Heads up.

You might get hit. Seriously…the beads just fly EVERYWHERE.

This past weekend, I left the husband, the dog, and the tiny one, boarded a plane and headed south to New Orleans to celebrate the one and only Jo. She’s getting married in April, and since all of her people are scattered around the country, we met up for the weekend in New Orleans. I had 2 things on my agenda, eat a beignet and have fun. I was 1 for 2, but it was the important one…I missed out on the beignet…but we did eat a funnel cake…and that’s basically the same thing… (that’s what I’m telling myself).

This was the first weekend for the Mardi Gras insanity. There were parades, people dressed dressed up as barney the dinosaur (truth), robot characters (also truth), flying beads, corn dogs (amaze), smelly streets, and a feeling of free spirit oozing through the city. If this is what “pre-mardi-gras” is like…I can only image what ACTUAL Mardi Gras is like…utter nude chaos.

I’ve never been to Louisiana before. I’ve actually never been to the “south south” (not including South Carolina and Florida). People just talk to you down here. If you’re sitting by yourself in DC, if you go up to just talk to someone…you’ll probably get a glare of death and a huff of frustration. We’re not “chatters”.

Down in Da South, we made friends a lot of places. One morning we made friends with this group of guys from Texas who were there for a Shriners convention. We made friends with one perky cheerleader in the elevator who was in town for a competition. We made friends with a collection of people in town for a big meeting from Chicago. We saw a wedding early in the day and saw the same couple later and chatted them up again. We just made friends. It’s easy to do as a group of ladies in matching mardi-gras hats though…everyone wants to talk to the bride and be your friend…so theres that :). We however did NOT make friends with this one guy whose giant over the top mardi-gras beads got broke ripped off his neck and he was all sorts of angry and not friendly with us…oops. We also probably did not make any friends at the restaurant we went to because we ruined any sense of a romantic evening with our outburst of cackles and amazingly awkward conversations :).  Sorry to y’all to (syke, I’m not sorry).

I got to meet people whom I’ve only ever “known” via the lovely world of social media and it was fabulous. I got to spend the weekend with a gaggle of great ladies and I got to eat a lot of fried food and feel no remorse about it (because I think we walked 1,515 miles one day). I went into a voodoo shop (which is just…no), I got a tour from a lady with a vagina necklace (actual vagina…not kidding), I saw a lot of little people, I saw people painted from head to toe (sometimes with nothing but paint…yea). I saw a NYC classically trained violinist jamming out on the street because she makes more here than in NYC. I just saw it all. ALL.

I also stayed up to 2 am one night…you read that people…2 am…me…who then had to get up at 5 to go to the airport…I went to bed at 7:30 last night…no joke. I now am on the same sleep schedule as my 13 month old.

I feel like I need to come back 1 more time just to learn more about the history of the city, take a swamp tour, and see a creepy above ground tomb up close.

I never got my beignet, but I got an experience that is way more satisfying than a heap of fried dough.

A glimpse at some of the weekend, I only brought (I forgot it…doh) my camera out one day, but ya get the idea: