What a Carnival it was. 16 hours of wakefulness and walking miles in costume with friends, residents and visitors on Mardi Gras day will do you in. My voice jumped ship somewhere in the Marigny (conversing with Loki et al. while sauntering down the parade route will do that to you) and once it comes crawling back home to bed, it will regale you with stories of what done did. Until then, let’s raise our glasses of hot tea to another successful season. Well done, New Orleans.
EDIT: Alright, alright, you whiners. Here are some teasers before I unleash the pictures and blow-by-blow.
1) My Fat Tuesday mask rocked the world! Theme forthcoming.
2) K threw D a Muses shoe which has joined the footwear collection on our home’s second mantle.
3) D caught black-and-gold football beads from the hands of Sean Payton … and garlanded me with them. Who dat say I don’t own everything?
4) After 20 minutes of catching nothing from a series of Bacchus floats, I walked away in disgust only to be beaned in the head by a gigantic medallion.
5) Was Edie Falco on the Orpheus float with Drew Brees? For I swear she threw me beads.
6) Next year, I’m getting a ladder … just for me. Kids of the Lower Garden District who step on my feet and snake my beads, it’s on!
“One of the main things that you learn from New Orleans is how to participate in life as it unfolds. You learn to embrace the fact that you can’t control everything in advance. We have just a little while to stay here, and if we are lucky enough to make it to the table again for one more meal then that fact needs to be celebrated and fully experienced and lived to the hilt.” — Tom Piazza in PBS: The American Experience
Did you get any coconuts? And, happy belated Fat Tuesday!
C’mon, dawlin’ you know it’s bad parade etiquette for a grownup to be on a ladder without a child. Borrow a rug rat…
You don’t need a ladder, just an attention getting bustier…
Adrastos, I am a kid. Ask my mom.
You’re just short, sweetie…
I KNEW it was you in front of the AmSouth Bank at Orpheus!
Oh, and if you need a ladder, we can go into it with you, and then you can share it with our four year old son.
Sounds like it was a happy Mardi gras, anyhow.
I don’t know how y’all do it. I thought you were my heroes for rebuilding New Orleans, but have decided that rebuilding New Orleans isn’t quite so daunting to y’ll ’cause you have Mardi Gras stamina! I got tired just watching from afar. Well done.