Need me to stand in traffic? Everyone is miserable.

Going back to work after Mardi Gras is not fun. EVERYONE is hungover and on some kind of diet restriction. Whether it's for Lent or just your annual "March cleanse" (thank you to my friend J.K. for that one), everyone I know is now restricting themselves in some way.

Today my boss ordered me to Poydras Street to take pictures of a building for the second day in a row. Apparently my Samsung-snapped shots of the frickin' toilet papered streets of New Orleans aren't exactly what she had in mind for her commercial banking brochure.

So I stand in traffic in Downtown New Orleans and try to crop out the porta potties, garbage, hazard signs and homeless people still littering the streets after seven days of hardcore partying. The employees behind the floor to ceiling windows are starting to look worried and eventually send out a security guard with PINK gold teeth to ask me what the h#ll do I think I'm doing. And didn't she see me yesterday, too?

So then I have to go in the bank and explain who I am and why I'm recording them on my cell phone. Fortunately, there is no HR person around to tell me they need proof of permission. B/c I don't have that.

I gave up cheese. In an effort to curb my binge-eating tendencies I cut a few items from my diet. I figure I'll carry on this behavior until my big fat June wedding and then I'll reevaluate (read: pig out on the honeymoon). So here is what I pretend I don't eat currently: cheese, pork, french fries and soda (pop, cold drink).

So when my boss is extra cranky this week I try not to take it too personally. We were all at the same big party and we are all now repenting. When I came home from work yesterday and told Elbow how much work sucked, he said "Work sucked for everybody in New Orleans today." Tru dat.