Memoirs of a Tomb Raider

I am up and I am overcoming this virus. Now we are on the "cough up phlegm and shit stage" which is honestly much better than the "stuffier than shit" stage.   I have pulled out my old point shoes, and started doing warm ups with them, and the only thing that seems to dislike the plan is the burning in my right knee, but only when I stretch.  Tuesday, after work I plan on hitting the local ballet store  "Fuzi" and getting the Bloch Dramaticas that IO can't stop thinking about.   I did not go the gym today, as I do not want to give people this special sort of misery. Who wants to be sick all the time? My Tongue web piercing has healed at doesn't hurt anymore. Christmas was a hit. Life is awesome. Even with a cold I feel amazing.  But I digress. Does all that shit make me happy? Pointe shoes and healthy bodies? Well, no. I AM happy, these things bring me joy

I love the idea of a new year, and I hate it at the same time. It acts as a sticky note on the calendar where people remember " Oh shit, that's right, I should spend time on myself"......Really?  That's all you give yourself? A few minutes one day a year? And then berate yourself for the rest of the year about how you didn't actually follow through?  Do you know why you failed so hard?  Because you didn't put the time in. 100% Everyday. You didn't put yourself first.  That's right. Let that set in.  Now breathe, because it will be OK.   Failure is OK. It means you tried, and you get an opportunity to try again. So many times we act as though our life is over if we fail.  IT'S OK TO FAIL. ( A lesson I had a really hard time learning) .   Failure means you tried. What's worse, not trying or trying and learning from failure? Be kind to yourself, but at least give yourself some time. Time work 

Just saw a big, beautiful grey American staffordshire terrier get off the plane. He literally sat under the seat with his people.

2 and a half hours of sleep. Safely in the plane. Heading to LA.

Monday, we walked. A lot. We took the city in, block by block. We ate at an amazing Italian place, went and visited a new friend, and just took it all in.

Sunday Morning: Josh and I woke up with plans to hit La Pavillion  (http://www.lepavillon.com/) for breakfast, as they have amazing eggs Benedict and bananas foster fresh made. Brunch on Sunday was quite an experience in the past with a full breakfast buffet and bottomless mimosas.  When we got there, it was almost over ( it was 1pm, ended at 2 ) and most of the food was picked over pretty hard. Price was 55$ a person.  We changed our minds and headed to this place.   And the eggs Benedict was really good. Coffee was also well made and dark. Not that watered down stuff I ordered grits for my side and put butter with a touch of sugar in them, and it really hit the spot.  After we meandered through twon and headed up towards the french quarter. On the way we found this store, with really high prices but super cute gear  (http://www.lucky13.com/)  Then we walked back to our place. New Orleans has such interesting streets. Here we have

Halloween, we still had the motorcycle. We ate breakfast at McDonald's as we headed out to the abandoned 6 flags. (Don't get your hopes up, it was super boring).  I started the morning with coffee, and almonds.  We then headed out. There was a threat of storm while we were out gallivanting, but it was worth the risk.   We hit a McDonalds before we crossed a long, empty,swamp area on the way to our destination.  After breakfast we drove over the swamp to check out 6 flags. When we got there, we saw how closed it really was. Multiple fences and a guard at the closed gate. We drove around a little more to get pictures from the road with no success. After that, we decided to go back to town and some exploring again. Shopping on magazine street turned up a beautiful french bakery, where I got chocolate vanilla mouse , and Josh, his fresh lemon sorbet with a small bit of chocolate We hit bourbon street to get pictures a

 Yesterday : I got up at 630 and started writing and drinking coffee. My personal favorite thing to do. Next we saddles our bikes and biked to the Waffle house for breakfast.  The ride was a little rough as the sidewalks have had a hard life with years of abuse,lack of maintenance and flooding. Our beach cruisers, although slow, ate it up. The waffle house was your run of the mill greasy spoon, but is a pulse of the the city during a disaster. It was good. The coffee was weak, but the blueberry waffles Josh got were really good. http://www.wafflehouse.com/ The serve you through the booth which is next to the working area, which was an interesting concept. After that we rode home and decided to rent a motorcycle. So far, we have rode Uber,taxi,walked and now motorcycle. The motorcycle has been an incredible experience. BMW makes a great bike. We got a ride from the Eaglerider http://www.eaglerider.com/  company came and picked us up. We were driven by a grizzled old

So....we rented a motorcycle,because  we were tired of taxis

What an amazing day. I am physically wiped. We started with some meanderings in the local area. We walked until we got hungry finding local gems for food and shopping. Churches, some fully restored and attended while some were not. Libraries and gyms abanodoned. There was a fantastic place called "Buttermilk drop Bakery and Cafe" that boasted incredible amounts of food donuts and breakfast. At about 11 we grabbed a cab and 25$ later we were in Chalmette, (ward of New Orleans, similar to a suburb) and hut Rocky and Carlos for some famous macaroni and cheese. We were pretty far from our neighborhood so we hit the local walmart in search of a card reader, and some groceries. Rumor has it a storm will come in tomorrow. We struggled to get a cab out there and Uber wasn't working, and offered us only a box of kittens for 15 minutes, which wouldn't help with getting us and our groceries home. We finally got a cab, and came home to rest for about an hour. From