bbq, baby!

i have a newfound obsession with barbecue since my dad and i tried dry rub for the first time in memphis. since i resigned myself to celebrating with food this weekend, marty and i headed to the joint in the bywater for some brisket, baked beans, carolina-style pulled pork and mac 'n cheese. seeing as it was stupidly our first meal of the day, we (ahem, marty) went a little overboard and ordered three meals for 2 people.

marty and his two full meals

MORE big news!

i passed the bar! after months of waiting (and weeks and weeks spent studying, but that's neither here nor there) i FINALLY got the results - and i have passed!

this is, without a doubt, the only time in my life i've wanted a test result to be positive

anyway, my title is officially esquire. my friend maggie, who also passed, told me yesterday that her mother started referring to her as "maggie, esq." so now everything maggie does is soooo maggie-esque. it has a nice ring to it, wouldn't you agree?

to celebrate, a big group of us went to commander's palace, which is surely one of the most fancy-pants restaurants in new orleans. while i'd have been just as happy grabbing a celebratory po' boy and an abita, what drew us in was the discounted lunch menu and the 25 cent martinis.

mini-cocktails, courtesy of the owner after she found out we had 3 newly-barred attorneys at the table

my pork tenderloin with roasted pumpkin and liquified hazelnut

marty's duck po' boy

my absolute favorite people

big news!

i bought a car! it's a nissan rogue and it's ALL MINE!

*okay. please forgive the uber cheesy photo. i know i look like one of those girls who demonstrate the cars at an auto show. in my defense, marty and i were headed for a wedding when my dad wanted to take the picture. besides, i am so high on life right now i don't care how stupid i look.

quote of the day

on new orleans: "we don't hide our crazy people. we bring them out and parade them around" - dixie carter

first day.

yesterday was my first day at my new job! yes, i am officially an attorney in new orleans. well, not an attorney. a legal fellow who hopefully passed the bar. and whose criminal background check hasn't come in yet, so i cannot be around children, elderly or disabled individuals while at work. it's kind of awkward. come october, i should be official!

anyway, my first day was crazy busy. i didn't even stop to eat! things will inevitably calm down once i get myself organized (aka go ocd on my desk, track down a filing cabinet and buy myself a planner). everything is very exciting and pretty nerve-wracking. hopefully my second day will involve some sustenance.

image via we heart it

our gallery wall

ever since becky and i decided to move in together, we dreamt of two things: a gallery wall, and a new orleans-style mantel we could decorate with odds and ends. the apartment i found for us was perfect in all but one aspect: it did not have the mantel we'd envisioned cluttering with our crap for so long. so, we set out on a search for a mantel we could install on one of our many 12-foot-high walls and discovered that old mantels are actually quite pricey. well, you know how when you stop looking for something, you find it? when my dad was in town, we spent some time in magazine street's many antique stores, ogling at the prices and trying not to knock anything over. then i discovered this garage, and lo and behold, what do i find but our dream mantel. the price wasn't right at first, but with dad on my side, we quickly negotiated a fair price and hit the road with our steal.

our gallery wall is made up of art from new orleans, originals by becky and my mom's best friend, and gifts from friends

becky's custom-made simon piece

on the right, a sculpture becky made.

diy of the day: doily wreath

so my mom is a bit of doily hoarder. sets of matching doilies seem to be a favorite go-to gift my grandma gives to my mom, so mom has come to own a few hundred over the years. i found a great way to make use of our doily stockpile on making chicken salad. it was pretty time-consuming but i was in no rush and it gave me something to do with my hands while i killed brain cells watching the new seasons of jersey shore and the real world. now it's hanging on my bedroom door!

dad in the big easy

are you sick of being inundated with photos from my cross-country road trip? well, there's more. if you're not interested in seeing photos of random things to do in new orleans with your dad, skip today's post and come back tomorrow.

my dad's (and my) favorite thing to eat in new orleans: bbq shrimp at deanie's!

surprisingly, i found some unexpected treasures in this magazine street garage

it seems that every store you walk into in new orleans, there is a pet of some sort

in honor of the 5-year anniversary of hurricane katrina, we went to the opening of a photography exhibit at the ogden museum entitled "telling their stories: the lingering legacy of katrina"

afterward, we ambled around the ogden

of course, there was musical entertainment to accompany the opening of the exhibit

the next day, we went to irvin mayfield's jazz playhouse in the royal sonestra hotel on bourbon street to see leon "kid chocolate" brown

the two men in my life

the night ended with a burlesque show (none of us had ever seen one! i have to say, watching scantily-clad ladies with my dad and boyfriend was a little awkward at first)

we did a short stint on bourbon before my dad left town

memphis beat

some photos from around town, once the sun went down

beale street in the background

a beale street cover band