Wow, what a week.
2005-04-08, 9:38 p.m.

Your Brain is 46.67% Female, 53.33% Male

Your brain is a healthy mix of male and female You are both sensitive and savvy Rational and reasonable, you tend to keep level headed But you also tend to wear your heart on your sleeve

No wonder my life is such a wreck, my brain is more male than female.

Ok, New Orleans. The pictures are all developed but I haven't had the energy to try to hook-up my scanner. It's been a rough week.

So, the trip starts with a postponed flight. 66 minutes. Totally ok, as I was supposed to have a 3 hour layover in Philly. Now down to 2 hours. Good deal. We load the plane in Philadelphia right on time. But we don't take off. Nice. This is probably a good time to tell you I have a love/hate relationship with flying. Mostly I hate it. It's a bunch of sitting around waiting, followed by an awesome take-off (I do love taking off), which is followed by more sitting around waiting, followed by the landing (which is my other favorite part), followed by standing around waiting, as people take 20 fricking minutes to get off the plane. Then you layover and do it all again. I hate it.

Ok, sorry, off on a tangent there. Anyways, we don't take off in Philly. Seems there's a small mechanical problem. Which, to me, doesn't even exist. There is no such thing as a small mechanical problem when you're talking about a mode of transportation that travels 34,000 feet in the air. So we sit there for an hour. Then we take off. The captain said it was a matter of hitting a reset button. I don't buy it. So now I'm stuck with a faulty airplane and a pilot who happens to be a total liar. Yay for me. But, I'm thinking, most likely he's not suicidal, right? So if he thinks the plane can make it, I reckon I do too. After all, we both have the same ending in mind, right?

So after a fun (yeah, that's sarcasm) journey through the airport and an exciting taxi ride, we finally reach the hotel. The room was small, but I loved it. The bed was frickin' comfortable as all get out. Pillowtop mattress even. Nice. The staff was super nice, too. We drop our stuff of, and since it was only about 4:30 (lost an hour on the trip - very cool), we decided to just check out the French Quarter a little. Now, I think maybe after all that traveling this wasn't such a good idea. I THOUGHT it was a good idea, maybe help me get my bearings a little, but it wasn't. You know, that whole hindsight being 20/20 and all. We're kind of looking around, taking in the city, and this, ugh, freak walks up to us. He's covered in sores or something, very gross. I'm thinking, oh great - our first crackhead. So of course he asks for money. I calmly grab Amanda and steer us out of crackhead's way. Not more than 20 minutes later we get approached again. Now this guy is actually a well-dressed, nice looking gentleman. He actually altered his direction and kind of made a beeline towards us. This guy walks up to me and my 10-year-old child and says, "Hey mama, I got the nose candy." WTF?!?!? You've got to be kidding me. I have a CHILD with me. I'm not a 90 pound, emaciated freak. What on earth would give this guy the impression I was a cokehead? Idiots. Now I'm just pissed. I gave him a dirty look and again steered my child away. By this point she's totally freaked out. I decide maybe it's time to go back to the hotel. We stop at Quiznos (yes, I'm in New Orleans and I'm eating my first meal at Quiznos) to grab some take-out. I'm at the counter, Amanda's sitting at a table. I turn to ask her something and she's bawling! Huge crocodile tears. I go over to her and she starts with these big heaving sobs, and begs me to take her home. The guy working behind the counter asks what's wrong and I tell him we had a run-in with a couple of freaks. I guess he's almost as offended as I am, because he talks to Amanda for a couple of minutes and calms her down. What a sweetheart he was. We not only buy two subs, but also single servings of carrot cake & chocolate pound cake, a giant chocolate chip cookie, a brownie, and FOUR bags of chips!! Hey, we're on vacation baby! Oh yeah, also a Dr. Pepper and a Mt. Dew.

We walk back to the hotel and pig out. I tell Amanda that I absolutely promise the next day will be different. At this point I'm having mixed emotions. I think we were just so worn out, and people like that can, I don't know, smell your vulnerability or something. I wonder what the hell I've gotten us into, and seriously second guess my decision to take my kid to New Orleans. We decide to turn in early. We have our swamp tour the next days, so things are bound to look up, right?

Ok, that's all for New Orleans for now. I've written enough for one night. This has been such a rough week. Being on vacation for a week, and then going back after a time change was just plain hard. And this week was extremely emotional at school. A fifteen year old student took her life last Friday. It's just so horribly sad when a child so young feels that's her only out. I didn't know her very well, I only talked to her a few times. Her friends said she'd been having a really tough time at home. A little gal I know said the girl had said she wanted to shoot her mother. Instead she shot herself. Horrendous. Then Tuesday one of my kids (students, not actually my child) tried to kill herself. She took all the Tylenol and Advil that was in her medicine cabinet. They pumped her stomach and she's fine now. Physically anyways. They chose not to evaluate her. Doesn't that make sense? Ugh, this all just pisses me off sometimes.

Oh well. There was a lot more this week. Two more of our kids busted in a drug deal, and another one busted for possession and assault charges. What the heck is going on these days? I put Amanda on restriction and she told me she hated me and hoped I died. I do realize that this will not be the last time that I'm hated and wished dead. I also realize she doesn't mean it. Still, it sucked. Alan tried to get out of keeping her overnight Saturday to which I said, after laughing hysterically, "Yeah, right." I really, truly need the break. I really, truly need coconut rum.

On a totally different note, I applied for a job as a beertender at the local amphitheater. It would be for the VIP tent, so I'm thinking tips could be very good. The teacher I work with has a neighbor that does the hiring. I called him and he told me to come in today and fill out an application. So I leave work early to do just that. I fill out the application and about 14 other forms and hand it to the secretary. She says, "Ok, thanks. My computer's down so I can't do your photo ID, but I'll give you a call." Ok. So I leave. And I ponder. Photo ID? So....does that mean I have the job? Just like that? No interview? The 14 other forms were mostly new hire forms, but lots of places have you fill those out at the time of application, so that if they do hire you they don't have to worry about it. But would they do photo ID's for every applicant? So I ponder this on my drive home. I call my sister. She agrees that it sounds promising. She asks me why the hell I didn't just say, "So do I have the job?" I tell her that would just have been too easy, lol. So, we'll see.

Well, this was quite the rambling entry. It's 10:10 and I'm in need of sleep. I'll update more on New Orleans this weekend. It did get better. Take care.

(I'm too tired to spell check, so if this is messed up, ignore it. Thanks.)

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