Last night, I found myself sitting in a meeting room among a group of people with whom I was employed, but that I do not actually know.  The meeting table was an ovular streamlined design, the walls half cherry wood, half exposed brick.  It was at once professional, and artsy.  We were, from what I gathered, some sort of marketing team, and we were sitting around brainstorming the most effective way to market a new product.  Several samples of the new product were on the table in front of us, running around.  This new product was, of course, a Bobble-Head Wind-up doll, depicting the face and form of a certain previous New Orleans mayor…you know, the one *just before* Mitch Landrieu took the helm?  The rather unlikable one that messed a lot of stuff up?  Anyway, we were stymied.  Who on earth would want these things, and why?!  At that moment, one of the dolls, in its jerky windup fashion, marched straight off the edge of the table and fell crashing to the floor, where it promptly broke into a few pieces.  The lightbulb went off, and the ad campaign was born.  “You too can own your own collection of Former Mayor             dolls!  Make them walk off cliffs!  Place one under your tire, before you back out of the driveway!  The options are limitless!”

I woke up, laughing my ass off.  I truly did.  What?  It was FUNNY!

My subconscious is apparently already on some sort of New Orleanian political brainwave.  It’s already living there.  Now my body just needs to catch up!  It’s like soul-delay, but in reverse.

***

This week has been an angsty one.  Are we going, or ain’t we?!  Don’t know yet.  It occurred to me finally, last night, after a full day of sitting at my desk shaking and worrying, that I need to chill out and just wait.  This is a work in progress.  Chill out.  Relax.  So, I’m tryin’.  So, other than the job-hunt-interview-wannamove mental mayhem, here are some other miscellaneous views of my past week.  Just for the heck of it.  Be warned: it’s seriously rambly.

***

Of course, the majority of this past Sunday was spent working on the Voodoo Jar.  In the middle of it, I took a break by snapping a shot of our Mardi Gras table centerpiece, since it was right in front of my face all afternoon.

Laissez Le Bon Temp Roulez, with Sparklies!

Monday, after work, J and I were too excited and keyed up about the well-played phone interview to sit around the house.  So, we put our coats back on and walked a block to Charlie Brown’s for happy hour and pizza.  2-for-1 wine for me, appletinis for him.  Greek pizza for both of us.  And a lot of hopeful, excited talk.  We realized we’d just had our Valentine’s Date a night early.  Yippee!  We love avoiding the standard holiday crowd, so the whole evening was a multiple-win.

Shot through the plastic patio walls, which keep us warm in the wintertime.

That was my second foray to Charlie Brown’s within a week.  I went there last week for lunch with my parents, who were down visiting from a little farther up the interstate.  Lunch is fun there, with them.  The daytime waitstaff loves to joke around and talk with them.  They hadn’t been there since before the holidays last year…but our guy remembered exactly what they like to order.  Good people.

 Urban view, Charlie Brown’s parking lot.

Since we’d had our date early, Valentine’s day was fairly uneventful, which is just fine.  We treat each other right all of the other days of the year, too, so there you go.  However, neat things from coworkers kept appearing on our desks on Tuesday, which was fun.  I was able to start my day with chocolate-cherry hearts!

A day begun with choclate and coffee is a very good one, indeed.

And then the flower fairy passed through.  I love carnations.  I think they get a truly undeserved bad rap.  Is it because they are cost-effective, that they are typically viewed as cheap and “unclassy”??  Or what?  To me, they smell great, they are versatile in color, and they last forever.  So don’t worry carnations, I love you!

What’s not to love?

Tuesday eve, I had to bravely make a foray into the grocery store up the street.  We were out of some things, and I wanted to bring cheesecake home for J.  He’d been craving it for days, but trying to dietistically behave.  “Screw that,” I thought to myself, as I took a leisurely stroll up to the store, “it’s Valentine’s Day!”  It was nice, making this hike after work instead of on my lunch break.  I could amble, instead of rushing to get an errand done in an hour’s time.  Which afforded me the ability to discover a couple more pieces of Graffiti/Street Art along the way, simply because I slowed down and took different routes than I usually take.

I survived the grocery errand.  Barely.  This place is horrid on a GOOD night – since it’s in an urban, and therefore more compact, locale, it’s smaller than most spots, and VERY cramped to navigate.  The clientele does not help…I’ve never seen a better example of People Who Are Unaware of Their Surroundings or Others all under one roof.  Truly amazing.  Valentine’s Day evening was, if possible, worse…I was surrounded by couples holding hands and perusing the meat counter/fancy cheeses/chocolate strawberries, in some romanticized version of “What are we making for dinner tonight, honey?”  Now, I’m happily married so this particular holiday doesn’t necessarily bother me (although I often don’t understand the “single” view of the day and the bile that spews forth from them for the occasion – it’s just a day, one way or the other, really), but the fancy-feast-shopping couples even got to ME.  The guys who were racing through the self-checkout lane with a bouquet of pink roses and a heart-shaped box of chocolates, with a complete and utter look of panic on their faces amused me greatly, however.  Definitely made it worth the trek.  Bwahahaha.  The discovered art made it worthwhile too.  So did the cheesecake and J’s joyful nomming thereupon.

Party!  I laughed out loud when I saw this.  Little smiley guy looks SO VERY unenthralled.

Awesome, awesome, AWESOME.  This made my evening.

Yesterday, Wednesday, was uneventful.  That was the zenith of my anxiety attacks, so I wasn’t really focused on anything else.  I did step outside for a break, midday, and saw that the office Shovel was out.  This poor shovel has seriously seen better days.  Colors were great, though.

For the love of all that’s hole, RETIRE ME PLEASE!
(EDIT, to add: I caught that “hole” typo.  It’s great.  I kept it.)

That brings us up to Thursday, I suppose. It’s an off-kilter sort of day.  I walked into the office this morning and was immediately informed of the death of one of our former employees.   He was 69 years old, and had just retired in 2007.  Pneumonia.  Not fair – he was so very much enjoying his retirement, and his new grandkiddos.   He was kind of my razzing-buddy when he was still working here.  I always connect to the folks in the IT department, get along great with them…perhaps because I can be just as geeky as they can be, and when they talk about shopstuff, I get what they’re saying.  Anyway, DH and I used to spar over the machines.  Something would go wrong, he’d ask me “What did you break THIS time?”  At the same time, he gave me system allowances and accesses I was never supposed to have, because he trusted me with it all.  Good man.  He will be missed.  It falls into my work category to order flowers for staff and relatives, for all occasions, and this was not different today.  I swear to gods he hollered in my ear, when I clicked on an image of a bouquet that had pink flowers in it.  Don’t worry, Mr. H.  I gotcha blue instead.

***
Life’s too short to be anxious.  I think that’s what this week has taught me.  Breathe in, breathe out, keep hoping, wait with patience, and enjoy the cheesecake.