Up too late...

So my nights and days are backwards lately.  I am innately a night owl but this is getting ridiculous!  It is after 2am and I still up jacking around.  What is my point?  I am still up partly due to the fact that I ate my first bad meal down here tonight for dinner.  Millsy and I went out for dinner b/c he has been working so much this week and we just felt like going out for dinner.  He worked today from 7 to 7 and he didn't get home until 11pm one night this week!  Geez, his job is stressful and hard work.  I don't know how he does it?!  I am just not cut out for the kind of job he has.  Anyways we went out for dinner and I had a BBQ shrimp po-boy.  Normally I like po-boys but this one was greasy as all get out!  I was ravished b/c I didn't eat anything all day (except drink coffee) so I scarfed it down even though it wasn't very good.  I felt sick almost instantly after eating it.  I have been nauseous and munching tums since we got home.  Yuck!  I talked to a good friend on the phone tonight for a bit and it was nice.  I feel kind of sheltered down here.  I haven't talked to anyone forever I feel like.  It is my own fault though.  I have cut myself off from my telephone for the past month....not really intentionally.  I just haven't called anyone.  I don't really know why.  I guess to get settled and just take a break from everything...everyone.  I need to get calling my friends or else I won't have any!  Speaking of feeling sheltered, culture shock is starting to set in a little bit.  The newness has wore off and I am starting to realize I am NOT on vacation.  I live here.  It is weird.  It is sort of like a different country down here.  A mish-mosh of lots of different places.  Downtown the architecture is very European and the people sort of have this "laissez-faire" attitude about things.  Which is sort of nice in a way.  No one is trying to be something they are not down here.  No one is trying to impress.  Everyone just kind of lets it all hang out (literally and figuratively).  But everyone and everything is sloowww.  I feel like I am constantly in a hurry (to get where or do what I don't know).  But I often find myself annoyed at the slowness of things down here.  (Oh and by slow I don't mean the driving....the driving is crazy, but that is another topic all together).  I have nothing to do most days or nowhere to be but I find myself being like "What is taking so long?  What the hell are they doing up there?"  I need to start getting used to the new way of life I guess.  Another weird thing is people talk different down here and refer to different areas of town (which can not be found on any sort map that I have found).  Lots of french references and words pronounced with a french inflection and dialect.  I think it is referred to as Cajun English (derived from Cajun French).  Like Richard is pronounced 'Ree-shard' and Herbert is pronounced 'air-bay'.  There are tons of french words and phrases used down here.  I need to brush up on the ole French!!  Good thing I was somewhat fluent at one point in my life.  Now only to get back to that point.  Oh like one word for example that you see a lot of places down here is "geaux".  They use the word "geaux" instead of "go".  Like in the word "bordeaux".  You see Bud Light billboards that say "Geaux Saints!" and stuff like that.  And I went to a furniture store yesterday called "Comeaux" and had to ask the lady how to pronounce it just to be sure and she laughed and said "Como!"  Sort of like "Duh, you silly girl...what a dumb question!"  Weirdness everywhere.  Surrounded by weirdness.  Ok, I will write more later about the weird and strange happenings of my life.  Like another lizard crawling up the wall my the front door tonight.  I don't think I will ever get used to that.  Ok, signing off.

Amanda

I am so wishy washy!

Ok, I know this is SUPER annoying but I am going to use my new Blog for Photography only and this blog to update people on our adventures in NOLA.  So just to clarify...

Adventures in NOLA Blog http://www.amandachaffee.blogspot.com/

Amanda Mills Photography Blog http://www.amandamillsphotography.blogspot.com/

Twice in one week! Really?!

So let me recap the past week. The tropical depression has dumped a crap load of water on us! At times it seems like a monsoon to me, but everyone down here pretty much acts like it's normal business. Last Wednesday while using my lovely new Wusthoff German steel knives I nearly sliced my left thumb off! Ok, I am exaggerating...I almost sliced the tip of my thumb off! But damn! It hurt! I cried like a little baby and screamed bloody murder for Mills! As tears streamed down my face I held by thumb tight to stop the bleeding while he bandaged me up. The kitchen looked like a bloody massacre had taken place! Then on Friday evening while making a lovely potato, bacon and leek pizza I did it AGAIN! Only this time I was using this new mandolin slicer thingy I got as a wedding gift. As I smoothly sliced leeks off goes the tip of my right thumb along with half of the nail! Well it was hanging by a thread of flesh. OUCH! This one was worst than the first! But the pain was overshadowed by the shock and irony that I had done this twice in one week! I just stood there and said (well screamed) "REALLY, REALLY! Twice in one week!". So there I was Friday night with both thumbs bandaged up like they had casts on them. I never realized how much you use the tips of your thumbs in damn near every daily activity! I couldn't even type for two days b/c I couldn't use my right thumb to hit the space bar and doing the 'hunt and peck' method of typing was just too annoying! You will be glad to know that both thumbs are healing....slowly though! I have went through a million band aids in the past week. The tips are still numb. I hope I get feeling back soon.

So Millsy and I decided to go hit the bars on Saturday night. We went out with Stephanie (his sort of secretary) and about 10 dudes (all of which range in the ages from 22-26). Damn, we are old! I asked one guy when he graduated college and he said "2005!". I was like "Oh, that's not too bad." Then he said "Oh that was high school. Duh! I graduated college in 2009!" Ok, so I am officially the oldest person at the bar. Mills is the boss of most of the guys we were out with so they were kissing ass and buying me drinks (which I can't complain about!) I proceeded to make friends with every single one of them just so I have some friends down here. Too bad only one of them has a girlfriend and one of them is dating Stephanie. Good thing I really like her. She is my only 'girl' friend so far. The rest of those guys are too young and too busy partying to have girl friends. Looks like I will be hanging out with guys for the most part. That's ok, I have enough girl friends anyways. So after numerous cocktails we decided to leave the bar at 2am and head home...only I decided that we should check out the local watering hole about a block from our house on the way home. So we popped in at about 2:30, which would be last call at most places....but oh not in New Orleans. They are just getting started at that time! Karaoke was bumping, people were dancing and the drinks were flowing. Mills and I bellied up to the bar where I proceeded to become best friends with some old creepy guy. Not sure what my point was there. He was really nice, but old and creepy nonetheless. We rolled out about 4am and the place was still hoppin! By the way, for those who don't know...a lot of the bars don't close down here. Some are open 24 hours and some close down after everybody leaves, whenever that may be. I am pretty sure it is going to to be the death of me. If I do make it back to Indiana some day it might be in a wooden box. On Sunday Mills and I were so hungover we just laid in the living room and moaned all day "We are old! Why do we do this to ourselves!?"

That is about all the excitement I have had this past week. Oh, besides the face that I have caught myself up on True Blood! I had to cut out HBO when I lost my job but we get it for free for 6 months down here so I have been watching all the shows I have been missing like Entourage and True Blood. I am obsessed with True Blood even though it is grotesquely bloody and gory, which I normally am not a fan of. Only 3 more episodes left! :( I watched the first nine in a few days and now I am tortured waiting for the last three. I think I want to start reading the Sookie Stackhouse novels. Oh well, now I need to catch up on Season 4 of Dexter!

Ok, going to bed! I have been editing a lot of photos so I will post some of them tomorrow!

Amanda

New Blog!

I have created a new Blog in place of this one b/c I couldn't figure out how to change the address to Amanda Mills instead of Amanda Chaffee. Plus I sucked at this blog and hope to get better at writing on the new one so I wanted a fresh start. Anyways the address for my new blog is...

http://amandamillsphotography.blogspot.com/

New Blog..New Post..New City..New Home

Ok, so I started a new blog...I know...I know...I only wrote in my old Blog like 4 or 5 times, but I promise to try and be better at writing on this one! I wanted to rename my blog since I have a new last name and couldn't figure out how to do it so I just decided to have a fresh start with a new Blog! Anyways, I am going to try and use this blog to update people on our big move to NOLA and also on my photography endeavors.

Anyways, so we have been in NOLA for about 10 days now. Wow! Has it really been 10 days??? It doesn't seem like that long. We are getting all settled in our new house. I mean home. How can a house become a home in 10 days? I don't know but it has. I really like this place so far. The little imperfections I didn't like at first I am actually growing quite fond of. It has a lot more character than our old house (and cabinet space!) I must say I am not too fond of the insects, reptiles, amphibians and varmints I have been finding around this joint. So far I have found a lizard climbing up in the wall IN THE HOUSE, another 6 inch lizard in the garage, a midget frog climbing up the wall in the garage (right by the light switch I went to flip in the dark), lots of giant bugs climbing around outside (including these huge locusts which leave their sickening shells all over the place), and also a baby nutria rat which Penny thought was a squeak toy and batted around the back yard. For those of you who don't know what a Nutria or Coypu rat is then type it in Google and you will see for yourself. They are these 20-30 lb rats that roam around down here close to water. They are siiicckkkk!

Other than unpacking a million boxes and organizing our house I haven't done much else besides run errands and try to get myself acclimated to where I am at. Saturday was Mills' birthday so we went out to White Linen Night in the Arts Warehouse District. It was an event put on by the Contemporary Arts Center of New Orleans. Everyone dressed in white (linen mostly) and walked around eating food, drinking cocktails and walking through art galleries. I saw lots of cool art, a group of painted people, including a topless girl, another girl who had spilled her red wine all down her snow white dress and even some trampy girls dressed in all black just to draw attention to themselves. Mills said it was the most attractive girls he has seen down here since he has been here. Something else interesting about it...it was still 93 degrees outside at 9pm!!! Yes, you heard that correctly. The day we moved in the 90 year old lady that lives across the street came out to greet us and tell us it was going to be "Hot as Fried Chicken Today"! And boy was she right. It has been hotter than Hades! It has been such a hot and humid summer in Indiana that I really haven't noticed much of a difference during the day down here. Whether it is 90 or 95 or 98 doesn't really make a difference. Sweltering hot is sweltering hot. But the biggest difference is at night it doesn't cool down. It is no odd occurrence for it to still be in the 90's well into the night! Ick!

I know why they call it the dirty south...it is DIRTY down here! Last week we went to Walmart (which I would totally refrain from doing under any normal circumstances, but we had some gift cards to burn) and it was one of the worst experiences! It was so dirty and disgusting that I didn't want to buy anything...and the Walmart was only a couple months old! Oh well, Mills said I will get what he likes to call "Louisiana eyes" in no time. He doesn't even realize how crappy everything looks anymore. He is totally used to it.

I have had some good eats in the past week. I had one of the best pasta dishes I have even eaten in my life last week. It was angel hair with shrimp alfredo. I wouldn't even call it alfredo though, because I normally don't like alfredo. Maybe it is because I reference all alfredo sauces to the disgustingly think bland goop that we would squeeze from industrial size bags at Shoemaker into big pots. It was so gross I kind of want to vomit just thinking about it. But this sauce was thin and creamy and just the right amount of spicy. It was delish! Boy do they know how to cook down here! Speaking of cooking, yesterday I made Mills a birthday dinner which consisted of a crab/cream cheese dip appetizer, a wedge salad complete with HOMEMADE ranch dressing, shrimp, corn and potato bisque, homemade crab cakes, creamed corn and hush puppies. Oh and yellow cake with chocolate icing (his favorite). It was pretty good if I do say so myself! Operation lettuce needs to start tomorrow!

Oh and for those few Penny lovers out there, she is doing good. She absolutely loves our huge backyard and all of the weird bugs and critters she has been finding. She goes running through the yard with her ears and tongue flapping everyday. We went on a walk along the levee tonight. We live about 100 yards from the Mississippi River levee. There is a walking/bicycle trail along the top of the levee that is pretty cool. She loved that. She isn't used to the wood floors yet. We throw her toys and she going skidding across the floors past them. I am not sure if she realizes we are in our new home yet. She is in heaven to be with her beloved Millsy again. She gets so excited every night when he gets home from work she can hardly contain herself. She is already back to sleeping with him every night and wanting nothing to do with me. :( Oh well, I am happy that she is happy. I am happy to be with Millsy too. We have been apart far too long. I feel like our whole existence is sewn together with periods of separation. Oh well, absence makes the heart grow fonder right?

Ok, signing off for tonight!