A Sober Night on the Town

According to Merriam-Webster, soberness (apart from its indication of not being under the influence of a controlled substance) indicates:

marked by sedate or gravely or earnestly thoughtful character or demeanor; UNHURRIED, CALM; marked by temperance, moderation, or seriousness; subdued in tone or color; showing no excessive or extreme qualities of fancy, emotion, or prejudice
synonym see SERIOUS

Let me just tell you, a sober night out in NOLA is anything but sober.

Another note, bartenders will - it seems without fail - look at you really funny when two people walk into a bar and one orders a red bull and the other a pineapple juice. I digress...

So we began the evening with the intent to go dancing - no idea where - and we figure that even though it's a Monday people would be out because everyone and her mother has the 4th off of work. We were, how shall I say, wrong.

Anyhow, we headed toward the French Quarter and drove around for a while looking for parking - which is basically impossible near Bourbon on, well, any night. Eventually we found a spot and started our evening at Boondock Saint (a bar we had passed while driving around for parking) - they play Boondock Saints (the movie) all the time... that's awesome. Cute little bar too.

We took our drinks and started walking looking for a fun place... which there isn't on Bourbon Street... so we kept walking. About a mile.

As we walked through Jackson square, Nate O pointed out this alley where they filmed part of Interview with a Vampire, but forgot to remove the AC unit from one of the "Victorian Era" windows... and then we witnessed a knife fight. Luckily, no one really got hurt, especially us.

We kept walking and about half-way down off the knife fight freak-out, we witnessed a coke deal. Ok, more like Nate O noticed the bag and mentioned it to me - just as the dealer came up behind him... I bet he is still spooked by that one.

We kept walking, passed some S&M transvestites on the sidewalk, and eventually arrived at d.b.a. on Frenchman. At d.b.a we ran into some of the HONO volunteers and Nate O taught me a valuable lesson - never trust the short-term volunteers when they ask you to drive their car home from a night on the town. Anyhow, Frenchman is a cool place - way cooler than Bourbon - I'll have to go back some time... and park closer.

As we walked back to the car we passed quite a few people who were trying to drink themselves to death - reminded Nate of Leaving Las Vegas. I was too distracted by this one fellow I saw curled up in a doorway that was dying, not soon enough, but I could feel that the process was definitely under way. Yeah...

Eventually we got to this bar for their SINdustry night and achieved our goal of dancing. We also did a lot of people watching and, interestingly enough, Coke Dealer showed up too; man that guy was strung out.

As we ended the night, we walked along a street that Nate O mentioned used to be populated by gutter punks, but not so much any more cuz there was no one to pan handle. No sooner had the words escaped from his mouth than - lo and behold - a gutter punk came up asking us for money. Nate thinks I bring out the weird in an evening. I don't think he is entirely wrong.

Our night ended wholely normal - a little late-night pizza slice and staying up 'til three talking about random stuff. However, for the record - sober isn't necessarily sober.

Peace Y'all,
Ali