Fair and loving in New Orleans
Date Thursday, March 28, 2024 - 11:28 PM PST
Topic Cult


Perfect moments at the fest included the rejects-only conversation that happened when the girls decided to be all elitist and shop for corsets, like guys can't like that sort of thing. It was like fencing, but with words and together instead of against each other, and I felt like we trod on some ground that had never been trodden before.
Also the walk with Meranda during a spare moment to the market and around the park across from the cathedral that has an amazing aura. It was like the honeymoon we never had since kids have always been there, and New Orleans took us in with open arms. Talking with Daria early in the mornings and late at night was great, it was so comfortable and nice and it was one of those times where you hesitate to break the crystalline honesty of the moment by trying to explore the attraction that you feel. Walking alone through the city was wonderful, I love that city and only wish that somehow I could have it and Colorado at the same time. The weather was absolutely brilliant, over eighty or ninety most days and comfortable as a fleece blanket. You can take your midwestern cold and shove it up your lassez-faire, give me the wet-dog-hump of a New Orleans summer afternoon. Come to think of it, the whole thing was pretty much perfect moments except for my own personal damage that I tried not to wreak on anyone else.

Callei and Meranda planned it perfectly, I cannot think of anything I really missed doing. I would have liked to have eaten at Sukhothai since I eat at a place called Sukhothai in Montgomery, Ohio, and I would like to be "coming in out of the rain to hear the jazz go down" at a real jazz joint that feeds tourists to the alligators. Things I wish I had done include the other attendees in no particular order.

I had never eaten alligator before, so I ordered some and it was great. As MRD pointed out, it did not in fact taste like chicken, it tasted like alligator. I had never eaten goat before, so I ordered the pickled goat and the goat masala, both of which were excellent. I had never been to New Orleans, or indeed south of Garden City, South Carolina, so it was my first time really in the South.

Things I look forward to doing next time include not having a migraine when the hookahs arrive, not missing nekkid hot tub time, and hearing jazz in a joint where they don't speak English, only Creole or French.

I had a good time was the strangest thing that happened. I came very close to backing out and sending CGB, because I am terribly shy around people and especially attractive people in a non-business setting. The place was chock full of attractive people, so you can see the problem there. Meranda wouldn't let me hide in the room the whole time, and Kira got me over my fear of being photographed.

Spontanaety (however the fuck you spell that, I've been drinking or I wouldn't be writing this) was the neatest thing that happened. An ice cream truck drove past at probably forty miles per hour and we fucking chased it down, Paris and Daria and I. No discussions ahead of time, no "hey, let's do this", just raw neural response like children have to the pied piper call of the tinkly bells on the white van. When we returned, me bearing the phallic banana ice cream pop for Meranda, she and MRD were in a tree for no particular reason. Meranda starting a game of tag on Royal Street and all of us played like children ( I nearly destroyed my cellular telephone doing that ) was another example, as was the nekkid hot tub time or so I hear. The drive from Dayton Ohio to New Orleans is thirteen hours or so (if you don't miss exits and end up in Mobile), and having that drive filled with amazing conversation is more neat than I can describe. Kira waking up at Nervous Charlie's in Tennessee at three A.M. and exclaiming "What the F$#%" upon seeing the giant fiberglass gorilla was abso-fuckin-lutely priceless.

The worst part of the party was me, my anxieties and shyness and paralysing fear that absolutely everybody would hate me. I'm like that (did you think I chose my Shmeng name accidentally?), and no matter how I tried to find a way to think I was being rejected, it just didn't feel that way. The other Shmengites, the city, and life in general seemed to be giving me a big warm hug, and for once I felt like I belonged somewhere like I have never felt before.

I have a deep affection for all who attended the party, and if any one of them would need anything from advice to oral favours to whatever, I would be right there. Of course, I'm there for the next one, and I'll probably insist on driving again.

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