Discover you CAN!

Wednesday was fun because I was busy in the office. I was in charge of this week’s newsletter (subscribe at http://www.crescentcityfarmersmarket.org/index.php?page=subscribe!) so I spent all morning working on that. We took the afternoon to practice canning blueberries for a special demonstration at the Saturday market. Kelly’s parents graciously allowed us to use their kitchen and the four of us (Kelly, Elisa, Tatiana, and me) had a lot of fun making blueberry preserves on office time.

Wednesday was Joyce’s birthday, so I gave her the cake (she loved it! success!) (and I know she wasn’t just pretending to be nice because she ate four pieces that night). All of us Robertsons walked to a nearby Indian restaurant to celebrate.

Thursday I worked the market from 1:45 to 7:30pm. I actually used some self-discipline and got up early enough to go running before it got hot, and then headed out to find a pool. There’s a public pool in Audubon Park that Krissi said was pretty nice, so I drove out there to check it out. I got there at 11:30am and was walking in when the lifeguard sitting at the front told me the pool closes from 12 to 1pm for lunch. He said they ask people to leave at 11:45 so it might not be worth my while to get in the water now.

So I drove to a different public pool a few minutes away, and they told me the same thing. Apparently every New Orleans public pool closes from 12 to 1pm for lunch. Since when must every lifeguard in one city eat lunch at the same time? I was pretty indignant about this discovery because it means if I want to go to the pool on any Thursday before work, I have to get there well before noon. First-world problems, right?

Friday was a pretty nice office day, really relaxed because my boss is out of town for the weekend. Tati and I spent a lot of time preparing for the canning demonstration that we did at the Saturday market. Which was incredibly fun! It made the market fly by, because we ran through the demo every 45 minutes with very little turnaround time in between sessions. But I love being busy, and I really enjoyed teaching the new skill I had just learned and being knowledgeable enough to answer questions for people. 

I felt like we were in a rush all day partly because we got off to a late start. When I arrived at the market parking lot at 6am, everyone was standing around watching a dramatic scene unfold. I arrived just a few minutes after a group of four people who looked about my age. They were standing outside a fancy car, looking angry. One girl was crying. I quickly found out that the car had been broken into while these people had been out partying, and a girl’s purse was stolen— including her cash, credit cards, ID, and social security card. So everyone had to wait while they calmed down enough to move the car, and then I spent a good amount of time sweeping the shattered glass out of the lot. Meanwhile, the group had parked inside the garage. The girl whose purse was stolen got sick right outside the storage room door, so we had to step around a pool of vomit every time we went in and out unloading the tents and tables to set up the market.

But other than that, the morning was really fun. It was a pretty hectic market day, so Kelly, Tati and I went out to lunch afterwards to unwind. I’m immensely grateful that I enjoy my coworkers so much, because it makes work fun and I get to hang out with them outside of work too.

I took a nap when I got back to the condo. I’ve learned that even though I might have energy on Saturday afternoons, I crash by 10pm if I don’t take a nap during the day. So basically I have to choose between sleeping in the afternoon and going out at night, or doing something fun in the afternoon and going to bed early.

I was glad I napped because I had a late night. Krissi, her friend Shannon and I went to dinner downtown. Then we went to a bar called Jax (where Krissi knows one of the bouncers) and hung out there for a bit before walking to Bourbon Street. It was pretty crazy, of course, but I enjoy watching other people be crazy because it’s usually really funny. We met a couple of really nice Australian boys whom we introduced to Cafe du Monde. Later we went back to Jax, which also happens to be a club, and met up with more people from our group. A very New Orleans night!