This month’s Date with Kate was in New Orleans with Chris Ochs, a reader and friend from Denver, CO. Knowing my weakness for football and really, sporting events in general, Chris offered a trip to the Big Easy to watch the Saints take on the Chargers (San Diego for those not in the know).

Turns out Chris is a football stat machine and Drew Brees was the best gift the Chargers could give a beleaguered New Orleans in 2006. For those fans of my dear Texas, Drew was born in Dallas and threw for Westlake in Austin.

The Charger and Saints Drew Brees twins hit Bourbon Street post game
36-21 Saints victory

The fans of New Orleans were gracious hosts. By far, my best trip to New Orleans. The ladies were decked out in black and gold. And in true NO tradition, masks, feathers and shenanigans everywhere.

New Orleans downtown area looks as it did the last time I visited, August 2004 for Natalie’s wedding. It’s hard to believe the town was ravaged by Katrina 5 years ago. The Superdome looks just like it did when I last attended a Sugar Bowl . . . in 1999. (Come on Ags, let’s get on that!) Like, literally, same paint. Same pizza. But, I digress.

Mother’s is still packed. Yes, folks still line up – even in rain storms. I braved the humidity to enjoy the oyster poboy. Delicious. Worth getting soaked for the fried oysters and slaw. Mmmmmm. Did I mention delicious? Delicious.

Now, you may notice that I am wearing a Chargers jersey . . .

Chris is uber Charger fan so he brought 3. Or 4. I forget. One was almost my size so I grabbed it for the evening. Smallest jersey available, of course it is the kicker’s! So, I had the honor of wearing Mike Scifres jersey for the evening.

But that is not all, no that is not all . . .

Who do you expect to meet when wearing a player’s jersey?

How about his MOM.

Yeah, no kidding!

Mom and her two girlfriends had noticed the jersey from their seats and just had to come meet us so they grabbed me while unattended.

So I’m standing in front of the (offending) pizza joint in the stadium contemplating beer or no beer (beer) and two women walk up to me and ask me how I know Mike. I stare at them blankly having no idea why they are asking me about a Mike. In my defense, I do have a brother Mike, Uncle Mike and lots of Mike friends. However, given the context, um, duh.

“Mike Scifres,” they reply, followed with, “This is his Mom.” At this point I attempt to explain that I am wearing my friend Chris’ jersey and point at Chris buying a pretzel – frantically waving at him to get over here so he can sweet talk the lovely ladies.

Chris saves the day by rattling off all sorts of Scifres stats. Turns out Scifres grew up in New Orleans, played at Western Illinois, and just got married this summer. I stand there and hope my boots distract them from my lack of information about the man behind the jersey.

Gentlemen, this is a lesson for you. If your female friend is walking the stadium in a jersey, give her a fact sheet before she wanders off unattended. Please.

New Orleans, Date with Kate August 2010, good times had by all.

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In a departure from the somber tone of education issues, The February Winner of the Date with Kate is Laurel Lichty of Washington DC. Photo of the two gals below.

It just so happened that the DwK was sandwiched between hikes around DC in the record breaking “Snowpocalypse,” Brunch with Drag Queens, and snow ball fights. If anything became clear, it was that more sequins for daytime attire is in order.

The white-out gave me ample opportunity to discover that the patent we were writing was indeed already written. But, good news, it expires in 18 months….

More on that in March.

That snow creature thinks you’re cute.

So it took an extra 36 hours to get out of DC and 36 hours after arrival in Dallas, the snow storm hit here. I’m totally cool with the light fluffy snow . . . in moderate doses. Perfect for trail running even though somewhere below the crunchy layer is plain sidewalk. Great times.

In great contrast to DC, business did not stop in Dallas. Nor did school. The cheese shop was open. Even my postal officer delivered….

DC shut down operations on Thursday evening. Literally. Law firms, government, even the colleges sent notices that they would not open on Friday. Turns out I don’t know anyone in Business in DC. Perhaps there’s the rub….

At 11a on Friday, no snow. It wasn’t until 1p that I started to see flurries. And it didn’t stick until well past midnight. But Metro lines were closed and folks were encouraged to stay home. Naturally, I went to a hockey game instead. Someone has to support the economy!

No, no, really, you’re welcome.

Saturday, however, was a whole ‘nother story completely. Solid snow pack with more dropping by the minute. DC was eerily quiet. No cabs, no metro, no buses, and NO SNOW PLOWS. Very few places were open and very few people were out.

Despite all day sunshine Sunday, no effort was made to clear the streets. Monday, ghost town. Tuesday, more cars, less sense. Very few roads had enough of a path to drive. It was certainly safer to walk. But few sidewalks were cleared. So, it was back to pre-sidewalk days. People and cars shared the streets – I halfway expected horse-drawn carriages to join the show.

When I asked a cabbie (one of the 7 in the city) why they didn’t bother plowing the streets, he said, “Well, they say it will snow some more so we are saving money.”Hrmmm.

What about the waitress who depends on tips whose restaurant isn’t opening. She just earned a week of unpaid time off. Or the business owner who still makes payroll even though she won’t be earning revenue this week. Kind of a bummer. I snuck out on one of the few flights to depart Regan National.

Such a different world.

Hope you are warm wherever you may be! -Kate

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