New Orleans was really cool. I haven't been there since I was about 2 years old, so it was pretty much all new to me. Our hotel was on the end of Canal street right by the river. The first day (after sleeping in) I walked over to the Riverwalk place but didn't find any food places. I found out later that I just missed the enterance door while I was walking looking at the river. I went back the next day and walked inside. It was basically a mall type place with all different kinds of stores and a food court.

Then I walked down Canal street for a while until I found some food. Then I followed signs to the French Quarter which of course was one of the coolest things about New Orleans. I took some pictures, went into a few shops, then Brandon called me to let me know where most of them were, so I walked over to meet them. They all had already had a few drinks somewhere and it was about 4:30 at that time. So then we all walked to Bourbon Street and stopped at a couple more bars and stores. Then we all went back to the hotel to drop off souveniers and stuff, and some of us took a cab to a small restaurant way down Canal street called Mandina's. It was a cute little place. Then we took a cab back to Bourbon and went to a few more bars. I'll post some more pictures on Facebook here pretty soon and give you the link.

The second night we were there was also the same night of Britney Spears' first show for her new world tour. Our merch guy, Anthony's company was working that show so he went to help out. I guess he needed a couple more people to help so he asked Doug and Matt from our crew. None of us saw them, but I guess they had to wear red vests and top hats to go along with her "Circus" theme. They both said it was a lot worse of an experience then they had hoped. They were basically rolling up and selling posters all night. It's a funny story that they'll be getting crap for for a while I'm sure.

After New Orleans we had two shows in Texas. The first one was a pain because we had some incompetent stage hands, but the second one was a lot better. Then we flew out of Dallas on Friday morning and got back to Columbus around 12:30. This weekend was the big Arnold Sports Festival, and Live Tech does pretty much all of the production for that. We have the big stage for the body building competition at Vets Memorial and a bunch of other stuff in the Convention Center. There was a big after party last night at the LC Pavillion (a local concert venue) which is what I had to work. It was a loooong day. We got there at 9 to start loading in and didn't leave until after 2am (although it was technically 3am because of the time change). Arnold showed up for a while. I was there to do camera for all of the entertainment.

So I have today off, tomorrow we have to go into the shop for a "drug free workplace" meeting, and we leave for Georgia on Tuesday morning (also my birthday). I'm reeeallly looking forward to the time off I'll have in Florida :) I don't know if I mentioned that yet, but we have a gap of 5 days between shows in Florida so we had the option of flying back home, or anywhere else for the cost of flying back. We'd be flying out of Tampa, so I decided to just get a rental car and hang out in St. Petersburg. Steve said I could get the company to pay for a couple days of the car since I'm not flying anywhere. I can't wait! It'll just be me. I've never had a little private vacation by myself. But why not? Having those 2 days off in New Orleans restored a bit of sanity for me, so hopefully this will be even better!