect attendance by attending a funeral for my Great Aunt (which they understood). He helped his team anyway possible. At the end of the season he swam in a couple of matches, after the championship games when they were able to forfeit his points.

Parent teacher conferences echo these sentiments -- he is friendly, participates in class, and is a nice person.

This season tennis is his sport. He enjoys tennis more than swimming, but recognizes swimming is better overall for his body. Tennis is more active, and more fun. As a spectator, swimming is indoors, thus not dependent on the weather.
 

In June his parents will arrive and take him on a tour of the western part of the United States. I suspect with the advances in technology, it will be easier to keep in touch than it was for me back in the late 1980s.

Grand Jury Duty

 

From before Christmas until a week before Easter (otherwise known as the "day before the Gala") I served on Grand Jury. I'm not going to divulge any secrets here, only want to record some thoughts on the overall experience.

Our time was definitely historic. It was only 15 weeks, but due to ever-evolving Covid rules the experience changed.

In mid-October I received the dreaded summons. My husband took one look at my letter told me to block out the time because I will be serving. At the time I was holding out a glimmer of hope that I would not be chosen, but it was the tiniest of glimmers. Back when Ashley was in middle school I received a similar summons, but they quickly choose the needed 23 people, and the other 50 or so (myself included) were sent home and told we were done for the next three years.

I just knew I wouldn't be that lucky this time.

For nearly two months I fretted about what this would mean. As luck would have it, a friend of a friend was serving on Grand Jury so she shared with me the logistics. She said she was apprehensive about serving, but in the end enjoyed it, or at least enjoyed learning about the process.

I've known people who have served on Grand Jury. Ashley's third grade teacher. A friend's husband. A co-worker. I even knew someone in my group of 23. Still didn't make it something I wanted to do.

Then there are the times I talked to people who thought they knew what Grand Jury was all about, but were wrong. The ones who insisted it would be virtual (it wasn't). Lots of misunderstandings.

Jury selection was online. We had to block out a day to play the "hurry up and wait game" waiting for them to check us all in, prove no one else was in the room with us (when we signed in), and wait. The first batch of 23 people (out of around 75) were chosen. 

Whew! I wasn't in that bunch!

As people gave sob stories and were excused I knew my number was coming up.

And it did.

Selection was on a Thursday, but I served on a Friday. Husband's plan to have me block out the dates backfired when I then had to reschedule everything away from Fridays, staring the very next Friday.

We served one week in person in a large room usually used for petit jurors to hang out in. Then we had two weeks off for Christmas Eve and New Years Eve. Then five weeks virtual (I think I liked these best). Then back to the large room. Then the last few weeks in the regular juror room, but with extra chairs -- this set up felt posh as we had our own break room.

We were allowed to miss up to 25% of the sessions. Since we had a 15 week session, we could miss three dates. I knew I had to miss the last couple because of gala planning, and other week because of the New Orleans trip. That meant committing to all of the other weeks. 

While we did wear masks, and in the beginning had our temperatures checked before entering the hallways, there were no real Covid restrictions. Our seats were spaced 5 feet apart, but we were never asked to stay home if we felt ill, or what our vaccine status was.

There were weeks we went in at 9, and weeks we went in after lunch. There were weeks we had two cases at 9:30, then told to return at 2:30 to hear more cases. There was no consistency. Our orders mostly came in the form of a text the afternoon before, but sometimes it came in an email. 

All this inconvenience for $5 a week -- less than it would cost to buy lunch in downtown Trenton.

The picture of me at the start of this post is of me smiling as I walked away from my last day of Jury Duty. May they misplace my contact information in the next three years, or may we move before they find me again.

PS: Meanwhile Don was called for petit jury. His number never came up.

How New Orleans and Disneyland Are Alike

 As Ashley and I wandered around New Orleans for Spring Break we couldn't help but reminisce on trips to Disneyland. Unlike Walt Disney World in Florida, Disneyland in California boasts a section called New Orleans Square. I'll have to find a few pictures from past trips to California to add to this post. In the meantime, bear with me.

The architecture:

This is an obvious one since Disnelyland's New Orleans Square is based on the original, so of course they also include ironwork on the balconies.

Non-stop entertainment:

Everywhere you go there is non-stop music playing. So much so it often fades into the background.

Lots of great places to eat:

Both places have no shortage of places to eat -- and in a wide variety of price ranges. New Orleans is definitely better.

Costumed characters:

I'll accept this one is a bit of a stretch, but plenty of characters walking around wearing beads.

Oodles of Tourists:

Parades:

Trolleys (er... street cars):

Note: these are in California Adventure and not Disneyland, and are  based on the ones in San Francisco and not New Orleans, but we still thought of Disney as we rode them.

Mini cars:

Autotopia anyone?

Most importantly, fun with Ashley:

Spring Break with Ashley

 I feel so many posts can start the same way and still be true ... it has been a long couple of years!

When Ashley graduated from high school in 2020 I wanted to take her on a trip to Paris. Try again ... during winter break of freshman year we'll go to Paris. Try three ... Summer of 2021 I was definitely going to take her to Paris while Don was on his cross country bike ride. 

Fourth time's the charm, I suppose. Rather than Paris, though, in March 2022 Ashley and I flew to New Orleans, LA. NOLA has been on my wish list of places to visit for nearly 30 years. Don went on a business trip and spoke highly of it, but somehow it never percolated to the top of the list. In the summer of 2005 when Hurricane Katrina devastated the city I was disappointed I hadn't made the time to go.

Life took us to Disneyland for many years, and to Europe. When thinking through where Ashley and I could go, somehow the idea of New Orleans popped in my head. Yes, Paris would be lovely, but with constantly changing COVID rules I knew I didn't want to be stuck on the wrong side of the Atlantic. If things changed while we were in New Orleans, we could always rent a car and drive home.

New Orleans was exactly the tonic I needed. The weather was perfect (70s with 50% humidity). The crowds minimal (despite it being Spring Break and St. Patrick's Day). I realized within a day the stomach pains I had been having and my anxiety washed away. I needed to separate myself from life in New Jersey. From work. From home. From bad weather. From life. A month later and I'm still feeling the peace from that trip.

Before leaving I asked friends for advice. One friend, Andy, is my NOLA expert. He connected me with an airport driver named Tevyn (let me know if you need a NOLA driver, I would highly recommend him), a tour guide named Sandy (also someone I would highly recommend), a hotel (again, he hit it out of the park with this recommendation), and basic guidelines.

Other friends recommended places to eat, but added you just can't go wrong in New Orleans. Some recommended jazz clubs that (alas) Ashley was too young to enter legally, so we didn't try. Perhaps a post-21 trip.

I've been asked what we did that was so magical. Mostly we just walked and floated around. I tried not to overschedule our days, but we did go on a few free walking tours by foot (Voodoo, Ghost Tour, Cemetery, and French Quarter -- two different tour guides for four tours), toured an historic home (the Gallier House), rode the trolleys (I mean, street cars), heard a show at Preservation Hall (I was less than impressed when they passed around Phil the Bucket -- as in "Fill him up," tickets were expensive enough for a 45-minute show), went to the Tipitina's to hear Big Sam's Funky Nation (I preferred their opening act, Crooked Vines, Ashley liked them both), walked around the Garden District, walked around the Sydney and Wanda Besthoff Sculpture Garden (no Seward Johnson sculptures, but we did see an alligator), collected beads at the St. Patrick's Day parade, walked around the French Quarter, strolled up and down Bourbon Street, ate, ate, ate, then ate some more.

Had life been quieter over the past month, and I had cared to take notes while on vacation (as I usually do), there would be blog posts about each activity, including lots of pictures. 

We compared Café du Monde with Café Beignets. Both had lines equally as long. To me the big difference was Café Beignets had other things on their menu besides beignets and coffee. As a tea drinker, I was disappointed. The beignets in both places were just as delicious as advertised. 

Rather than trying to recreate the trip with words, I'll add some pictures:

Perhaps I'll add another post with pictures of food.

Though it has taken me decades to make it to New Orleans, I hope to have many more trips. Trips with Don. Trips with Ashley. Trips with friends. Trips alone. I can see why Andy has chosen New Orleans as the place he goes to recharge his batteries. Its magic has already worked on me once. May it heal me again.