Mardi Gras Madness part 2

After settling down from all the excitement on Saturday, we all got to sleep relatively early and got to sleep in a bit on Sunday.

We were invited to a party at a house that was one block off the parade route for Thoth. K and mom (and me as well) used to work for the same company and this was one of the attorney’s that also worked for the company. He was having some people over for a pre-parade and after-parade party. We parked in Audubon Park and walked to the house. There was delicious food all set out (which included some Italian sausage meatballs with red pepper jelly). We all chowed down. After eating, we grabbed a couple of beers and some bottles of water and made our way to the parade site. C had to work that day so he could only stay for a while. He managed to stay for almost the entire parade.

The parade started late but that wasn’t an issue since we were right on the street. I loved this parade because it wasn’t too crowded and you could walk right up to the floats if you wanted to. No barricades or anything like that. It was HOT as well. I forgot to bring sunscreen so we all got a bit red but it wasn’t too bad.

We caught a lot more than we had expected to catch (we have never gone to this parade before). We've been given an open invitation to this party from now on, so I know what we'll be doing on the Sunday's before Mardi Gras from here on out.

We got back around 3 or so to K’s house. Bacchus was rolling that night on the Uptown/Downtown route. The tradition is that C, V and I go downtown to catch Bacchus. Mom, K and light of my life stay home while the others go to have some “adult” fun. When I say “adult” fun, I just mean being able to walk down Bourbon Street without having to cover little people’s eyes so they can’t see all the “clubs” and “stores” they have on Bourbon. For C and V, this is a relatively new experience. This is also the area (Bourbon Street) where you’ll see what most people associate Mardi Gras with. The flashing boobies and wee-wees. It’s a trip to watch though.

Mom dropped V & I off at Esplanade and Decatur later that night. We walked down to the parade site. We wanted to get there early enough to get a good spot. No problems there. We were able to get on the neutral ground near Magazine almost right up on the barricades. We had brought a sign that said “Can U Hit This” with a bulls-eye in the center. After we went and bought some drinks (Coke for V and Cherry Coke for me as well as a bottle of water and some sort of Green Apple alcoholic thingie for me. I forget what it was but it was yummy and since I wasn’t driving, I felt it was ok to have one), we went to sit and wait. It was about 8 or so. We knew the parade wouldn’t hit us until about 9 or 9:30 so we just sat there talking. While talking about college and stuff, V all of a sudden said “OMG” and I turned to where she was looking. Some guy was yelling, “Call an ambulance” and we could see some guy on the ground seizing. A couple of cops came running (one of them was trying to hop the barricade like some big-deal TV show cop but couldn’t handle it, he had to settle for climbing over….I know that’s a random thought but it’s what I remember). Anyway, a few minutes later an ambulance shows up. During that time, the guy had quit seizing once and then seized again. By the time the ambulance showed up, you could see him moving around (I breathed a sigh of relief as I thought maybe he had died). It was such a surreal scene because one of the people helping him was dressed in a hot pink wig a la Britney Spears and had 4-inch heels and was just generally dressed up for the celebration. It took about 20 minutes from start to finish, but it was just so strange.

On a side note, you can tell how callous the world is getting these days. While the cops were standing around trying to control the scene while the paramedics worked on the poor guy, idiotic people kept coming up trying to ask the cops how to get to Bourbon Street or how to cross the parade route or whatever the hell they were asking him. A man just seized in public on the street where you can still see his blood all over the place and these people were getting pissed because the cops wouldn't tell them where Bourbon Street and instead was telling them to move away from the scene. Seriously, have a little respect. Even if you don't know exactly what was going on, you can pretty much assume that the ambulance with the swirly lights on it was not there as part of the parade. Especially when people standing around were trying to wipe blood off their hands and a woman was standing there crying. Gimme a break. Heartless, souless people.

Because Bacchus fell on the same night as the Super Bowl, the Marriott and the hotel across the street from the Marriott had the game playing up against the outside of the buildings so the crowd on both sides of Canal could watch the game. I was standing in line at the port-a-potty in front of Arby’s when I saw the Giants win. Man, the sound that came from the crowd was deafening. I’ve never seen so much excitement. I got all caught up in the celebratory crowd. Eli managed to pull it off. Go Eli!!!!!!

Normally, the first float in a parade is either the celebrity float or the king’s float. This year, it was a float in honor of the Sheriff of Jefferson Parish, Harry Lee, who recently died. It was such a sweet honor as he was really into Mardi Gras. In fact, he was so into it that he designs and throws his own magnets. The first sets of magnets were of the fat Harry Lee. He ended up losing lots of weight and after that, the magnets were of the skinny Harry Lee. He managed to get this last one designed before he passed away. I managed to get some Harry Lee magnets and doubloons. They'll probably be collectors items sometime in the future. The float was cool as well. It was shrouded in black tulle and it was rider less float. A couple of tourists near me were wondering why there were no riders and I had to explain to them what was going on.

The parade was fun. We caught more than we had expected to catch (once again). It was Bacchus’s 40th year celebration so the floats were themed after the decades. It was kinda cool. I caught 2 footballs including one of Bacchus's grape footballs that had the 40th anniversary written on it.

After the parade, V and I decided to walk down Bourbon Street on our way to Café du Monde for some beignets and café au lait. Whoa, Bourbon is always an eye opener. V is this cute, little (4’9”) 16 year old wearing a tank top (yes, it was that warm) and tight jeans. She has long dark brown almost black hair and dark brown eyes. She is adorable. Everywhere we went, she was getting hit on.

Some random gay guy that was standing near us at the parade route told her “I’m sure you get this all the time, but you’re adorable!”. Another random guy (not gay) saw her walking down Bourbon and came over and asked her if he could pick her up. I mean, literally pick her up. H was 6’ something so it was a funny picture. V let it happen. I have a pic somewhere and I’ll post it later. V mentioned later that while she was standing in line at the same port-a-potty that another random guy literally picked her up as well. This was after she declined to do "something" to earn some big Spiderman beads the guy was offering. Good girl.

When we got towards the end of the street before we had to turn off to go get our midnight snack, another random guy stepped off the sidewalk and asked if either one of us wanted to thumb wrestle him. He claimed he was from Chicago and asked where we were from. V said “here” and that thrilled him to no end. He said that it would be the ultimate showdown between Chicago and New Orleans. He was drunk off his ass so V easily beat him. I have pics of that as well that I’ll post. He kept asking if we were Hispanic or Latin. V kept trying to tell him that she was Italian but he was too drunk to really listen to anything we had to say. His drunk friend kept telling me he wished he knew me better so he could get me to send him copies of the pics. I chose not to even respond.

After that, we called K and mom and they came and picked us up. We got home a bit after 1 am.

All in all, a blast. I love going to Bacchus.

That’s it for part 2. I’ll write about part 3 and post it on Monday.

Have a good weekend, y’all.

Later,

Mama Dawg