Louisiana

The summer after my sophomore year of high school, my friend Megan asked if I wanted to accompany her to stay with an adult friend of hers in Louisiana for a month. I agonized over it for a week or so and finally decided rather timidly. It proved to be one of the best things I did that year!

Tracy (the friend) lived in Lafayette, Louisiana with her daughter Linda. Linda alternated between being a brat and being adorable; she would whine for her way and then curl up in my lap. It was a blast. Her home was an apartment complex just outside the main part of town so we walked to the mall and the movies and down the street. There was a pool so I got a million freckles.

These pictures are pretty grainy because 1)I scanned them in and 2)I didn't save the originals, so when i decided to color-balance them, they got 2x the jpeg compression. YAY! It kinda gives them a retro 70s bent I think.

The Lafayette sky is just divine.

This was one of Tracy's friends from her church. His name was Richard, and megan and I would pester him like crazy saying his name in deep resonant voices. I had a crush on him! He was like 45 and a major smoker and had a sister who was kinda unstable.

Jennie was another one of Tracy's church friends. She actually hated being called Jennie, but I have a hard time adjusting when people get name changes.

A couple of weeks into the month, Linda got a kitten. She named him Darth at first (this was when Episode 3 had just come out), but the name was eventually changed to Kako. I don't know if it's still named that or not! Kako was pretty wild, especially with her claws, but she was a nice stand-in until I got home to see Young Cato.

the last week, I discovered Linda had a little toy keyboard. What a treasure we missed out on so long! Megan and I both play piano, so that would've been nice when we were tubing out on the tv :p

The last night, we dove into Tracy's makeup for fun. Megan did a much better job than I did, so I got a picture of her against my coca cola towel. Awesome!

Jennie and Tracy took us to New Orleans for an afternoon one day. It was weird, we drove up there and I had sunglasses on, and it looked late and dark outside the car. Then I got out and took them off, and to my surprise, it was mid-afternoon and incredibly hot and sunny >:[ Linda is the midget 8)

We went to a hat shop where I discovered my true self: Allison Careful Jones. I want that hat still :| I wish I had the money at the time!

It was freaking hot out there! Also beignets are to die for.

I forget what this cathedral is called, but this is a really pretty shot.

I kinda felt weird doing this, because I mean these kinds of dudes are obviously out to fleece tourists ($10 for drumming?!) but I honestly had fun doing it, so ;oooo

This is one of the frenchier looking pictures. Apparently I printed it out, and then I forgot about it, but I found the printout recently, so I cut it out and taped it up in my dorm room.

This and the above both suffer from over-color-balancing xD

The quality of light here was so amazing.

BFF! Megan has changed her look and attitudes a lot from this picture, and it's kinda weird to keep up. She's gone to a much more independent suave style, and sometimes I wish she were like this pigtailed girl again. But you can't stop someone from growing up.