If you're happy and you know it write a blog

I can't believe this past week marks the last week in March and tomorrow begins the month of April. To say time is flying would be an understatement. Starting tomorrow I officially only have 4 more months left in my YAV year and 4 more months to get everything I can out of it! That being said, I had a pretty good week and starting this upcoming week work will start to pick up (Project Homecoming's Summer Youth Mission is approaching!) and hopefully I will have a better sense soon of where I will be next year. For now I am trying to focus on enjoying every day I have here because I don't know for sure how much longer I will here.

Day 15: Ruby Slipper

Monday: I can't believe it's already been a week since Mike left. For our last meal I took him to the Ruby Slipper, my favorite brunch spot in New Orleans. I have officially taken every one of my visitors there and it has never disappointed. They have six different types of Eggs Benedict so even though I have been there 4 times I haven't tried them all! I got the Salmon Benedict last week and it was to die for. Great meal to end a great visit.


Day 16: Scene It!

Tuesday: Three weeks running now our Tuesday meeting has been the highlight of my Tuesdays. We have one night per month that is set aside for community time which basically translates to us all eating and hanging out together. Jess's parents were in town and graciously bought us all pizza which was instantly devoured. We then decided as a house to play a movie trivia game called Scene It! Things we learned? Jess knows pretty much everything there is to know about movies and the rest of the house doesn't haha. We had some good laughs including one category was the game gave you a movie title where the words were replaced with synomns and you had to translate it to reveal the title.

Examples:
Pasture of Imaginings = Field of Dreams
A dozen +4 Birthday Torches = 16 Candles

Needless to say many of us couldn't control our laughter at this.

Day 17: Bad Words

Wednesday: One of my new friends here in New Orleans got tickets to see the new Jason Bateman movie Bad Words before it was officially released in theaters. I left work a little early so I could make it (how could I turn down free movie tickets?) and was not disappointed. I am a huge Jason Bateman fan in general and I thought the movie was wonderful. I also felt kind of like a VIP because I got a wristband and there were people guarding the door. I would highly recommend seeing the movie if you like Jason Bateman, adorable little kids, spelling bees, raunchy humor or all the above.


Day 18: Country Club

Thursday: I almost debated making the Country Club my happy moment for Thursday because the fact that I got to swim in an outdoor heated swimming pool while New Jersey is still freezing it's butt off just doesn't seem fair! But I did it anyways :) The Country Club is a bar in the Bywater that has an outdoor swimming pool and hot tub and is quite easily one of my favorite spots in New Orleans. It felt so good to jump in the water and take in the beautiful cool night. Once it gets warmer out I will be making much more frequent visits.

Day 19: Elvira Home Dedication

I wish I had a better picture with Elvira and her family but because of all the flooding and helping Kelly set up I didn't take any pictures! This is the front of Elvira's house though!

Elvira's street on the day of the dedication...doesn't look as fun as swimming at the Country Club does it?

Friday: One of the best parts about my job is that I get to help plan Home Dedications. When Project Homecoming finishes a house, part of the process is to hold a ceremony officially welcoming home the homeowner and presenting them with some gifts to remember all the hands that came together to complete their house. We present them with a quilt (hand stitched by Presbyterian women), a frame signed by Project Homecoming staff and volunteers) and a giant ribbon that they get to cut in front of their house. Elvira is a wonderful lady and was kind enough to cook all the guests Red Beans and Rice (so delicious) and open up her home for everyone to walk through. Unfortunately Friday ended up being rainy and there were flash flood warnings all day. Driving down her street was near impossible! But we all got our socks a little bit wet to participate in dedicating her home and it was wonderful to connect both Elvira's family to the larger Project Homecoming family.


Day 20: Kelly's House Warming Party

Rachel joked that this picture looks like a stock photo (I guess it kind of does!) but all of us cheering our glasses to Kelly's new home.

Saturday: One of my coworkers at Project Homecoming just bought her very first house! It's an adorable shotgun in the Mid-City/Treme area complete with an adorable backyard. She invited Project Homecoming staff, family and friends to grill, drink and enjoy the beautiful sunshine. Kelly is wonderful but I don't get to see her much outside of work so it was really a treat to hang out at her house with great food and company.


Day 21: Super Sunday

Hunter, John, Me, Anna Leigh and Rachel all enjoying DELICIOUS snoballs out in the beautiful sun at Super Sunday.

One of the Indian Chiefs, all the detail is hand beaded work - incredible!

Sunday: By far my happiest moments in this past week happened when I went to Super Sunday. Traditionally Super Sunday happens the Sunday after Mardi Gras and it a time where all the Mardi Gras Indians show off their costumes that they work on all year hand sewing and beading them. It was unfortunately delayed a few weeks because of inclement weather (you can't bring those beautiful feathers suits out in the rain!) so it finally happened yesterday. There are food trucks, live music, Mardi Gras Indians, brass bands parading around the park, and people just dancing their hearts out! So much soul and life. I went with Anna Leigh and 3 other Project Homecoming folks (John, Hunter and Rachel) and we collectively decided that the experience was wonderful and felt like authentic New Orleans. Anna Leigh even mentioned that she liked it better than the parades. Seeing the spirit, the excitement and the awe over the costumes was an incredible sight to see.

Lesson from the Journey: Funnel cakes are on a different level down here. Best I've ever had.

The Next Seven

This past week has flew by. New Orleans was hit with some gorgeous weather that had me spending a lot of time outside in the sunshine. Daylight Savings has pushed back sunset to around 7:15 allowing me to fully enjoy the city. I had an impromptu visitor this weekend - my best friend Mike from home - which made me incredibly happy. I hadn't seen him since I left for New Orleans in August so hanging out and sharing the city with him, especially with such gorgeous weather, was nothing short of perfect. He contributed to many of my happy moments this past weekend but here is the breakdown for the past week.

Day 8: Painting My Nails

Monday: I am absolutely obsessed with Essie nail polish and usually always have my nails painted but when I actually take the time to do it well it makes such a difference! This is "Carry On", a color I got for Christmas, and although it isn't appropriately green for St. Patrick's day it was wonderful to have nicely painted nails for the rest of the week (and they are still going strong today!)

Day 9: Reflection on Mardi Gras

Tuesday: I love that my happy Tuesday moments have both come from our weekly house meetings. This week we all prepared answers to some Mardi Gras reflection questions. What did you like about Mardi Gras? What didn't you like about Mardi Gras? What is the spiritual significance of Mardi Gras? What was your favorite throw? How did you celebrate Ash Wednesday? What is it like to have an entire city stop and celebrate? My housemates had wonderful insights on the celebration and it was wonderful to process it all being a few weeks out of it. The general consensus was that we were all very happy to experience Mardi Gras as "locals" rather than a tourist because both experiences are so drastically different. It was also most interesting to me how defensive we all got about New Orleans when outside friends and family assumed that Mardi Gras is just a drunken and lewd celebration. I think this city has come to mean a lot to all of us.


Day 10: Hammocking in City Park

Wednesday: Valentina and I have made it a post work tradition to start hammocking in City Park. We found this awesome tree that allows for two hammocks to link next to each other (as you can see in the picture). City Park is quite easily one of my favorite places in all of New Orleans. It is home to the oldest collection of live oaks (some trees being over 600 years old!), has a mini golf course, amusement park, sculpture garden, beignet cafe, swingsets, open lawns and more that I haven't even seen. It's a perfect spot to unwind and hammock after working all day.

Day 11: Groundhog Day

Thursday: If you have never seen Groundhog Day you should stop reading my blog right now and watch it immediately. I had an iTunes gift card and my wonderful roommate Anna Leigh suggested I buy Groundhog Day. It is a wonderful and hilarious movie that I had completely forgotten about and now I can watch it whenever I want.

Day 12: Did 10 miles on the bike (and Mike arrives!)

Friday: I have gotten into the habit of biking 5-6 times a week and as my legs have been getting stronger, I have been setting a goal for myself to bike 10 miles and I finally reached my goal on Friday! I did 4 laps around the Audubon Park loop and felt amazing after! My new goal is 15 miles so we'll see how long it takes me to reach that :) The app MapMyRide is awesome and if you bike/walk/run you should definitely look into it.

Day 13: Mellow Mushroom and City Park

Saturday: Mike really wanted to watch the Pitt game for March Madness (his alma mater) so we hit up the Mellow Mushroom (a pizza/bar within walking distance from my house) and enjoyed the game. The weather was gorgeous - sunny and almost 80 degrees - so we walked around City Park afterwards, eating beignets, enjoying the big lake and sculpture garden. I wouldn't be mad if the weather was like that every day. I even got a little tan :)

Day 14: Muriel's

Sunday: Mike's last night in town, we decided to go out to a nice dinner. Muriel's has been on my list and was also suggested by Mike's mom who has been there before. It was delicious. Easily my favorite meal in New Orleans so far and that is saying a lot! I started off with Eggplant Roulade which was grilled eggplant rolled up and filled with three different types of cheese, then had Seafood Bayoubaisse which was crabmeat, shrimp and crawfish in this to die for sauce and then we both split a house made snickers bar. It was nice to dress up and have a long, relaxing, delicious meal.

Lesson from the Journey: Sharing this city with my oldest friend made me so incredibly happy. I am lucky to have people in my life like Mike.

Growing Up

Lately I have been feeling pressure to "get my act together". Now that April is right around the corner, the daunting question of what I will be doing next year is more frequently being asked not only by others but also by myself. It's not like I have put off this task to the last minute or anything like that - I have applied to several programs and reached out to a few organizations. I don't doubt that I will find something to do next year but the fact that I still don't know what I ultimately want to do with my life or as a career is scary and often times extremely deflating. I feel like I have a lot to offer but I don't know how I want to channel my passions and my interests. It's definitely a challenge.

One of the things that has been weighing on me the most is where I physically want to be next year. I have come to love and adore the city of New Orleans more than I ever thought possible. A huge part of me wants to stay down here another year and continue to explore this wonderful place. It's funny how I thought a year would be a sufficient amount of time to really get to know a place, but I find that my To Do list is growing faster than I can keep up with it. Not that I ever anticipated doing everything but I thought I would have checked off a lot more than I have. There is just so much to see and do. It is also extremely attractive that many of the friends that I have made here are staying another year so if I found something to do in New Orleans I would have people to live and hang out with on a regular basis.

You always hear that growing up is hard and you come to appreciate the simpler days in life that will never be again (i.e. the days of no bills, few responsibilities and where the world felt like your oyster). Growing up is so hard. Sometimes harder than I want it to be. I wish I could get a letter in the mail saying "Dear Alyssa, You need to get so and so job to be happy and successful. Sincerely, Life". Wouldn't that just be lovely? I feel so lost sometimes that the day where I have a job that I am happy in and that supports me seems like a speck in the distance. It also isn't easy to have my sister getting her act together seemingly sooner than me. The pressure!

I guess I just need to keep reminding myself that 23 years old does not qualify me as ancient (I mean I can't even rent a car!) and I just need to take things one step at a time. Unfortunately that is way easier said than done because if I was thinking about this calmly and rationally I probably wouldn't be blogging about it. Keep me in your thoughts as I try to navigate this thing they call life.

Lesson from the Journey:

Yeah me either Wendy. 

The First Seven

I can't believe that it's already been a week since I committed to doing 100 Happy Days. I have had a busy past week and plenty of opportunities to observe happy moments in every day. So here are the first 7 of my happy days!

Day 1: Homemade Thai Red Curry

Monday: I homemade some delicious Red Thai Curry. It had red, yellow and orange peppers, mushrooms, onions and bamboo shoots. I pretty much ate it for lunch and dinner three days in a row! Being a vegetarian has empowered and challenged me to cook more food and try new recipes.

Day 2: Ellen Davis Ecclesiastes

Tuesday: We have been using various chapters of this Ellen Davis book through our YAV year. Our focus this past week was the chapter on the book of Ecclesiastes. I wasn't at all familiar with the book before reading Ellen Davis' interpretation but felt an immediate connection with it's message. At first glance the book can seem very cynical (the author, Solomon, preaches that everything we do and everything we work towards is essentially meaningless) which I find very easy to relate to especially in my current stage of life. What is my purpose on this earth? Will what I do have an impact? These are questions consistently on my mind as I search for a place in the world. I think a very easy, and in my opinion a cop out answer, is that we might not know why were are here but if we are here we might as well make the most of it. Make the most of it how? Solomon in Ecclesiastes takes a slightly different and more satisfying approach to the question. He talks about how history and nature all move in cycles, so that ultimately all events are predetermined and unchangeable - the wise man and that man who does not study wisdom will both die and be forgotten. Death levels all. All people face death but yet life is better than death so we should enjoy life when we can. The only good is to partake in life in the present moment, for enjoyment is from the hand of God. This line of reasoning and recognition of death as a unifying agent among all living things thus we should enjoy God's creation while we can really resonated with me. I found a lot of peace contemplating the book of Ecclesiastes and how I can fit it's message into my own world view.

Day 3: Going to the Fly

Wednesday: The Fly is one of my favorite spots in all of New Orleans. It is located in Audubon Park and is essentially a big open lawn that looks over the Mississippi River. When the weather is nice, people set up their grills and blankets and enjoy the beautiful view as boats pass by on the river. Me and a few coworkers met up after work, grilled some burgers and enjoyed the sunset and good company.

Day 4: Trixie

Thursday: My roommate Alex had her family in town for the weekend and they brought along their brand new kitten! This adorable munchkin (named Trixie) got to stay at the YAV house for a few days. She is quite possibly the cutest kitten I have ever got to play with. So friendly and playful and she liked licking my fingers and playing with dust bunnies under the bed. Definitely a happy day getting to hang out with such a cutie.

Day 5: Mona's Cafe

Friday: I went out to a late lunch with my site coordinator, Layne, to Mona's Cafe. I got a delicious Falafel sandwich (resisted getting a gyro!) and enjoyed eating it outside. It is always nice to spend time with Layne because as much as she is my boss she is also someone I consider a friend. She has been such a support during my YAV year and I don't know what I would do without her. Getting some quality time together with good food definitely makes me happy.

Day 6: A Cajun Affair

Saturday: I wish I had a better picture to represent the YAV silent auction and dinner but to be completely honest, I was so busy running around and helping to coordinate the event I didn't take any pictures! The event went better then I could have ever anticipated. The food turned out wonderful (BBQ meatballs, loaded potato skins, cheese cubes, crawfish pies, cajun catfish, red beans and rice, salad, and bread pudding with homemade rum sauce to top it off!) while Anna Leigh and Sydney manned the bar (assortment of red and white wine, Abita Gold beer, Bourbon and Ginger and Margaritas). We had some awesome auction items that represented both New Orleans and our YAV talents (Anna Leigh auctioned off golf lessons, Colleen auctioned off a tie dying partying, Kalyn some of her paintings, Alex some of her creations from her ceramics class, etc.) We ended up raising $3,000 for the YAV program after all of our costs. The highlight of the night was by far the square dancing lessons which people got into!

Day 7: Bike Ride

Sunday: Since my knee is the worst knee in history (ok maybe a little bit of an exaggeration but sometimes it can be very annoying!) I have taken it easy on the running and starting biking! I downloaded this awesome app called MapMyRide that allows you to track your route, distance, duration, speed, and calories. My favorite route is taking the path around Audubon Park (as you can see from the picture). I really enjoy biking because you can go further distances than if you were to just run and Audubon Park ain't too shabby to look at :)

Lesson from the Journey: Apparently New Orleanians love their Murder Mystery dinners. Anna Leigh and Jess auctioned off a Murder Mystery dinner complete with three dinner options which ended up being bid up to $240! Making it the item of the night. And to make the situation better? The number 2 bidder said they would pay their top bid if Anna Leigh and Jess would do it for them as well. Pretty neat if you ask me :)

100 Happy Days

My friend Mallory from home recently started a challenge called 100 happy days. The gist of the challenge is this:

If you are interested in looking at the website click here. I think it is a wonderful challenge that pairs nicely with my own lent "challenge" of not eating meat. When you force yourself to think about things that you often overlook or take for granted you can learn more about yourself. I have found that not eating meat has made me more aware of the foods I put into my body just like I think the 100 Happy Days challenge will make me more aware of the things that bring me joy each day. So each week, every Monday, I am going to post 7 pictures of the 7 things that have made me happy in the past week. I am taking my own approach to the challenge (not posting every day) but I have a feeling that it will have a similar effect and make me realize the things that truly bring me happiness in my life. So starting today, Monday, March 10th I will begin 100 happy days. Look for the first update Monday, March 17th.

I am excited.

Lesson from the Journey: I really enjoyed setting challenges for myself whether it's moving away or changing my diet. I think it helps me feel more connected to myself and reveals what I need to be truly happy. Wish me luck!

Reflection on Mardi Gras

Now that Mardi Gras is officially over, it has given me time to reflect on the overwhelming and wonderful experience. It is crazy to think that the event that has been built up and talked about for much of my YAV year is now over. Mardi Gras was both everything I was expecting and nothing I expected at all. That's the interesting thing about expectations, they are often both fulfilled and other times they are not even in the same ballpark. I think the easiest way to break down my thoughts on the past 3 weeks of parades, beads, tourists and general craziness is to list my favorite and least favorite things.

Favorite things about Mardi Gras:

1. The floats! Each day of parades brought bigger, better and more intricate floats. I especially enjoyed the parades during the day because it allowed you to see the intricate work that goes into building these monster floats. The most surprising parts about the floats is that many were 2 stories high and in the bigger parades, the floats often had 3 - 4 parts all linked together. I have never seen floats like this!

Beautiful dragon float with gorgeous hand painted wizard on the side of the float. You can see how tall it stands by the person standing in front. You can also see it lights up by the dragon's chest so it will be still be visible when the sun goes down!

Another beautiful float!

This float was from my favorite parade of Mardi Gras, Endymion. All the people riding the floats wear matching costumes and masks! It's so bright and happy just like I was on that day :)

This is a wonderful example of a 4 part, double decker float! So brightly lite up and many of the cars had music playing!

This is one of my favorite pictures of a parade that Valentina took! Everyone trying to get some awesome throws from some kickass floats. 

2. The Endymion parade! Most of the Mardi Gras parades go through Uptown whereas Endymion goes through Mid-City, another part of New Orleans. The parade started at 4:15 but the festivities started way before that. My friends Valentina and Emily live in Mid-City so we met up at 11:00am for food, drinks, music and hanging. We headed over to the parade around 2:00pm, lucked out on an awesome spot right by the stage where people were performing and the weather was beautiful (I even got a little sun!) The combination of being able to walk tot he parade, our amazing spot and having food and drink on hand combined with the wonderful floats and all the awesome beads I got made it my favorite day of Mardi Gras.

Alex and I posing for a picture before we head over to the parade! Notice that we are not wearing sleeves.

Me, Anna Leigh and some of Emily's friends who came to visit for the weekend! You can see the people waving on the second story porch behind us...they got throws too! 

Valentina brought a ladder so she could stand behind us and still get things! She also did a lot of dancing on it as well.

All of us at the parade (check out our spot!). Valentina obviously took this picture from her ladder throne. In the background you can see a marching band. Every parade features high school and college marching bands, military officers, police officers and more. So inbetween the floats you had music and entertainment as well!

3. Beads! Even though now I am quite unsure what I am going to do with literally 50 lbs of beads, I cannot deny how much fun it is to catch beads at a parade. I also got a lot of unique beads (not just the typical plastic ones!) that I think are definitely worth keeping. When you get enough beads though your neck starts to hurt, true story.

Beads on beads on beads! I think my face shows I have no idea what to do with them all.

4. The entertainment! In between parades (as I mentioned) there were bands, military officials, police officers, dancers and more. It was cool because sometimes members of the bands would come down adorned in beads given to them by the crowd. 

Pete Fountain's Walking Club has been walking the Parade of Zulu (one of the biggest parades) for 50 years! They walked around giving out beads, flowers and hugs! 

A slightly blurry picture but officers marching by in perfect time...seriously though look at how lined up their feet are!

Band members with puppets! 

6. Spending quality time with my friends! It is hard to coordinate so many busy schedules but because of Mardi Gras I got to spend so much time with my housemates and friends. I think that is the best part of Mardi Gras - it brings everyone together because everyone wants to be there! 

Jess with her awesome light up sign (she carried a battery pack with her all the way to the parade!) Muses is a popular Krewe made up of only women. They throw out beautiful hand decorated shoes which is a highly coveted item at Mardi Gras. Jess's sign earned her 4!

All of us posing underneath Jess's sign! 

Me and Emily posing with our beads and Emily was really happy to get the light up headpiece from the Hermes Krewe!

Oh...and hanging with Quentin Tarantino wasn't too bad either!

6. My Zulu coconuts! I think the most exciting part of my Mardi Gras was getting two of the special hand painted coconuts from the Krewe of Zulu. Their parade starts at 8:00am (I got up at 5:00am to be there!) and happens on Mardi Gras day. Like the Muses shoes, getting a Zulu coconut (especially one that is painted as something not just has "Zulu" written on it!) is an awesome token of Mardi Gras. I got 2 and they are just the cutest coconuts I ever did see.

I think they are best friends :)

Least favorite things about Mardi Gras:

Now while Mardi Gras is a fun and wonderful experience, there are definitely some aspects that I did not enjoy. Traffic was horrendous! It often times took me twice as long to get home from work and if I wanted to travel to the other side of town I was better off riding my bike. In addition, there were so many tourists flooding all the restaurants and the French Quarter. I was unhappy to find that my favorite bar on Maison had DJ's and a cover (it is usually free and full of New Orleans bands!) The city felt a lot different than usual in many ways that I did not like. I am happy that I experienced Mardi Gras but I am even more happy that it is over.

The aftermath of parades. 

Overall I had a great Mardi Gras experience. I am glad the city is back to "normal", if that is even a thing in New Orleans because I miss being able to do the things I like to do without all the traffic and crowds! I am still in shock that it is over...it really did come and go so quickly.

Lesson from the Journey: Beads can hurt!

If you look closely at my forehead you can see the welts that beads left when they hit my face...that's what you get for being so close up!

Lent

I have never committed myself to giving up anything for lent partly because I lack the dedication and partly because I never gave much thought to something meaningful I want to give up. This year, however, is different. The past few months I have given some thought to my meat consumption and how it has quite honestly gotten out of control. Eating meat at every meal is something that I really want to try and eliminate. To clarify, I am eliminating all meat and fish. The only exception that I am making is to allow myself to eat crawfish (it is not officially crawfish season and I don't want to miss out!) I also think this challenge will make me more aware of not only what I eat but also expose me to other great foods out there that I am not accustomed to eating on a regular basis. I have been pretty lucky thus far with eating whatever I want and I think my ultimate goal is to eat healthier and lead a healthier lifestyle. In addition, I have a new love for biking (since biking is quite honestly the easiest way to get around during Mardi Gras) and I think I would like to incorporate more biking into my life. I am excited for this challenge.

Lesson from the Journey: I had Melba's (my favorite fried chicken) yesterday as my "last supper". Somehow it tasted even better than usual as if to say "don't stop eating me!" Why do things always seem to work out that way?