Venturing off-campus, pretending to have a life

I talked Erika into going to the Quarter with me today so I could buy Naomi's jasmine oil. I also thought since I would be at Erzulies getting the jasmine, I might as well treat myself to the sandalwood oil as a congrats for surviving my second semester of the Ph.D. program. OK, OK -- the bracelets I bought a few weeks ago were supposed to be a gift to myself, too. Fine, I wanted the sandalwood oil. I've never EVER smelled sandalwood essential oil (all I've ever had access to was fragrance oil), and I wanted the EO. So sue me.

So we hopped the bus to the Quarter and walked around trying to find a place to eat. We finally settled for Chartres House, and I had the seafood sampler appetizer as my lunch. Catfish, shrimp, crawfish, crab claws, and oysters with french fries and hush puppies. Oysters are extremely overrated. They're kinda gross, actually. One of the waiters was flirting with me, and Erika chalked it up to my "hot" black lace-up shirt and my new 'do (which, by the way, looks much better with my natural fluffiness) -- I think he was just flirty in general.

While having lunch, Erika was talking about pralines, so after we ate she took me to the Green Pirogue (=a dugout or canoe). I bought two dozen pralines to bring home for my friends and fam. E and I each also bought a turtle praline (a regular praline with caramel and chocolate -- VERY dangerous stuff!) and E bought this coconut and chocolate piece of heaven we shared as we walked to get her some phone cards to call Mexico. We wandering into an import-export shop after a bustier-type blouse caught my eye. We rifled through some blouses in the back of the shop, and the owner came back and started chatting with us. One blouse caught my eye. We put it on over my shirt -- I was thinking, "No way, this is too much. Too risque. No way." Then the lady held the mirror over, and I actually looked OK in it. E's opinion -- "Oh hell yeah, Dawn! That is sexy."

I still can't believe I bought it. It's one thing for me to be wearing this black lace-up job ("Holy cow, I have boobs!"), but it's another to be wearing this Indian embroidered royal blue number with lacing all the way down. The modesty panel will be in place, you can count on that. The shop owner was even complimenting me, and she was being honest because she actually recommended me the blue one instead of the silvery-blue one I tried on. She said the silvery one was a good color for me, but the darker blue wouldn't accent the curve of my back as much if that was what I preferred. Like I said, I got the blue one, and I appreciated her candor.

But I talked E into the silvery-blue one. ::evil laugh::

After that, we wandered back up Royal Street, stopping to listen to street performers and looking in shop windows as we went. We went in to one shop that offered all kinds of autographed memorabilia from posters to guitars to books. This place had stuff from various presidents (including Abe Lincoln), popular and classic TV shows (including an army helmet signed by the entire "M.A.S.H." cast) and movies, rockers from Elvis and the Beatles to Nirvana and KISS, and authors galore. We saw a signed To Kill a Mockingbird, a season one or two "CSI" poster signed by the entire cast ($695), one of Elvis's guitars ($45K), and a bit of a speech penned by Abe Lincoln ($23K). Naturally, they had several Anne Rice books, including those written under one of her pseudonyms (Exit to Eden was one). A signed Witching Hour was $595, and a signed The Vampire Lestat was $1695. I about passed out.

After that, we finally made it back to Rue Dumaine. I bought a couple of candles at Esoterica, and our last stop was Erzulies. Anna was actually there (the last couple of times I've stopped in have been on her days away from the shop), and she came bounding around the counter with a "Hello, Sunshine!" as E helped me up the step. She gave me a big hug, and she and Nancy asked about school. I really love it when you can become familiar with certain shop keepers (or vendors at RenFaires).

So, that was my big day. I'm a few dollars poorer, but I have some quality stuff and good food in my belly.

Now if I can just get up the guts to wear that new blouse.

Confidence transformation, step two

Got my hair cut today. Was funny at one point because another stylist came over about halfway through and said, "Oh wow, that looks great." It looks pretty groovy right now, but I'm reserving judgment until it gets poofy again. Yvette used a flat iron on it so she could get it all to lay straight to cut (I couldn't get it washed, see, cuz I had no way to get into the chair). Erika loves it. My next door neighbor said it looked good, but it was kind of with that tone that boys use when they know to say anything else will get them slugged. He was more enthusiastic about my out-of-character green shirt.

Yvette assured me repeatedly that when my hair goes back to its usual I-have-really-thick-and-coarse-hair poof that it will still look good. If not, there are always headbands and ponytails until it grows out. I refuse to buy a flat iron and straighten it every freaking day!

It's a lot shorter than I've had it in a very long time. When I pull it over my shoulder, it only goes halfway down my upper arm. My head is so freaking light! Yvette worked with the natural part and cut long bangs to frame my face, and the rest just angles down from that to the length. There are a few layers, too. Like I said, I'm reserving judgment until I wash it again and it gets its full poof on.

And so it begins

We have our first tropical depression due to hit on Friday. Lots of rain and the potential for 70 MPH winds.

I can hardly wait.

I REALLY need to find a van, what with the hurricane season they're predicting. More category 3 and 4 hurricanes than last year, and we had A LOT last year.

::sigh:: Remind me again why it was a good idea to come here.

Don't be jealous of my life

Barney made the comment in a meeting day before yesterday that he wants me to gather up everything known about fluctuating asymmetry. So today I did a computer search in Biological Abstracts and came up with 855 articles, and these only go back as far as 1975 and very likely aren't all of them. I am, at this very moment, coalating all these 855 references and their corresponding abstracts into one Word file.

I'm on record 15.

::sigh:: And then I need to do the same thing for hypoxia and fish -- 965 there.

It's gonna be a loooooong Summer.