Freshman Move-In 8/28/04

We are still working on the Big Deal with the Big Company. Sometimes it looks dead. Sometimes it looks alive. Sometimes we work on other things. I'm disgusted with it all, but knew this would happen going in, having dealt with them too many times. It continues to play out. I did get Two moved in at Loyola. The best part of the packing process was the protracted negotiation between Two and Three, over what went to school and what stayed home. These boys have, for the most part, shared clothes since they were about 6 and 3, although Three has gotten much bigger than his older brother, and there are some things that they don’t share. Still, the negotiation extended to video games, DVDs, tote bags, and, ultimately, toiletries. We pulled out of the house with much fanfare (including taking pictures) and drove away, both deeply moved, listening to Bella Fleck and the Flecktones (Live at the Quick). We had a nice drive to New Orleans, dodging thunderstorms (for the most part), and dear son is well settled in his dorm. It was exceptionally hot and humid. After move-in we went to lunch with his roommate (close friend from home), roommate's parents, aunt (who was in town visiting her parents) and little sister, at a wonderful itsy bitsy po-boy shop called Domilise's. The food was yummy, the beer was cold and the bulletin board sported photos of local celebrities, including many snapshots of Mannings, many of the younger Mannings when they were very, very young, and many of them signed. It poured rain while we were eating lunch and stopped just when we were done, and we went back out into the cooler, but steamier town, the kids back to school for a scheduled event and the adults off to errands and maybe some rest. So far, I’ve done New Orleans on a tight budget. Now, that might not have been my first choice, but it’s a good town for it, with abundant interesting food and lodging at all price levels. I love where I stayed this trip: the Prytania Park Hotel, at the corner of Prytania Street and Terpsichore. It’s an older building. Behind the free-standing lobby, the hotel is two small buildings which are essentially parallel to each other, sharing a central narrow balconied and paved courtyard interspersed with zigzagging raised beds of mature tropical growth. The building is more like concrete than stucco, and takes some twists and turns, but the twelve-paned room windows are dark wood, with four-paned transoms and the room doors beside them, a single tiled step up from the walkway, are solid dark wood, also trimmed and also with four-paned transoms. It’s lovely! The rooms are small, but clean and nice, with dark wood trim and ceiling fans. All of the basics: Cable TV with remote, good mattress and sheets, paper and pen, fridge and microwave, everything works (dial-up internet although they say they are working on wireless – stay tuned), coffee service in-room and in the courtyard (with muffins and fruit). There is a 24 hour expanded vending/convenience area in the lobby with a nice variety of snacks. Here and there in the outdoor, yet interior, hallways, are weathered teak benches, tables and chairs to stop, sit and sip. The Prytania Park is located a block off of St. Charles Avenue in the Coliseum Square neighborhood in the Lower Garden District. While this section of St. Charles is lively and interesting, dotted with "finer" hotels, and The Prytania Park is just a short block off of, and visible from, St. Charles, the properties directly around the hotel are transitional, even sketchy. The first night, they didn't have room in the main hotel, so we were placed at the Queen Anne, the upscale B & B owned by the same owners, the Halpern Family, who also own the large retail store in front of the Prytania on St. Charles. We had a beautiful room, more like a suite, on the third floor of the hotel and I asked to be moved after we got him settled in the dorm because I didn't want to run in and out all the way to the third floor and I wasn't comfortable walking alone at night from the parking lot (at the hotel) to the Queen Anne. These accommodations were bargain-priced, almost beyond belief. I'm sure at other times, they are more expensive, but I am thrilled to have found this wonderful small, family-owned hotel in New Orleans and very, very pleased that my dear son has chosen to go away to college in such an interesting town.