NOLA Bound

Ari says:
Well, I'm sure the proverbial cat is out of the bag, but for those of you who don't know, I can now reveal that Bart and I are moving to New Orleans in the near future (NOLA= New Orleans, Louisiana; for those of you not "in the know"). This has been a crazy few months with several things up in the air, but Bart ended up getting orders to fly with 4th MAW (Marine Air Wing) for one year and the possibility of those orders being extended to two years. Right now we are just very excited to get to live together. In our one year of marriage we've lived together for about 2 1/2 months total, with visits about every month. So, what all does this mean? Well, Bart will stay out in San Diego until the end of September when his TAD orders are up (Temporary Active Duty). I will stay here in Nashville and work through the end of August (only 24 days left, not that I'm counting down or anything). September will be spent traveling to Lexington and Denver, getting visits in, and then I'll spend the rest of the time here in Nash-Vegas getting rid of junk, finding boxes and getting packed up for the move, on top of continuing my job search. Be proud of me that I've already started collecting boxes and applying for jobs. There are good and band points about this move. Again, the best part is that we'll finally be together. A couple other pluses are that we will be 3 hours from Bradley and only 5 hours from Conley. Bring on the Diva Conventions!! Of course, the hard part will be going further away from Lexington; my once 3 hour drive will now be over 10, and probably not doable all that often. And I have made some wonderful friends here, especially Angela, who I will miss terribly (but know that she will come and visit often because she just loves me that much, right?). However, as with any change, I am starting to feel the rush. Plans are starting to fall into place and I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. This brings me to this past weekend. Angela was my absolute savior this weekend and agreed to trek down to NO with me on a hunting expedition. We got on the road after work on Friday and made it to the Southern Sin City without too much trouble, barring one traffic jam and the "manalog" clock. The "manalog" clock was actually an analog clock that was in the dash of the rental car we had. As Angela was wondering why they put that particular model in if everything else was digital, I began to say that in some luxury cars I had seen they put in an analog clock to be posh. Well, I tried to say "manual" to describe the clock, but immediately knew that it was the wrong word and tried to correct that by saying "analog" at the same time, and thus the birth of the manalog clock. See, I'm human, I make mistakes (not many, though). Anyway, we made it to NO and settled into our hotel room. Saturday dawned hot and muggy and we were out early to start our search. Angela was a genius with the maps and got us through the crazy streets to start the search for living accommodations. We looked at places in the French Quarter and Algiers Point (cute little town across the river) and quickly decided that "The Point" was the place to be. We focused our search there and probably looked at 10 different possibilities through the day. As the thermostat topped 100, we sweltered our way in and out of the car, up and down new streets, but eventually found a couple spots that Bart and I could happily call home. We finally headed back to our hotel to cool off and get ready for dinner. After a brief search of the immediate vicinity of the hotel, we decided on a wonderful little place called Café Orleans and had an amazing dinner full of all kinds of seafood (we split a seafood appetizer and entree) and a couple glasses of much-deserved wine. We then sloshed through the torrential downpour to get back to the hotel and parked ourselves at the bar for a bit before retiring to bed. We were both exhausted, and sleep was not far off. Sunday was the long drive back, but we made it without any trouble and were both home at a decent time. Again, I can't say enough thanks to Angela for all her help this weekend. It would not have been possible without her. As for me, I think I've got a few great ideas for Bart and me, and at least we now know where to focus our search. All in all, the weekend was a success and I feel much better having the wheels starting to get into motion for this new chapter in our lives.