Those Sum-m-m-m-er Nights....

I can't help but wonder, if the movie "Grease" had been filmed in New Orleans, would Danny and Sandy ever broken up? I mean, summer obviously NEVER ends here, so their love wouldn't have been torn apart by seasons...I jest but seriously, it's 7 at night, 81 degrees and 70% humidity. I'm glad that we're going to have a warm Halloween but this is ridiculous.

I haven't blogged for a while so I will try to back track and cover some things. My friend Benjamin subtly reminded me that I needed to blog.

Last week was a traveling week for me. I spent the first few days in Oxford, Mississippi visiting my friends Jason and Connie. I had a great time even if I didn't realize that they lived almost to Tennessee, seriously, 5 1/2 hour drive from N.O. Oxford is the home of Ole' Miss and most of the city seems to center around the University. Literally the town centers around "the square" which is picturesque. Connie and I ate our lunch at Ajax diner, a quaint little restaurant on the square which had the best southern food I have had in a long time. I ate chicken and dumpling (which rivaled my grandmothers, a tough accomplishment,) fried okra and homemade coleslaw. Other than the sodium content which was roughly the amount of that lake in Utah, the food was unbelievable. There is also a fantastic book store there on the square and I bought several books, though none of them were William Faulkner (who called Oxford home.) We also went to Faulkners house and had a nice walk around. Jason owns a club in Oxford and they were having an up an coming country singer named Dierks Bentley in concert. I got to meet Dierks and he put on a great show. Though I have known for a long time that Jason owned this club, he had never told me that he hires only extremely hunky muscular boys to bartend for him. One of the boys, Jersey (I have no idea if this is his real name,) was particularly handsome and I flirted outrageously with him the entire time I was there. Sadly, I don't think he was really aware of the flirtation as he's not a terribly bright boy. Sweet, handsome, an unbelievable body but definitely not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

I had to take off Wednesday night and head back to New Orleans. A friend from Indianapolis, Gilbert, came into town the next day for a weekend visit. I didn't have much time to spend with him but we did fiddle about town a little bit.

That Sunday afternoon I bid goodbye to my visiting friend and headed back to Mississippi, this time to Biloxi. DJ Brendan and I went to the Grand Casino to see Dolly Parton in concert. I have seen Dolly several times and many of them were similar shows. This was an all new show with an entirely new band. The show opened with the band playing the tune "Hello Dolly," which I can't believe she hadn't thought of before. Dolly wants to play the big theatre built for Celine Dion (BlechBlechBlech) and as part of the contract she played some other casinos owned by the same company, thus her appearance in Biloxi, MS. This new show was peppered with the usual style of down home stories and thinly veiled sexual commentary, along with a healthy dose of God and country. I was extremely thrilled to hear her sing "Hello God" which is Dolly's 9/11 song (didn't every country singer do one?)

New Orleans is preparing for Halloween, decorations are everywhere and haunted houses are in full swing. Jason, the aforementioned Oxford bar owner friend, came into town with Jeremiah, a bartender from his bar. We went to House of Shock, a local haunted house. We had a great time, got scared and came out sweaty and (at least me) a bit shaky. There was a little booth outside where you could press an air button and scare people inside the spook house. It was $1 for three shot and I swear we must have spent 20 bucks frightening people. Legal terror, FUN!

Other than a long drawn out story about an abused dog, abuse of power, mental impairment, power struggles and misguided compassion that has yet to be resolved, that's it for now.