home sweet home

before reading my post, go to the one one brick blog, and read what everybody else has posted. there's some really great stuff there.

don't know where to begin to re-cap. it's all just too much. last week was, by far, the most eventful one of my life. maybe if i just take it one day at a time...

Sunday, may 6
Woken up at 3:45am by the sound of 35 pairs of flip-flops heading for the door. Our 1 night roomies from I don’t remember which school left for Michigan at the ungodly hour of 3:45. All I heard was the shuffling of 70 flip-flops. They were good kids, if a bit strange on their schedules.
Woke up again around 730.
My first shower experience at camp hope was not a good one. By and large showers at camp hope work as advertised, water of varying temperatures comes out of the showerhead at a reasonable pressure. However, there are a few EVIL showers. I got to meet one on Sunday. It had two temperatures: HOT and BOILING. The only thing good out of it is that by the time you’re done, the outside air feels pleasantly cool.
After showering came a donut for breakfast. (Janet was saving her appetite for the famed beignets from cafe du monde). One of the camp volunteers suggested that the most interesting way to get to Jazzfest would be to drive to the French quarter, park in a parking lot and take the streetcar to the festival grounds. A most excellent suggestion.
We strolled around the quarter looked at some of the cute shops, then found café du monde and sat down for coffee and beignets. YUMMY. Problem was, the lid to the sugar container was not properly secured, and when Janet tried pouring some into her café au lait, it resulted on a major splash of coffee on her pants. Not a good way to start the day. And so began our mission of finding a cute dress for Janet (i mean, seriously, what's a girl do do?). She found it, and after waiting for a the correct street car (no, neither of us felt compelled to yell "Stella!!!") we were on our way.
Jazzfest was packed. And HOT. And sunny. And muggy. With very few sources of shade around. Other than that, it was lovely. Our first stop was at the gospel tent. Great music. And some people were definitely feeling the spirit. Either that or they were already smashed by 1pm. Aside from the music, the biggest attraction of the gospel tent is that there was always some seating to be had. After that we wandered a bit, but got put off by some of the crowds at some of the pavilions. Lunch was pretty good. I had a crawfish puff. Very delicious. Had some mandarin orange iced tea. Twice. Did I mention it was HOT and HUMID and heat stroke and dehydration were very real possibilities?
We tried to get into the jazz tent but the crowd was just too big, and the heat inside was almost as bad as it was outside. So back to the gospel tent to recharge. After we had some more food (desert), and talked to one of the locals, he was very, very nice. And recommended we stop by the Soul tent to catch Marva Wright's performance. So glad we did. Interesting side comment, Ray Nagin was in da house! At Marva’s show. Only a handful of people clapped when she mentioned his name.
I kinda wanted to catch Harry Conick Jr's performance, but the stage he was at was the most crowded and it had no shade at all. So we called it quits and headed back to camp.
We got in early enough to meet a few other fellow one brick gals, go to family dollar, get water and other supplies, and still make it to orientation with plenty of time.
I’ve already written about orientation, so I’ll skip that. Went to bed at about 130. And that was the end of my first full day in the NOLA region.