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.