easter

amazingly, we managed to miss the easter parade(s) this weekend. we weren't exactly avoiding them actively although we definitely preferred not to run into any of them. i'm tired of beads. really, how many strings of them does one need?

we were glad for the 3-day weekend but had trouble figuring what to do with the time. we're getting to the point where we feel like we're just whittling time away, and we hate it. even though we look forward to the weekends, the only thing great about them is that we don't have to go to work, not that we have any actual event to look forward to.

i keep trying to think, what we would be doing in nyc instead of nola? would we actually have plans? or would we be whittling time away just like this? then, r made a good point: at least in nyc, we would head into manhattan and something WOULD actually happen. like either we just walk around union square and find a cool store, which is what happened when we traveled back on president's day weekend. or we would walk past a theatre and see a cool movie that would interest us. or we would go to some part of town where we're not familiar with and check it out.

i know a lot of people live in new orleans and love it here, but i guess it's just not the place for me. or it's just that we feel stuck here because we came for work. the best thing about nola is the vietnamese food. this is one thing that nyc is missing. we go to the vietnamese restaurant down the street from the office EVERY day, and i'm yet to be tired of it. we branched out this weekend and went to a different vietnamese restaurant that was just as scrumptious. there you go, one thing i'm not tired of yet. the saving grace of this place. although it's not enough to bring me back after i leave here. no wonder people drink so much here.

country or no country

we were walking back to our apartment after spending the afternoon on magazine street, avoiding getting lobbed in the head with cabbages, carrots, onions, potatoes, and more beads from the st patrick's day parade. when we were passing through this new development that resembled the scary suburbs with the same 5 floor plans and 5 paint colors for houses, i overheard this young girl, in her late teens, telling one of her elders that she "ain't country." realizing the irony, they broke into stomach-aching laughter as soon as her sentence ended.

dreadful walmart

i know it sounds elitist to say that i hate walmart. i think they're a horrible company and have warped the way business is conducted. i went there today, out of convenience, and this experience is why i avoid it whenever possible.

where we're staying in new orleans, there's a walmart just down the street, probably within walking distance. i have a sinus infection, and after filling my prescription elsewhere, i figured i'd stop at this walmart, which is on my way back to the apt, to pick up some lemons and honey. i also grabbed some chayote squash, and sure enough, they rang up too expensive than what was posted. it took FOREVER for them to send someone to do a price check, and it wasn't even a busy time of the day. the cashier bagged my stuff using 3 bags when she only needed one. they don't hire or encourage their employees to think. it's so sad because human resource is valuable. people are capable so treat them like they are!

nola breakfast/brunch favorites

my favorite meal to go out for is breakfast. if you have time to go out for breakfast, the rest of your day can probably be spent pretty leisurely. i'm not including picking up a pastry or bagel at a coffee shop. i'm talking about sitting down to enjoy breakfast as a meal, one that is often overlooked compared to lunch and dinner. i always try to go out on the weekends, and since we've been in new orleans, we've kept going back to two places.

because surrey's juice bar is within walking distance from where we're staying, we've been going there every weekend. depending on when we get there, we're usually able to get a table pretty quickly. the food is delicious, not as non-dairy conscious as i would love, but their menu is still focused on healthy food that supports the local community and tastiness. their specialty, as the name of the restaurant suggests, are juices, freshly prepared and usually organic. one i have a hard time passing up is the orange-pineapple-mango juice, served with a slice of lime. i can't say yet what my favorite dish is on their breakfast menu. my mood takes me in different directions. i can attest that everything i've tried has been excellent. i intend on trying everything on the menu before we leave the city.

the alternative is the bluebird cafe. because it's a little farther from where we are, we haven't gone there as often. a friend introduced me to it on my first saturday in nola. they offer a more traditional american breakfast menu, delicious but not necessarily as health-oriented as surrey's. i finally tried their yellow grits last sunday which was delicious. they throw in cornmeal which turns it yellow. i think i will have to include their grits as part of my breakfast from now on when we go there.

we've also tried slim goodies. the food is good but nothing extraordinary, and the place felt kind of unclean. we also tried tomatillos for a mexican breakfast which was good. but i definitely have to say surrey's and bluebird cafe are my favs.