Friday I went to get a snowball at Beaucoup Nola on my way home from shopping/picking up my bike from work (I left it there Thursday and took the bus because it was pouring). This was a very good idea for two reasons. First, my snowball was free because a volunteer church group was there ahead of me and paid for mine because I had to wait (for like... 5 minutes...). That was super nice of them, though. Ah, fond memories of getting ice cream almost every day after work with ASP! And second, I found out that the guy who I believe owns the place is offering to give kids free snowballs if they sit there and read for a while. How awesome is that? The shops focus on being involved in the community shines in contrast to the bar with $12 drinks down the street, whose owner told Kate and I not to "waste our time" hanging up a flier on the pole out front because he was just going to take it down. As Kate put it, if gentrification were a decor, that bar would have it. Smelly.
Yesterday completely unrelated to my internship I got to work one of the doors to a fundraiser party for the Chris Paul and Ludacris foundations, sponsored by Grey Goose Vodka. And by work one of the doors, I mean sit with Erica and our laminated "staff" lanyards at the back door that was no longer being used as an entrance and tell people to go around to the front. They had a red carpet rolled out and everything, classic VIP-entrance style, so people tended to be confused by this, but apparently the night before too many people kept sneaking in the VIP section so they wanted both entrances on the same side to keep track of people. But really, there wasn't much excitement on our end--sitting there from around 10pm to 4am got to be pretty boring.
I apparently saw Ludacris and Chris Paul walk by into the party, but they were walking so quickly with a group of other guys (security probably) that I didn't even recognize them until the cop sitting next to me was like... That was Ludacris. I didn't believe him at first... fail. But I did see them inside the VIP section when I went to go get some water from the bar. Ludacris was wearing sunglasses inside a dimly lit tent--why? Unfortunately having access to the VIP section didn't mean too much when nobody was dancing--as Erica said, if I had paid $20 or $40 to attend this party and got inside to see that no one was dancing, I would have been pissed!
I saw a lot of classy people, one of whom turned out to be Beyonce's sister Solange (she said "hi" to us while awkwardly waiting for her backup singer to show up--she looked famous but I had no idea who she was until Erica told me later...). Then there were the people who thought they were classy because they were somehow connected to famous people (security managers, groupies, etc.) but really weren't that special. I also saw a lot of distinctly not-so-classy people. As Stephanie, the NHS organizer who brought us to this party in the first place put it, some outfits should just not be allowed to exist! Panty-lines and neon colors and leapord prints and way too much shiny...
My one regret is that I didn't bring my camera--it would have been awkward and probably really rude to take pictures of party-goers, but at the end of the night, I kind of wanted a photo of myself in front of the brightly lit Grey Goose sign set up expressly for photo taking. I may not recognize famous people, but I definitely know my vodka :)
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