The NB Diaries: Chapter 3

Chapter One: hereChapter Two: here

Last Friday afternoon, NB wandered over to my cube less than an hour before quittin' time. She seemed excited that the Bigger Boss and Even Bigger Boss had already left for the afternoon and that she could stop thinking and just count down the minutes until the weekend. My brain had already started wandering to the sunshiny weather outside, so I was just glad she wasn't bringing me a project. She sat down in my cubicle guest chair and we got to chit-chatting about flowers, and plants, and who knows what else when we were suddenly interrupted by my coworker in the next cube over.

Coworker: O0h, NB, I bet you know that song! Me and NB: Huh? What? What are you talking about? Coworker: Do you know that song that Other Coworker is singing? NB: What song? Coworker: You know, the apple bottom song. NB: Of course I know that song! Who do you think I am?

NB (singing): Shawty got low, low, low...the baggy sweatpants and the reeboks with the strap, she turned around and GAVE THAT BIG BOOTY A SMACK...she hit the flo', next thing you know, shawty got low, low, low...

We were laughing hysterically. Other Coworker was not around for the first rap episode, so she had no idea this was coming. But none of us realized how LOUD she was going to get!

Me: Oh my gosh! How do you know all of this music? NB: Well sometimes I have to google the lyrics and then I have to practice. Me: Do you rap in your car? NB: I don't have a very long commute to work, but yes, I rap in my car. Me and Coworkers: Office Space!! You're the guy from Office Space!

We continue on for a few minutes about how she is totally the guy from Office Space and we are completely cracking up.

NB: What is Office Space? Me: What?! You've never seen Office Space?? Anyone who works in a building with cubicles has to see Office Space. Why do you think we have all these TPS Reports?

So we end up leaving for the afternoon still smiling about all the Office Space scenes we've just reenacted and in the back of my head, I have a feeling I know what NB would be doing over the weekend.

Fast forward to this morning, when I find this little gem in my inbox:

To: lucy@workemailaddress.com From: NB@newboss.com (YES - first name [at] firstnamelastname - her personal email address) Date: Saturday, 4:09pm

Subject: Lucy, clarification is needed.

I've been watching clips from the movie Office Space. Yesterday you compared my presence in the cubicles to that movie.

Which character do I remind you of?

Consider your answer carefully.

Love,

NB

P.S. Have a nice day!

Crap! It's probably been over 3 years since I have actually seen the movie in its entirety and the one Coworker that can recite every line from it is on vacation this week. Readers, help! Which character is she? We were originally thinking the guy that raps in his car in the opening credits, but he's also the PC Load Letter guy. Is that the best fit? What do you think? My job could be riding on this...

Starving Artists

Last Wednesday night, I met up with some friends - Mary Elizabeth, Meghan, and Stephanie - to enjoy a night of painting together. I don't remember how we found out about this, but we immediately signed up for it. I was veeerrrry excited a) for a night out with the girls, b) because I love all things crafty, and c) because I was kinda curious to see how a real artist painted a canvas. The class was very relaxed - we were able to bring wine and snacks to have throughout the night. So maybe the "starving" part of my title to this post isn't necessarily true...

After snacking for a bit, it was time to get to work! We started by painting the background orange.

Don't forget to get the edges!

Our next step was to paint randomly sized and spaced white circles and then outline them in blue (or red, in my case). Then came the tricky part - attempting to paint two straight-ish lines across the top. Our teacher showed us how to use our paint brush to mark it off before we painted it.

And while we had our little paint brush out, we also outlined our circle flowers.

Steph wasn't so sure about this part...

And Mary let the instructor take over while she had more wine. (We discovered that more wine = better looking painting.)

This was probably about the time I dropped my paint brush and it rolled all the way down my canvas.

The last step was to add birds to our wire. We were pretty nervous about those birds. I mean, you can't really mess up flowers. They can be any shape you want. But birds? Well, they should probably look like birds. The instructor told us we could just freehand them OR she had some stencils if we wanted them. Yesssss! We cheated - no free-handed birds for us.

After a few last finishing touches, all we had left to do was let them dry!

Ta daaa! Our finished masterpieces. So similar, yet so different.

I, personally, can't wait to go back again. Anyone want to come with me?

Felix's, Faux Hawks, and Fairies

The first two parts of our NOLA trip can be found here and here. Saturday night got kicked off with dinner at Felix's. The wait was long and the restaurant was freezing cold, but the food made up for it all. It was yummy!

What's a Saturday night without a couple of mohawks faux hawks??

With our bellies full, we headed to the Old Absinthe House to try the Green Fairy. It's so fun to watch the bartender prepare an absinthe drink. They place a sugar cube on top of a slotted spoon that's placed over the glass. The water and absinthe are poured over the sugar cube making a milky liquid, and then the sugar cube is set on fire. Here is a very, very blurry picture of it.

Cool to watch, but the drink itself tastes grody. Veeeeeeerrrrry grody.  It's like liquid black licorice. Blech. And this is what happens to you if you drink it.

And awww, look...24 hours and a glass of absinthe later and they're still engaged. So sweet.

We stayed at the Old Absinthe House for a couple of hours before deciding we were hungry again. So we walked to Bourbon Street to find some pizza. At the time, I thought this was the best piece of pizza I had ever eaten in my entire life.

I don't remember the name of the place we were at, but I do remember that they had awesome music.

It was so good it deserved a chest bump.

************

Our trip was short and sweet. On Sunday, we really only had time to check out of our rooms, grab something to eat, and then head to the train station. We did have one little snafu...apparently our return tickets home were actually for Saturday, not Sunday (as in, we should have departed around the time we were chasing after the proposal carriage). The train was sold out so things weren't looking good. After lots of phone calls (on Amtrak's end) and nail-biting (on our end) they finally told us they could squeeze us in on the lower level. Turns out, the lower level is like first class on the train. Not a bad way to end our trip.

Goodbye, New Orleans! Hopefully we'll see you again soon.

Riding on the City of New Orleans

After a long train ride, a carriage ride engagement, and a night full of celebrating, we couldn't have asked for a better kick-off to our weekend. But when we woke up on Saturday morning, the weather was beeeeeautiful so it made it even better! Like every tourist in NOLA, we started off our morning at Cafe du Monde for some yummy beignets. We were all fresh and ready for a day in the French Quarter.

Sarah and Charlie decided we weren't fun enough for them and quickly made new friends.

We spent the morning walking around the Quarter and doing some shopping. The boys found some nice hats.

Where we live, it would be a little weird to run into this guy on the street. But in New Orleans? Totally normal. And yes, that's a real parrot on his shoulder.

All of the walking and shopping worked up quite an appetite for us, so we headed here for some of the best burgers ever.

Oh yes, we sat on the steps and put our drinks on the porch. We are nothing if not rebels.

After stuffing themselves with a half pound of burger, the boys were feeling even more manly than the day before and felt the need to show off.

Side note: does anyone need a job? 'Cause this place is hiring.

I tried to get creative and take some artsy pictures. Meh.

Sarah and Charlie were our tour guides for the day. They have been to New Orleans so many times they're practically locals.

I have tons and tons of pictures of all the architecture and details of the city, but I won't bore you with all of them. I will say, though, that if my plants this summer look half as good as these, I'll be thrilled.

Oh, we also ran into this guy on the street. I watched him for several minutes and he just stood there, frozen in his pose. Now, I understand that this is his way of making money and he's probably used to it, but wouldn't you think he'd want to choose an easier pose? It seems like holding your arm out behind you and keeping your mouth open would get old fast. There was one time the breeze caught the board balanced on his shoulder and I was so hoping it would make him have to move. But he never did.

We ran into some awesome food vendors on the streets - it was a festival of sorts.  You can't go to New Orleans and not try as much local food as possible, so we stopped to have a bite. It was so nice to sit on the steps, have a snack, and enjoy the nice weather.

By this time we were tired and decided it was time to head back to the hotel for a nap. But on the way there, we spotted the proposal carriage and took off after it to get a picture!

Here are Jenny and Darrin with the carriage driver that witnessed it all.

And you can't leave out the horse!

Phew! Glad we were able to catch him. NOW we could head back to take a nap.

Since this post has already gotten really long, the evening festivities will just have to be a post of their own. They'll be coming soon!