Is it the heat?

I've recently taken to saying that New Orleans this summer is going to be something of a biblical hell. I'm thinking frogs falling from the sky, oppressive heat, rank smells, little cuts on the toes from all the random glass on the street...basically New York after they were whacked by the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. On Saturday during the day, I actually ended up avoiding the outside world (other than for walking El Perro Negro) until the sun went down and walking outside was only mildly disturbing.
I took the evening off from playing online poker to socialize and eat some tasty vittles with friends. It was my friend Liz's 30th and some folks arranged for a surprise dinner party type thing at the cooking school she works at. After downing several bottles of wine and dining on scallop ceviche, steamed mussels, BBQ Shrimp (*New Orleans Style), and panko crusted grit cakes with shrimp and crabmeat, I would say I was well sated. For those of you who don't know, in New Orleans BBQ Shrimp doesn't mean spice rubbed or BBQ sauce coated and grilled, but rather drenched in spices and butter and broiled just so. They are served shell on in a bowl for the sauce (which some would argue is the best part) with bread for dipping...good shiznit. In fact, there are a few places in the area that serve (or at least used to, not sure if they are still open) just the BBQ shrimp dipping sauce with bread as an appetizer.
Anyway, after that we headed down to Mimi's in the Marigny, a killer little two-story bar in the Marigny/Bywater area of New Orleans. Good place, mixed crowd of locals, college students, freaks of all types. The upstairs is converted into a mini lounge with DJ and dancing on Saturday and so that's where we headed. I guess the booze and food had lulled me into a false sense of security, because I forgot about how warm it was and just was hanging out enjoying myself. As I was putzing around I started to feel the sweat begin to cascade off of my brow...you think I'm kidding, but I'm pretty sure I looked like a character from some cheesy sketch show skit with a tube pouring water. The weird thing is I'm not a sweating kind of guy...don't get me wrong, a little hard work or excercise in the heat and I'm gonna get going, but this was freaking wrong.

Published as is...