Family Photos

During Mardi Gras I was able to spend some time with my family and take some family photos.
My brother, his wife and my new nephew (It's strange to be called "Uncle.") came from Lafayette, LA and joined my mom and dad (...and their dog.) so that my mom would have some photos of all of together.
One of the ladies from church took some nice photos of everyone.
This photo is kind of a "behind the scenes" photo that I took of everyone getting ready.

My brother had a belt buckle that was so big. I teased him and when he said something, I said, "I can't hear you over your belt buckle." He's so country, it's hilarious at times that we are even related.

I also took a photo of the Mardi Gras tree. Many people have a variation of the Christmas tree for Mardi Gras is such a festive time in the city.

"I'm baaaack." in New Orleans

"I'm baaaack."

I am back to blogging, I always feel guilty when I go this long and I think to myself, "When can I jump on the already moving train without me and not cause a derailment with all this information?"
The answer came to finally. You can't. ...so here I am jumping back on the story train with mounds of information that you can enjoy with us.

I get overwhelmed and think, "I can't blog right now, it's just not right. I need more to get back with my peeps." and then I wait longer and it's even worse.
*bangs head on wall*

I get so sick of reading the posts from people who want to be welcomed back with open arms when they have disappeared from the blog0sphere and think they can just weasel back in and pretend like the absence was not in the least bit frustrating.
Now I am one of them.

It's really hard to maintain loyalty when I don't have regular updates and trust me, I can find every excuse not to do posts when I am traveling or when I am doing an event.
I have a bank of excuses, you can borrow from anytime. I will spare you any deposits right now though.

Physically, I am in New Orleans until Sunday night with my family.
My mom has a screw loose. Literally. She has a pin just below her knee that is coming out. It's gross, but it's still my mom. (...and it's alot of fun to not get in trouble when I say, "My mom has a screw loose."
She has some surgery really early in the morning tomorrow that my dad is taking her to.

Mentally, I don't know where I am. I am not worried or frustrated like I normally would be however, I know I have to find my way quickly out of this hazy mess or this it's not going be pretty.

I am glad I will get to see Dustin while I am here in the South. YEA!
I think he's a little pissed at me right now because I haven't been answering my phone, but all I do is offer him a platinum membership in the "Brandon Never Answers His Phone Club."

Detroit Bound

I am Detroit bound. ...in the middle of winter nonetheless. I booked Lisa and I a trip to see my family in Detroit in early December. Most of my family besides my mother, father and brother, live in Michigan still, so I am going to see them before the holidays.

I always try to use different clip art for each post, but I really like this Detroit image.

It's going to be a quick trip and wasn't exactly the cheapest at $528.00 for both tickets on www.Priceline.com, but I want to go. (...Lisa is priceless anyway.)
I will get to show her some of the Christmas in New Center, downtown Detroit (...what's left of it.) and some of the Motor City casinos. (She works in that industry, so that might be cool for her.)

I have a "thing" for abandoned buildings and always enjoy a quick drive around Detroit to look at the splendor that used to be. D-town has some of the best abandoned buildings I have ever seen in any city. The "Detroit Decay" beautiful in it's own right.

Having grown up there, my plan is to stay at a suburban hotel near my grandfather's hospital one night with my dad's side of the family, then visit my mom's side of the family at my aunt's house in the boonies one day. The last night, I sincerely want to stay downtown at an fancy hotel with Lisa and have a totally faux feeling of serenity at the kick-off of Christmas time in Detroit.

Haunted New Orleans Tour & The Castle Inn

I went on a New Orleans Haunted History Tour with some of my teenager cousins and great-aunt while I was in New Orleans on Monday night.

If I can help it, I prefer to send people on a personal friend who called herself, "Bloody Mary". She operates a very intimate and personally guided tour in the Haunted aspects of New Orleans. I used to work closely with her when I worked at a haunted guest house in New Orleans. Bloody Mary is quite amazing and beautifully theatrical while still maintaining total plausibility in her storytelling. I recommend her first.
However, she's booked a lot of the time, so call beforehand, and I usually don't plan ahead (IMAGINE THAT RIGHT!?) and end up WISHING I was able to use her when I have to make other arrangements in New Orleans. She answered my emails and texts almost immediately a few days ago but was busy with a wedding group. She's even entertained several celebrity groups.
Her official website is http://www.bloodymarystours.com.

However, I also worked in several larger hotels and dealt with other ghost tour operators in New Orleans. A gentlemen named, Sydney Smith also has helped me out in the past in New Orleans. He runs 'Haunted History Tours' and the five of us went on his tour with a familiar tour guide named Ernie who was quite the talker.
We heard a few stories on this more commercial tour such as;

• ...the horrific tale of the 'LaLaurie House.'
• ...the building that is now 'Muriel's' where a table sits even this week for the ghosts,
• ...the revolutionary singing ghosts in 'Pierre Antoine's Alley.' (Right near my New O
  
• ...the 'Hotel Provincial' (Google it, it's one of the most haunted hotels in New Orleans apparently since it was a Civil War hospital.)
• and a few others that you can all find in his book HERE.

The official website can be found at http://www.hauntedhistorytours.com/

Speaking of New Orleans haunted hotels, I have mentioned in the past that I used to manage a few small inns in New Orleans and as a special treat, I called the owner of one of the inns that is a mansion off St. Charles Avenue and was able to show my family the inside of the inn at 10:00pm even though the inn is no longer an inn. (I even saw my old office and desk which backed up to the 'Real World New Orleans' 'Belfort Mansion' kitchen window. Fierce.)
I really enjoyed that and am thankful that the owner whom I used to work for was able to do that.
On the right is an ad I designed way back in 2002 for a magazine about the hauntings at the Castle Inn. I have several others in that campaign, but that's for another time.
You can read an interview about when I had some paranormal investigators stay at inn HERE. (They used to all call and stay at the inn all the time.) (The Travel Channel even stayed there one time and did a Halloween special.)
I could go on and on about this and my own run-in's with the ghosts and sometime I may, but this is enough for now and this post.
My high school girl cousins didn't get to see any ghosts, but it sure was scary and fun at that hour. (I think the scariest thing was my hair. *wink*)

This photo to the right isn't even at the Castle Inn to go with the post. It's of a empty stage that was at the halfway point of the tour. We stopped at a familiar New Orleans haunt and bar called 'MRB's.' I sneaked off into another part of the bar I know about that was empty just to snag this photo. If you know me, you know how I live abandoned building and especially New Orleans, so that's enough right? *wink*

Here are some other haunted New Orleans website you can check out if that interests you.

1. http://www.neworleansghosts.com/haunted_new_orleans.htm
2. http://www.hauntedneworleanstours.com/toptenhaunted/toptenhauntedNewOrleanslocations/

"It's been awhile." Update

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