The boys (all four of them) have been gone this whole week. I had to stay home, of course, and I have literally worked every single day that they have been gone. It’s Saturday and I’ll be going into the office in a bit – though not til after I do a Body Pump class and savor a lazy morning with coffee first. It’s been a really good week, actually. Although I miss the Littles, I don’t miss them too much. I’ve worked way too much but I’ve also been out on the town with friends almost every night, taking advantage of all this city has to offer. Last Saturday – the first night they were gone – I worked 7 hours, then came home and binge-watched Nurse Jackie and ate ice cream. Sunday was spent working a bit more and packing some. I also worked out for over 2 hours on Sunday – felt amazing not to be watching the clock and feeling guilty that I was missing time with the kids. Sunday afternoon/evening I had two social dates – first, drinks with some friends at Cure, where we discussed their new baby-on-the-way and the troubles with renting in New Orleans. I went from that one to a second date with the Prof’s female colleagues, who go out for drinks pretty often and almost always include me, because they’re wonderful. Being highly educated professors, they are super smart, and really fun but also serious and have great, intellectual conversation. Although occasionally there is lots of work talk that I can’t totally follow, I still go and love it every time. We drank frozen slushy vodka lemonade at Willa Jean’s, a new John Besh place in town, and chatted about travel and teaching and being professional women in the South, and it was glorious.
Although on Monday night I worked past 9pm, through the week I had plenty of social dates as well. I went to Arana one night for a pitcher of margaritas, and then to the Rum House for $3 tacos. I went to Sucre’s Salon restaurant for a fabulous brunch and tea with macaroons, and then had an evening date at the Rusty Nail for beers and po boys. Last night a friend and I hit up Rebellion, a new bar on Camp Street near the federal courthouse, and we had happy hour rose and some Asian/Mexican fusion food that was excellent, and watched the somewhat puzzling Rio Opening Ceremonies on the muted bar tv (without commentary, it was hard to really tell what was going on). On the few nights I was not scheduled to hang with friends, I went to the gym. I hit the grocery store one evening to buy just a few things to get me through the week, and spent $40 instead of the usual $400. (That’s a slight exaggeration for rhetorical effect, but it is not unusual for me to spend well over $300 on groceries for the hollow-legged children I share my home with.) Although I billed 55 hours last week, it still felt like a vacation, being without the kids. Today is Saturday, and as noted above I shall work a substantial chunk of it (sob), but I’ll also probably go to White Linen Night tonight downtown, I’ll definitely work out a lot, and maybe even pack some boxes.
And thus you have it – my NOLA eatery name-dropping. What a place this is – so much life, so much joie de vivre – similar to Paris in that way. Much, much more third-world in its governmental services, but the secret is to always approach those interactions with low expectations. If you can handle that (admittedly a challenge for this OCD gal), your reward is all of these amazing cultural and sensory experiences that aren’t even that highly priced. (Many of the above-described outings were actually work events, so I didn’t even have to pay!) I’ve really enjoyed exploring the town as a single gal for a week, and it’s so awesome that I have all these friends I could call and spend time with. It definitely meets those needs in a way Alabama never could, and this week sans-children has been a helpful reminder that life is still out there, even though the kids keep me home-bound in this phase of life.
We close on our home purchase on Monday morning, at last. It’s kind of depressing that I’ve been in the office 12-13 hours every day this week, but I spent several hours each day managing all of the back-and-forth for the house sale, so I’m not even that far ahead in billing! And I need to take Monday to move us. Hence the Saturday-in-the-office. I hate billing.
However, I love the idea of moving. We are finally going to be settled. I will post pictures, once we get situated. We were originally going to move Friday, but the closing got pushed back because the appraisal took forever. We asked for a leaseback but they put tons of strict and draconian terms on the proposed short term lease, so we ended up bailing on that, and resigning ourselves to a Monday move. We’ll have kids underfoot and I’ll be glued to work email, but that’s ok. We’ll make it work.
Meanwhile, I’ve got a Body Pump class to get to. Our gym is finally open today, after being closed for maintenance this week – THIS WEEK OF ALL WEEKS – and though we had access to another gym as a replacement, its hours are terrible for working people – 9am – 7pm. So I did 5 mile morning runs outside in the dripping, terrible heat each day, cursing the timing of the maintenance closure, but also determined to use this week to its fullest. I also put on a poor choice of sock yesterday, an ankle sock that slipped down into my shoe without my noticing, and now I have terrible blisters where the shoe rubbed for 5 miles. Nevertheless! I shall put on moleskin and soldier on! If I had to choose between which was best this week – (a) sleeping, (b) going out, or (c) working out unlimited amounts of time – I’m not sure I could pick.
Boys come home tonight or tomorrow, I’m still not sure which. I can’t wait to see them. Littlest Man got bit by a bat while on vaca (YES. When the Prof called me and said “don’t freak out,” I of course freaked out a little and my mind went a few terrible places, but “bit by a bat” was not one of them.) (We are doing the rabies vaccine thing as a precaution. Luckily it was our 2 year old, who is a stoic little soldier, and not our 8 year old, who would have made this whole multi-phase vaccine process completely terrible.) Although he’s totally fine I do kinda want to hug him a bit and see with my own eyes that all is well. And before they left, Liam was really sad that I couldn’t go, and kept bargaining with me all the ways that I could make it up there, so I’ll be happy to see him again and assure myself that he had a good time. And Jack – we have a poster and two book reports to do before school starts, so I can’t wait to get him going on that. Seeing my boys soon. What a great week!