Thursday, Feb. 15
Myself and some of the KoPs (Krewe of Pacific) were at Lafayette Square and had easy beer and bathroom access. It was a tad cold though, and breezy. Wind chill took it down a few dozen degrees. Even the painted nipples were hard.
We started off the night with the Knights of Chaos and I caught a whoopee cushion that went along with their theme of Chaos Breaks Wind. This was a fun parade and we all got some good laughs at the floats and satire.
Then came Muses and we got a little crazy. The city neglected to close the barricade at the square so we were able to get really close to the floats and holler for throws. I just screamed “Muses! Muses!” and jumping up and down. My houndstooth hat fell off at some point and some nice folks found it for me later.
I will never get tired of that fiber optic shoe.
We screamed our heads off for The O. Perry Walker band and I got a good picture of one of their bass drummers and another of the color guard.
Everybody got the throws they wanted. My neighbors across the street were old pros and got them with ease. I had to do seven types of theatrics to get mine. I did alright though.
The muses were of course gorgeous and so very witty.
Friday, Feb. 16
The next night, the KoPs took a break but I went out solo to see Hermes and D’Etat. Told you I was hardcore.
I found good parking and went back to the spot we were at the night before.
For Hermes, I got next to a family with a bunch of cute kids and got maybe five big pink ones in a row. Then I filled up with all kinds of doubloons and beads and was really overloaded. I even got a Hermes football but at the end of the parade I gave it to a kid in the family who had been screaming for one the whole time. He looked a little bit like Marques Colston.
For D’Etat, a man came up next to me and asked me where Camp street was. We got to talking and he said he had never been to New Orleans and had only been in the city for an hour and a half. I welcomed him and did my best to answer his questions about Carnival. I even expounded on a few things such as Flambeux and why the parades stop at Gallier Hall. He said he was only in town tonight and was leaving tomorrow to continue a cross-country trip.
D’Etat started and within the first few floats the girl next to me suffered a bad case of bead burn. You could plainly see the impression of the beads on her forehead. She had to ice it down even in the cold weather. By this time, the older man was totally into it and damn-near killing himself trying to get various throws. He asked me what he should do with all the beads and I said he may want to put some around his rear view mirror so everyone on the I-10 would know he was coming from Mardi Gras.
Then I heard a St. B’Nawd accent behind me saying D’Etat was her favorite and begging the Krewe for lit beads and getting denied. She was pulling the “I lost everything in the storm” card and it just wasn’t happening. Finally we were able to get her a really cool crystal throw that emitted light. She was pretty happy about that.
The older man was calling his kids and screaming, “I’m at Mardi Gras!”
I didn’t get any good skull beads like last year but I did get some fun throws and more doubloons to glue to my shed.
Not sticking around for Morpheus, I gave my best beads to the older man and said he could use them for various things on Bourbon Street if he wanted to get rid of them all.
On the way home I did see a float on the GNO going faster than I ever thought a float could. It was a strange juxtaposition seeing something that usually moved at about 4 mph hauling ass down the ramp at 40.
More posts soon.
Happy Mardi Gras yall.
bead burn sounds rough