January rules in NOLA

Sup guys,

I'm aware that most of y'all are dealing with the snow and the cold and the horrible northern winters right now, and for that you have my deepest condolences. However, that's not gonna stop me from bragging about how awesome the weather's been down here for the last few weeks. Last week, on a particularly beautiful winter's day, I went outside in jeans and a t-shirt and fell asleep on the grass for a couple of hours. Today I wore shorts, even though it's been grey and rainy off and on all day. I can probably count on one hand the number of times I've worn a coat in the last two weeks. After experiencing this January and meditating on Januaries past, I'm fairly certain that I could never experience another Colorado winter and die happy.

I went to a punk show last week, NOFX and Bouncing Souls headlined, and Cobra Skull and Old Man Markley opened. It was awesome. Definitely in my top five concerts. I dunno if it was the pleasant surprise of Old Man Markley's punk infused bluegrass to start off the night, Cobra Skull singing in Spanish about those imbeciles who wear Che t-shirts, the cute girl who agreed to come rage out with me, Fat Mike sipping multiple vodka cranberries from a cup holder on his mic stand while playing bass, a bemohawked girl throwing her arms around my neck while we sang Lean on Sheena, falling down, getting stepped on, getting elbowed all over, getting kicked in the mouth, or Greg Attonito laying on/in the crowd while he sang Anchors Aweigh. It was a sweet show.

Right now I'm sitting in the student center, doing homework, because it's been raining steadily for the past three hours and I forgot my umbrella. Hopefully it'll clear up sometime tonight, because I've got to get up super early tomorrow. (8:00)

So that's what's goin' on with me, I'll catch y'all later.

My new haircut

So the other day, Friday I believe, I went on down to Oak Street and got my hair cut by Bud, this super old dude who tells me WWII stories while he cuts my hair. It's a pretty cool shop, he say's he's been cuttin' hair in the same room since the 50s. It's got one of those swirly red and blue poles out front. So anyway, on this particular Friday I decided I wanted to try out a part. I thought "hey, I haven't actually, you know, combed my hair since I was like 11 years old. Maybe it'll look fresh." And man, does it ever.

When my dogg Kevin saw me he said something like "If you had a letterman jacket then you could totally take Stefany out for a milkshake and a drive-in movie in your cherry red convertible and it would be awesome." That's pretty much exactly the look I was going for. I need to start smoking so I can roll up the pack in my sleeve, and carry around a bandana for when my hands get dirty working on my little deuce coupe.

My classes are going swimmingly, I start work this week, and you'll all be pleasantly surprised to hear that I've gone over a week in New Orleans without getting drunk. Not many people can say that.

Baaack

Heeey kids.

It's been while, I've been drivin' all over the dang country. Nearly 4000 miles in the last 4 weeks! Man, I am sick of driving. Luckily I don't have to do it much for awhile.

So back on December 13 I drove up with my friend Elizabeth to Arkansaaaas. After kickin' her out in Little Rock I headed on up Petit Jean mountain to hang with the Blackman dudes. It was a fun time, really nice to just be able to hang out and chill without having to run around everywhere all the time like a chicken with my head cut off.

After hangin out there until a day or two after Christmas I drove up to Michigan and couch surfed and partied for a few days. Got to see my homies Martin and Bryan and meet all sorts of other crazy Michigan people. Saw Lake Michigan. It's really huge and, while I was there, really cold. Grand Rapids is a pretty cool city, felt kind of like a bigger Fort Collins.

I could only handle like six days of constant partying in the Michigan winter though, so then I headed back to Holyoke. It was pretty cool, about like I remember. Covered in snow, close to Nebraska. Had lots of fun playin' darts with Wilson.

I got back to NOLA on Saturday, and then spent the next day ferrying people back from the airport. It feels great to be back down here. Seriously, I love this place like crazy. Classes started yesterday, and all of my professors seem pretty ballin'. Both my Spanish professors are actually native speakers, de Uruguay y Cuba. It'll be a change of pace to not be taught by a gringa. Not that I don't like the gringas or anything, just sayin'. My Ancient Philosophy professor seems like a pretty awesome gal; History of Ethics is taught by a genius with one of those pleasant German accents, as opposed to the scary sounding ones; and Professor Welnak for Islamic Philosophy seems like I guy I could totally hang out with. He also seems to know what he's talking about, which is good.

So yeah, life's back to normal now. Keep it frosty, y'all.