Thursday night Dustyn called us to meet him and a few people at Bruno's - turned out to be half the med school class again, some of whom I remembered from the night before and others I did not.  (Oops. my fault.)  Not sure why the bouncer remembers me on my second visit there...

Karen and I drove over and hung for a bit, but then went home pretty early so that we would be up for orientation at 8am Friday morning.  Probably a good call although Dustyn stumbled in at 2am and kept us up for awhile.  Needless to say, he wasn't that happy the next morning, particularly the segment of orientation that had a the med school rock band playing.  We headed home after scarfing down hangover-recovery lunch (red beans and rice with sausage and Tabasco) and all immediately went down for a nap.  Later that night we went to a stoplight party at the condo of some T2 which was silly because between the huge group of people, there was an obvious separation between T1s and T2s.

Early Saturday we met up on campus to hop on school buses to go tubing at Wayne's World on the Bogue Chitto for a few hours.  It was a great trip - Karen and Dustyn and I plus a few people we met a long the way floated in a little group with our beer cooler strapped to its own inner tube.  Despite being lathered up in SPF 45, I burnt worse than I've ever burnt and I now look pretty lobster-y.

Last night was the med school party at Tropical Isle on Bourbon Street.  I'm pretty tired of yelling at other T1's to ask their names over the noise in the bar, so a few of us disappeared off to go dancing elsewhere until the early hours only to get up early AGAIN this morning.

Dustyn and I went to the AMSA book sale this morning to get our textbooks, then promptly went back to sleep when we got home.  Today was also the family picnic at the Peristyle in City Park, a cool venue, but it was in the low 90s and pretty humid so it was pretty uncomfortable to stand around.  Later we went to Cafe Du Monde in the French Quarter for coffee and beignets (my new favorite food), then to Henry's on Magazine Street for the Saints game, darts, and free BBQ.

Now we're having a wardrobe crisis for tomorrow's white coat ceremony.  Hope my sunburn isn't too apparent in my outfit.

This morning was early considering we were at the Bulldog late last night for an informal gathering of a few dozen T1's.  Wednesday is free glass night,  so Dustyn stocked up for our kitchen.  One of our new friends conveniently lives a few houses away, so it was easy to hop the patio gate to make bathroom runs and leave a bunch of empty pint glasses in his sink.

Karen woke me up at 8:30 to retrieve her car from outside the bar and pick up Dustyn from where he'd crashed last night.  I got into the shower when we came back and hopped into bed, but the phone rang shortly after because Amelia was nearby and we had a lunch date.    She was early, but we caught up on gossip and then went to lunch.  I was afraid she'd get a ticket parking her 3/4 ton pickup and 30-foot cattle trailer in front of my house, but we left it there anyway and took my car to navigate the neighborhood a little more easily.  We went a few blocks away to Maple Street Café.  I had a yummy crawfish pasta dish.  We ended up driving around the city a little bit (I saw my first FEMA trailer) into areas that had pretty evident water lines on the houses about 4 feet high.  We also went into Old Metairie for a bit, where there are a lot of beautiful old neighborhoods that may or may not slowly come back.

We sat out on the balcony with Karen and chatted for a while before she left (with half of our packing boxes to take to the dump in her cattle trailer).  Karen and I went out to Whole Foods (finally something that looks familiar!) and to pick up her car from the mechanic.  After dinner, we hit up a fantastic gelato place on Magazine Street, Sucre.

Now we're back at the house and I'm slowly but surely unpacking my clothes and putting them away.  I'd try to live out of suitcases for longer, but since I've been here, I've just done a lot of laundry and worn the same things over and over again.  I might need to be a little more presentable tomorrow morning at our first day of orientation.

Up bright and early (9am!) to run errands and take care of random things.  First stop was at school downtown to register our parking permit and sign in so the school knows we're here.  Up at the admissions office, we ran into Father Don/Dr Owens, or some combination of the above, our faculty advisor, who showed us around the student areas and told us about all of the parties and bars we're supposed to go to.  (Yes, that's FATHER Don, as in, he's a priest.)

Back at home, we sat around pondering the ideal locations for the 2 sofas Karen brought down with her and how to power the TV, since the only conveniently located outlet doesn't work.  Late 19th century building, I guess.  The landlady refers to that one as "decoration."

Dustyn and I made a run to the bank down the street - it's actually a trailer because the old building flooded during Katrina.  It's so small, you have to wait in line outside until the armed guard lets you in.  Dustyn thought this would be an ideal time to take of his shirt and tan while we waited.  The line went a lot faster than expected (good thing, it was sunny and humid) and we found ourselves chatting with our next-door neighbor's cousin as he set up our accounts.  The name of the bank branch?  South Carrollton Double-Wide.  He may have been kidding, but there is actually a branch called the South Claiborne Trailer.

We took a quick trip to the post office across the street to send a box of food and toiletries to my sister's friend Brendan who is stationed in Afghanistan, then went into the drive-through at Rally's.  (Bacon cheddar hot fries!!)  The girl at our take-out window actually forgot we were sitting at the microphone and we ended up waiting for awhile until she remembered.  A quick trip out to Metairie and then we went back to the house to squabble over the temperature the thermostat should be set to.

Karen reappeared awhile later, and she and I went grocery shopping.  Not thinking, we left the house shortly after hearing the first clap of thunder.  It was sprinkling when we jumped in my car, but by the time we got to Winn-Dixie, it was more torrential rain and thunder and lightning.  We got out (and I tried to use an umbrella - apparently there is no point) and in the mess of rain and trying to stop a shopping cart from rolling into my car, I forgot to lock the doors and had to run back into the rain.  Everyone else was just hanging out in the store by the entrance waiting for the rain to let up before leaving, so I guess we should have just sat inside the car for a few minutes.  By the time we were done shopping, it was only sprinkling.  I don't get it.  This doesn't happen in California.