Friend of the Day

Kaleigh came in to town today, joy! She was actually in Louisiana last night and the fact that we were so close but not actually together just seemed wrong to me. As if there was no excuse for me not to jump in the car and drive for 2 hours to see her only to turn back around because it's past our bedtime and drive the 2 hours home again, all the while knowing that I would see her today. Did you get all that?

So. Kaleigh and Brady (the boyfriend) and his parents, sweet sweet lovely people, picked me up and off we went to enjoy all the heat and traffic that New Orleans has to offer on this Independence Day/Essence Festival weekend. They dubbed me tour guide and I freaked on the inside because, in spite of growing up in the city, I don't actually know that much historical stuff about it. As tour guide, it was obviously my duty to give directions. Driving directions. Again, in spite of growing up in the city, I don't actually know that much about getting from place to place. I have to call two or three people for very specific directions so I know how to get somewhere and how to get back. Needless to say, most of my directions were precluded by long pauses of deep, conptemplative thought and peppered with phrases like "ummm...err....I think, no..." Thank you God for navigational systems, you know, the ones that aren't out to get me (ahem...my mother's, more on this later). With no major mishaps, we ate, we perused the French Quarter, we shopped, we ate, we ate some more, we talked about food. Oh did we talk about food. Brady's father and I bonded over our mutual love of culinary things.

The whole day was grand. Except when we were eating dinner and Kaleigh split with Brady but I didn't have Thea to split my food with. I felt her absence very acutely and promptly texted her, demanding that she fly herself down here immediately so that we can all be together. Thea had the nerve to protest that she could not do so on such short notice. Rude.

And then we had to say goodbye. Also rude.

Kaleigh! Don't leave me.

Creole Belle