pinksonia | Mardi Gras round-up (Reply)

I am officially back in the field after the lovely respite that was Mardi Gras/ my two weeks in house. I have to say that this was by far the best of the six Mardi Gras I have attended for the following reasons:

I love the new Jefferson parade route. It's easy to walk to and not all of the parades use it, so it makes it easier to pace myself. I think the lack of appropriate pacing was my problem in previous years. I only really had one emo-moment during Endymion when I lamented my lack of throws and wondered what was wrong with me. I did have a drunk co-worker tell me that no was throwing me anything because I looked like a dude with a mullet, so that wasn't really a shining moment on the parading front.
For the first time I had various friends along the parade routes, so I got to attend Mardi Gras parties. That is definitely the way to do it. We you tire of watching, or there is a lull in the parade you can go up to the house and relax for a bit. Also, the food and drinks are easier to maintain and there is a working flushable toilet. Heaven. Also watching Thoth on Henry Clay has to be the best place ever. There's more room and fewer people. The perfect combination.
My brother and cousin came. There is nothing more exciting than other people's excitement. Plus I got to show off my freinds and city to people.
I skipped actually Mardi Gras day entirely. Zulu is too early, Rex is full of itself, and the Trucks parade is long and boring, so I gave myself permission to not go to any parades on the actual day.

And in the whole reason-for-the-season type way, I've given up pizza for lent as I was getting too lazy in my field cooking. Instead, for this week I made some pasta sauce, tofu and apple roll ups, and sun-dried tomato pin wheels, which really sound better than pizza anyway.