A quiet night, a stack of books, a tuna melt on rye

You know what I forget every year? Mardi Gras beads are HEAVY! I just schlepped a large paper grocery bag full, across town, in order to give them to the woman in my knitting group who rides with the Elks in the truck parade. Her request for unwanted beads at our last meeting came as an unexpected coop for me. Now the are not TAKING UP SPACE in my apartment! Awesome! Maybe she'll want the many random stuffed animals I've also accrued from these parades. Here's hoping.

in case it doesn't sound like it, I do like Mardi Gras, I really do.

Mardi Gras is over (okay, there are a few more hours left, but you get the point) and the family has all gone home.  YAY!  Things went better than expected and they only managed to end up in the projects once.  I have no idea but now the rules for Mardi Gras have been expanded: 

1. Pay the money for the Port-a-Potty.
2. Don't touch the horses
3. If the throw is under someone's foot it belongs to them.
4. Why you call for a ride, you should not be in the ghetto. 

I also somehow managed to only go to four parades this year and somehow I am not all that disappointed by that fact. 

Tonight Mardi Gras starts for me.  There has been parades going on for a week or so now, and balls and what not for even longer, but tonight will be the first parade I go to this season.  After the success of last season, I'm going to stick with some new rules. 

1. Don't try to go to every parade. 
2. The best parades to choose to go to are ones where you know someone on the parade route.  Everything is more comfortable with a bathroom and some place warm to go. 

On a slightly less happy point of Mardi Gras, one of the web sites is showing the parade going right past my house tonight.  Do Not Want.  We didn't get any advanced warning, and they haven't closed the street yet, so I think the web site is just wrong.  At least I hope so. 

Finally, right now I am wearing three pairs of pants (well tights, long underwear, and jeans).  I hope that is enough for the standing outside.  It may be worse tomorrow, when there is supposed to be sleet during one of my favorite parades. 

This past weekend I also heard the vicious, vicious rumor that they are moving the route for some of the Mardi Gras parades from Napolean to Jefferson Ave.  This is a vicious rumor because I happen to live on Jefferson Ave at St. Charles where the bend in the route would be.  I chose not to be on the parade route for a reason.  I don't want to have to deal with not being able to park, having people (and their trash) all over my yard, to having people trying to sneak into my apartment to use my bathroom and steal my beer (not that I'm that likely to have beer but one of my co-workers had this problem at her house on St. Charles).  Also, I'm going to be expected to host all of my co-workers, which wouldn't be too bad for one parade or even for a day, but it's likely to turn into people showing up whenever they feel like it from the time we get in from the field on Wednesday afternoon to the time we leave again for the feild the following Wednesday morning. 

Well, if nothing else it will be a time to tryout all kinds of appetizer recipies, since I never get the chance any other time. 

I accompanied the marching  band during Rex today, so once again I am tired and sore.  Thankfully, this parade was only five miles, but there were the anticipated stops.  We only had two: one that lasted an hour and another that lasted 45 minutes. 

The LSU fans were really good.  Everyone was dreading five hours of being called "Tiger Bait" but it didn't happen.  In fact, the most annoying aspect of the parade were the two old alumni volunteers.  They came every year to carry the banner in at least one parade.  They are in no particular order:

• extremely slow, at the end we were something like two blocks behind the float in front of us.  The guard was seriously considering passing the banner on the left
• incapable of standing in the middle of the road.  The banner was always on one side or the other, resulting in it being off kilter from the rest of the band. 
  
• Incapable of holding the banner evenly.  The wife of the pair insists on holding it up by her shoulders, while the husband carries it by his waist.  These two locations do not result in a line parallel to the ground.  Also, the wife likes to walk two steps ahead of her husband, so only the people on the left side of the street could read it. 
  

So exhausted.  Or well that's not quite true.  Last night I was so exhausted, but then I slept and now I much better. 


Needless to say, I skipped Bacchus is favor of food (yummy pasta salad that the band director's mother made) and a night in.  To catch a predator  is a mighty creepy show.  Just saying. 

    I'd like to say that I have a new appreciation for all the people who were in Honor Guard, as I was among your ranks for the last five days.  Actually I was in the more cooley named Silent Wave: the band ninjas.  I was stealthy ninja which involved, in no particular order, marching with the banner, pulling the wagon, shouting at thousands of people to move back, second lining (dancing with a decorated umbrella), and feeding water to the cymbal player.  I'm not quite sure how I ended up with that last job. 

    Parading in New Orleans is nothing like parading in West Chester.  Or shortest parade was five miles.  The longest eight.  People were allowed to have fun!  The woodwind and brass sections danced.  The drum line received beers from their adoring fans.  People cheer, and I mean cheer.  Many of them called us "Tiger Bait" (see LSU's mascot), but on pretty much every block someone yelled "Roll Wave" or started the "Hullaballoo" chant.  It's really rather awe inspiring. 

    Of course, the whole time I was there I was thinking how it was funny that it was me.  Being not the gung-ho band person of the group, how did I end up in the famous parade? 

    But yeah, fun and tiring.

    I never thought that this would be something that I could say, but today I worked in the snow in Texas.  I also walked 5+ miles, but that is besides the point.  Working in northern Texas is nicer than working in northern Louisiana.  Less woods with long briars, more open fields with cows.  I never realized that when a cow dies in the field it is just left there to rot and be eaten by the buzzards and the coyotes.  However, in the last two days I have seen: 1 dead cow with it's throat ripped out and three coyotes fighting over it and countless bones from other more advancedly decayed cows.  Less disturbing than you might think.  Or I may just be strange. 
    Also, I get to use my other new icon.  If you where to look at its key words, and I'm not sure why you would ever do that, you would notice that I have called it "Found it."  I finally found something while digging!  It was just a piece of white ware, or "historic ceramic" as we are supposed to call them.  Apparently if the field techs identify artifacts it causes confusion among that lab techs.  Why they wouldn't just be able to say "No, you're wrong, it's pearlware." is beyond me. 
    Monday I head back to Homer - the land of briars, fast food, and inconvenient internet.  Why let me taste the high-life for just five days.  It does mean I get all of Mardi Gras weekend off, so I guess it's not all bad. 

I feel that I should make the requisit Mardi Gras post. Well, the post which is requisit if you are a college student residing in the city of New Orleans. Sqeeeeee! It is Mardi Gras. Every year by the end of it I am so sick of the drunks and the tourists and all the rest, but then the next year I get all excited again. Every year I tell myself that I really don't want anymore beads, and really I don't, but somehow, when you're standing there with your arms up above your head jumping up and down you feel like such a loser if no one throws you anything.
Last night I got my coolest throw ever - A Muses Barbie knock off - now I just need to figure out to do with it.