Happy Mardi Gras
Damn, these past two days have been awesome. I just caught some Z's after having been awake for over 24 hours straight because Monika and I decided to stay up all night on Lundi Gras (last night) in order to make it to Zulu in the morning on Mardi Gras (today.)
I got up around 1 PM yesterday, got ready and made my way over to the JCC to watch Proteus and Orpheus with Mon. The parades were awesome, I had forgotten how much fun Orpheus is, though this year Harry Connick Jr. wasn't on any of the floats! Steven Segall threw Mon some beads, I got to gawk at Josh Hartnett (whom I did not think was attractive before seeing him in person), tried to gawk at Scarlet Johannsen, though I could not see her (must've been on the other side of the float,) and got some cool things that I'll actually use, like a "save nola" bracelet and a magnetic support ribbon in Mardi Gras colors saying something about Orpheus helping to rebuild the city.
Bryan (who had to move away after the hurricane) and Lisa were at the parades with us, and after they were over we decided we were hungry, and Bryan wanted to eat at Juan's Flying Burrito, so we headed down Magazine only to find it closed. Because traffic was so horrible, we ended up going down Camp toward the Quarter and at first thought we'd go eat at Angeli's...but then realized that would be a BAD idea since Bryan and Lisa needed to drive back to FL that night. In an attempt to get out of traffic we went around what we thought was a u-turn under the I-10 overpass but what turned out to be a u-on ramp to the Westbank Expressway. Yay. So Monika got to drive across the CCC for the first time, and go to the Wank for the first time. It was an adventure, especially since we were running on fumes and all the gas stations we saw were closed. We found an open gas station though, and an open Rally's, and we all inhaled our food while sitting on one of their tables. Took Bryan and Lisa to their car and saw them off, then I took a shower and changed into the clothes Mon had grabbed for me to wear (gasp, Gap jeans!) By the time we got into the quarter it was after midnight. We missed the Zombi parade which was starting about the time Orpheus was ending.
Spent some time in Mythique, which reopened for the first time in years last night. It was very chill until the Noise Parade came wandering in, and that was cool for a while but after 30 minutes of listening to people banging on trash cans I started to get a little annoyed. Went to MoJo's which is where I stayed nearly the entire night. Drank a LOT. I don't even know what time it was when we left, but it was to go in search of breakfast. We tried the clover leaf but they were packed, so somehow I was coerced into going to Krystal's on Bourbon. The walk there was...interesting. And once there I put some very unhappy cows in my belly. But it was very tasty nonetheless. Walked through the square where we were accosted by a cop who told us to get out of the street. There was a horse-drawn carriage staged at the corner and a large crowd on either side of the street, and after we cut through the crowd we aske what they were filming and this woman goes "GMA!!" Which was translated into "Good Morning America" by another person in the crowd. Um, yeah.
I had to pee, and we had to walk in that direction anyway to get to the car, so I wanted to see if the Dervish or MoJo's was still open. Mark and Shy were still in MoJo's, so I was happy. Talked with them for a bit before we looked at the time and realized it was time to go if we wanted to make it to Zulu on time.
This is where things get depressing.
At this point I was so delerious from not sleeping that I don't even remember which street we were on when we saw the smoke (which I hoped was just a low-lying cloud...) We let our morbid curiosity take over so we drove in the direction of the billows (which I now realized was a fire.) We found a spot to park on Magazine and walked the 2 blocks to the smoke and saw a house burning down. I had started crying in the car when I realized it was somebody's house on fire on freaking Mardi Gras day. That's as bad as your house burning down on Christmas day. When we got there they were putting one of the firemen in an ambulance, and we watched one fireman crawl into the attic of the house through a small window...he was gone for a long time and I was starting to get worried, but he came out finally, though he had some trouble getting onto the ladder. I snapped a bunch of pictures...but we had to leave when I looked over at the elderly man who had been standing next to me and saw him crying...that just broke my heart.
I have no idea what street this house is (was?) on, somewhere between Jackson and Louisiana between Magazine and Tchopitoulas, but here are the pictures, there are a LOT so beware if you are on dial-up.
I got up around 1 PM yesterday, got ready and made my way over to the JCC to watch Proteus and Orpheus with Mon. The parades were awesome, I had forgotten how much fun Orpheus is, though this year Harry Connick Jr. wasn't on any of the floats! Steven Segall threw Mon some beads, I got to gawk at Josh Hartnett (whom I did not think was attractive before seeing him in person), tried to gawk at Scarlet Johannsen, though I could not see her (must've been on the other side of the float,) and got some cool things that I'll actually use, like a "save nola" bracelet and a magnetic support ribbon in Mardi Gras colors saying something about Orpheus helping to rebuild the city.
Bryan (who had to move away after the hurricane) and Lisa were at the parades with us, and after they were over we decided we were hungry, and Bryan wanted to eat at Juan's Flying Burrito, so we headed down Magazine only to find it closed. Because traffic was so horrible, we ended up going down Camp toward the Quarter and at first thought we'd go eat at Angeli's...but then realized that would be a BAD idea since Bryan and Lisa needed to drive back to FL that night. In an attempt to get out of traffic we went around what we thought was a u-turn under the I-10 overpass but what turned out to be a u-on ramp to the Westbank Expressway. Yay. So Monika got to drive across the CCC for the first time, and go to the Wank for the first time. It was an adventure, especially since we were running on fumes and all the gas stations we saw were closed. We found an open gas station though, and an open Rally's, and we all inhaled our food while sitting on one of their tables. Took Bryan and Lisa to their car and saw them off, then I took a shower and changed into the clothes Mon had grabbed for me to wear (gasp, Gap jeans!) By the time we got into the quarter it was after midnight. We missed the Zombi parade which was starting about the time Orpheus was ending.
Spent some time in Mythique, which reopened for the first time in years last night. It was very chill until the Noise Parade came wandering in, and that was cool for a while but after 30 minutes of listening to people banging on trash cans I started to get a little annoyed. Went to MoJo's which is where I stayed nearly the entire night. Drank a LOT. I don't even know what time it was when we left, but it was to go in search of breakfast. We tried the clover leaf but they were packed, so somehow I was coerced into going to Krystal's on Bourbon. The walk there was...interesting. And once there I put some very unhappy cows in my belly. But it was very tasty nonetheless. Walked through the square where we were accosted by a cop who told us to get out of the street. There was a horse-drawn carriage staged at the corner and a large crowd on either side of the street, and after we cut through the crowd we aske what they were filming and this woman goes "GMA!!" Which was translated into "Good Morning America" by another person in the crowd. Um, yeah.
I had to pee, and we had to walk in that direction anyway to get to the car, so I wanted to see if the Dervish or MoJo's was still open. Mark and Shy were still in MoJo's, so I was happy. Talked with them for a bit before we looked at the time and realized it was time to go if we wanted to make it to Zulu on time.
This is where things get depressing.
At this point I was so delerious from not sleeping that I don't even remember which street we were on when we saw the smoke (which I hoped was just a low-lying cloud...) We let our morbid curiosity take over so we drove in the direction of the billows (which I now realized was a fire.) We found a spot to park on Magazine and walked the 2 blocks to the smoke and saw a house burning down. I had started crying in the car when I realized it was somebody's house on fire on freaking Mardi Gras day. That's as bad as your house burning down on Christmas day. When we got there they were putting one of the firemen in an ambulance, and we watched one fireman crawl into the attic of the house through a small window...he was gone for a long time and I was starting to get worried, but he came out finally, though he had some trouble getting onto the ladder. I snapped a bunch of pictures...but we had to leave when I looked over at the elderly man who had been standing next to me and saw him crying...that just broke my heart.
I have no idea what street this house is (was?) on, somewhere between Jackson and Louisiana between Magazine and Tchopitoulas, but here are the pictures, there are a LOT so beware if you are on dial-up.