I've arrived in New Orleans. This is my 4th trip here and I enjoy the city.   I was rather surprised at how run-down the airport looks although the cab driver did share they had plans to rebuild it prior to Katrina.  I met some other Cyberprofessionals at the airport and we headed to our NAR hotel, the Astor Crowne Plaza in the French Quarter.  First impression:   Not enough help.  I expected this since my dealings with the hotel prior to scheduling our meeting was very frustrating.   As we lugged in our luggage and boxes for our meeting into the lobby, one bellhop with a cart stood talking to another employee and made no effort to assist us.  Ok, so we saved some tip money. 

Check-in was really s-l-o-w. 

The 4 of us are from 3 different times zones so we headed out to lunch/dinner.  The French Quarter is dirtier and smellier than a remember but we had a good meal and were back before dark as recommended. Lots of wierdos were walking around. The hotel was hosting the Bobby Jindal victory party.  He did win so they actually even got to celebrate.

I was watching the election returns when I saw something out of the corner of my eye.  A MOUSE!   No...not a computer mouse.  A live mouse.   EEEEEEEEK!!!!    I called down to the desk and the gal didn't seem particularly surprised.   She said "Would you like us to remove you from your room, ma am?"    NO....I would like you to remove the mouse from my room!!!!!  So 2 guys arrived (I think they've done this before) with some sticky back stuff which they placed around my room in a couple of places.  I called home to my husband to report I had a mouse in my room and he said "Don't tell anyone or everyone will want one."   NOT FUNNY. 

As I was laying in bed with my shoes on (I know that makes no sense), I decided I'd prefer not to wake up to a squeaking mouse stuck to some tape so I picked up the stuff and hoped for the best. This morning the only mouse in the room is my computer mouse. 

And so it went in New Orleans on Day 1.