When Life Hands You Lemons

I am looking forward to the Lemonade documentary...

"I got laid off, and I'm finally doing something that matters."

Progress Report - 1

I moved to New Orleans two weeks ago. So far so good. I've met up with old buddies and made a few new ones. I went to some events in Baton Rouge - Live After 5 and the Louisiana Book Festival. Staying true to my frugal blood, both events were FREE.

I also just found a potluck club through Yelp.com with some foodies that meet on Sundays. They also tweet so I stay on top of things that way. Actually, there are quite a few good tweeters about New Orleans like @NOLABroadSquad, @NOLAforFREE, @StayLocal, @NOLAonthecheap, @BudgetNOLA etc.

So far I've made a dent in the list of 100 people to meet:

1. Architectural Product Sales Rep
2. Architectural Product Sales Rep
3. Interior Design Classmate
4. Website Managing Director/ Newbie to NOLA
5. Retired Social Worker Friend of a Parent
6. Retired French Translator Friend of a Parent
7. Neuroscientist Friend of Friend
8. Director of Interior Design at LSU
9. Professor of Interior Design at LSU
10. Landscape Architect Friend
11. Highschool Classmate hadn't seen since then
12. Medical Doctor Friend of Friend

I have a few more set up and an informational-we're-not-hiring-but-i-hope-they'll-hire-me-anyway interview. Wish me luck!

Sing Me Back Home to NOLA

Found this neat blog about the effects of Hurricane Katrina. Has a sweet list of songs for those that miss New Orleans. Pictured below is a CD compiled by the New Orleans Social Club. I had to post the picture because the title is so fitting.





I'd like to add "Ain't No Place to Pee on Mardi Gras Day". Any special requests?

Never Eat Alone

I just read this book about contacts, friends, and mentors. The author is supposed to be the most "connected" man alive and being the social butterfly that I am I look to follow in his footsteps. I am setting a goal for myself to have lunch, coffee, or other organized convos with 100 people in the first 3 months of my move.

On the list are old friends, new ones, architects, designers, festival goers, friends of friends and generally interesting people. I have a list of about 40 so far and hoping that those 40 can point me to more and so on to my reach my goal. I have 4 coffee/lunch dates set up this week! Keep me busy- I know you guys know some interesting folks in the area so give me a shout and tell me who I should meet. For those that are interested in broadening your network, here are some key points from the book.

Who do you know that I should meet?

Painting Bones

No, not human bones. I'm in interiors not forensics. Today, I did some manual labor helping my dad with a renovation. I painted the 110+ year old trim. He's been working on these old New Orleans homes since before I was born, and I started painting the trim as young as single digits. What lovely bones.
Enjoy a few shots I snapped.

 

 

Phun with Photos

I think that it is a good idea to reflect on who you are on a regular basis. When people ask you the standard small talk questions, it's important to have interesting answers. Parts of my life have been so focused on meeting career objectives and on other people's needs that I sometimes forget my own. A year ago when people would asked me what my hobbies were I had a tough time answering. It bugged me. Well, this past year has forced me into a time of introspection, and I have had the time to think about what I enjoy and who I want to be. Below is one tool to start asking yourself these questions, and you can visualize the answers afterwards and see if the whole picture of you is what you want it to be. The best part is that you can choose to change your answers because the only person that you can change is you.

Ask yourself these questions:

1. What is your first name or favorite nickname? -- lindsay
2. What is your favorite thing to taste? -- a la mode
3. What is your favorite color? -- sky blue
4. What is your style? -- colorful retro
5. What is your favorite place? -- hotel san jose
6. What is your favorite hobby? -- learning
7. What do you want to be when you grow up? -- creative (with pay)
8. What is one word to describe you? -- openminded
9. What is something you really love? -- big family

Now
a. Type your answer to each of the questions into Flickr Search
b. Using only the first search page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into Mosaic Maker
d. Change rows to 3 and columns to 3.
e. Save the image.
f.  BONUS PTS - Click the quote cloud at the top of this post. Leave a comment with a link to your image.

photo credits: 1. super8, 2. Mile-High Apple Pie (2), 3. Praia da Princesa, Algodoal-PA (EXPLORED), 4. Self portrait, retro look II, 5. Pacific Hotel, 6. Feet Too Fast (à la Mission Impossible), 7. Viability~, 8. openminded, 9. BigFam

Everything I Own in a Box to the Left...To the Left...To the Left

Moving Day.

The movers were an hour late, but other than that it went pretty smoothly.

Left around 9:45am and arrived in New Orleans around 9pm.

1/4 of my junk

There goes the hutch.

...and the mattress

The big pieces are loaded

All done! That's Nelson the mover.

So worth 100 bucks to have someone else do it.

Packing Day

"Sccccrrriiiiipppp," goes the packing tape. Piled are the boxes. My dad is a master packer, he's efficient, resourceful, and fits my junk in the boxes like a puzzle.

Today was a success. Only 5 hours and everything is all packed up and ready to go, categorized by "Home" or "Storage". So far, no tears. Staying focused on the present. No looking back!