Folks. I lived in New Orleans for two and a half years; enough time to experience three seasons of Carnival. Now, I really liked living in NOLA except for the distance from our families and the TERRIBLE customer service (I'm looking at you Cox Cable and always broken Icee machine at every Burger King in the city). It was just a unique place to live. One of the best parts, though, was Mardi Gras.
Mardi Gras was introduced to us accidentally in Jefferson Parish (aka "county") on Valentine's Day. We went out to eat only to get caught by one of the early parades. A lovely woman and her family offered to teach us what to do to get beads. She and her husband were having a grand 'ole time with their cooler of ...*ahem*... "drinks" and their kids. They were kind enough to catch a bead bag and give it to us while yelling at the people on the floats that we were Carnival Virgins. Lovely folks. We actually had a really good time as we watched these insanely ornate floats pass by.
A few days later, Lauren Ball asked if we wanted to go to a Sunday afternoon parade in Orleans Parish. (After checking her car- approximate words were: " ...baby bag, shoes, gun, camp chairs..." Yeah. We had a double take too.) We met some new friends from church and experienced our first true Mardi Gras parade. All in all, in our first Carnival season, we went to 15 parades. And they all rocked.
Honestly, our first year was definitely our favorite for a variety of reasons. One of those being able to sleep out on the sidewalk of St. Charles trying to beat the crowds on Fat Tuesday. Yes, our mothers both freaked out... After we had already done it. Oh yes. We are smooth like that.
Anyway, all this to say that I miss this time of year in that region. Being through three years may not be as long as other people, but I'm so glad to have been able to experience so much in that short time.
Happy Mardi Gras y'all!
