I'm back at my hotel room “early.” I feel like crap. I was feeling ill before I left home, but I thought maybe I kicked it in the rear. Apparently not. I've been shivering for most of the night even with my jacket and a long sleeved shirt. I wasn't even hanging out outside except for when I was waiting for the cab, but I'm actually getting a bit ahead of myself.
I ended up watching four episodes of CSI last night (I brought some entertainment with me for reasons like that) and fell asleep around 12:30. I woke up at 6, lord knows why, and couldn't get back to sleep, and I knows why – too excited! So I got up, got dressed, and decided to walk the city.
I started at Riverwalk and about fifteen minutes later, I was in the French Quarter. I turned on the GPS in my phone and just sort of got lost. I almost walked into a bad, bad feeling area, but I turned around pretty quickly and got back to everything that brings people here: cajun restaurants, bars, pubs, taverns, seafood restaurants, lounges, clubs, and hotels. Lots of hotels. Not a whole heck of a lot of stuff to do other than walk around if you don't drink. Took some photos of the area (which can be seen at http://www.flickr.com/photos/kimyoofilms) and walked around for three hours. I also found a Walgreens, which was awesome because I lost my deodourant in the Great Room Swap of 2009.
I went through the French Market. Nothing really in the farmer's side, maybe tomorrow, but the flea market side was great. I got an adjustable clip-on sunglass attachment for my glasses. I have Transitions, but they just don't seem like enough in Florida. And I bought a couple of nice rings for pretty cheap. And a shy shilling for charity (or for himself, you know whatever) gave me a black New Orleans hat. He laid on the compliments pretty thick so I gave him a couple of bucks. A girl likes to be complimented every once in a while.
I went to get a beignet at Cafe du Monde, but man oh man were they full up! I'll try again tomorrow, I guess. Later on, I went to the Hard Rock Cafe to eat brlinner. I'd never eaten at one before so I thought, eh what the heck. Their salad had raisins in it and I've accidentally eaten more bacon in the past two days than I've eaten in two decades (I became a foulatarian – I'll eat chicken and turkey and the very occasional shrimp, but not red meat or pork – about twenty years ago. Maybe a little less.) The fries were good, but the “seasoning” was kind of lame and they had NO Stevie Nicks memorabilia, but my honey mustard chicken sandwich was excellent.
After that, I returned to the hotel room to freshen up, load pictures to the Flickr and say hi to mom. I didn't feel good before I left home, but I thought (hoped) that I'd managed to kick it in the rear, but mom heard my voice and was all like, “Oh em gee, you're sick.” And I was all like, “Oh em gee, I'm not.” And she was like, “Like, you totally are.” And I was like, “Shush, I'm trying to be positive.” I grabbed my leather jacket (I'm not a vegginazi, I just don't want to eat pigs and cows and cockroaches of the sea. I don't mind if others do) and headed out for the venue.
Zeitgeist is about a half an hour walk from my hotel room, but I didn't feel good about walking there and I'm definitely not walking back, certainly not at the hours I would be coming back. Doesn't cost very much, but drivers here are insane. I don't know why people keep saying New Yorkers are the worst. They must not have ridden with a New Orleans cab driver or tried walking around here. They use stop lights for the pedestrians. I have to admit, that confused me at first. And you don't have to hit any buttons, the lights activate when they're supposed to.
Anyway, I grabbed a cab and headed in, got my fest pack, met Asif, the nice guy who's putting this shindig together, and the owner of the Zeitgeist, Rene, who's also very nice. In fact, everyone I've encountered has been very nice, bad driving aside.
Then I sat down for the first flick. No technical problems and surprisingly good quality sound, but I was like, “Oh man...I think I've gotta go back to the room...” I popped some Tylenol for a slight headache, bought some water, and was able to hang in there for a little while. I only stayed through Nadja, which was supposed to be Near Dark according to the schedule, and then said a few goodbyes and left. I barely talked to anyone. Now I'm pretty anti-social on a good day, but when I'm sick, I just kind of sink into myself.
Now, I'm in the hotel room and I'll write up the movies another day. Good night!
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