Mardi Gras

Long time no update.


It's because I've been super busy running.  I can't wait for the marathon to be over because it's taking up all my time!  I'm going to describe my amazing Mardi Gras trip by pasting a letter I wrote to my friends back home, it perfectly captures everything I wanted to say about the trip:

"I had a lot of fun this weekend!  It was one of the best vacations I've ever been on!  AND you girls will be surprised...I did not get a hangover because I didn't get stupid drunk.  Yeah...I know...it's a clear sign I'm getting old.  I enjoyed not fooling poopy too.  I did drink...just not to excess.  We went with our friends Bob and Jacque and stayed with her parents.  I loved seeing Louisiana....which is bad, b/c now I've put another place on my list of where I want to live.  It was so freeing to go out and be with many people who didn't care what they looked like, what impressions they were making, or if they were drinking/smoking/naked and other people weren't.  I'm starting to realize Nashville is a very conservative city that places a very high importance on appearance and popularity.  I do not fit in here.

I caught over 70lbs of beads from the floats!  I made friends with the little girls catching the beads next to me and tried to get them the good beads, and commiserated on the annoyances of the people on the float when we didn't get the good beads.  Then one of them caught a bag right out of my hands.  When she turned around and saw that it was me...she just laughed and kept the bag.  It makes me happy b/c I would have done the exact same thing.  When you are out there it's a free for all and you MUST GET THAT SPECIFIC BEAD thrown at you no matter the age or sex or color of the person you are fighting for it.  And then, if you don't need it after you catch it, or if you catch two sweet beads, you give it away...even if the person is a stranger.  Everyone talks to everyone else and helps them out and gives away food.  It's like there's so much of everything there that everyone has enough and is more than willing to share.  I saw one guy without a shirt buy a sweatshirt from a guy (who was wearing it) for $20.  I thought that was awesome (the shirtless guy was also very drunk).  OH, and before the parade with the little girls started, there was loud music in the street and the Cuban Shuffle came on, and the girls started dancing to it.  There was a whole group of people doing it in the street farther along, but where we were it was the 2 girls...so even though I detest the song and dancing to directed songs like that...I went out there and joined them!  We got a whole group of people dancing with us.

Jacque's Dad also took us down a bayou to a river to the big lake there.  You can't see across that lake, like Lake Michigan.  One I could tell it was smaller...and I couldn't describe why to Jacque...so I'm just going to wait until she can see Lake Michigan for herself.  I loved seeing the bayou just as much as everything else combined.  I've always wanted to go boating down one almost exactly like we did, so I was able to cross a life goal off the list.  We were even able to get off the boat and have a beer in a restaurant we passed.

The weirdest part was that we were allowed to have open drinks anywhere.  We would get out of the car, in the parking garage, and pour our beers into our cups and then leave.  That was the strangest part...it just didn't seem right.

Oh and there was King Cake.  That may have been my favorite part.  It was like a round cinnamon roll sorta with cream cheese filling and icing on top.  Good icing with sugar sprinkled thickly on it.  But it wasn't too sweet and it tasted real.  Real good!  Finally, there is also a baby in it.  A little plastic anatomically correct baby boy...possibly baby Jesus.  I'm not sure.  Whoever gets the baby has to throw the next party.

I did not flash anyone...  I didn't see a guy with beads worth it to flash for.  And there were always little kids around...Mardi Gras is actually a family event.  Who knew."