Le Krewe d’Etat is my all-time favorite parade. I love it! It is satirical, and its satire is truly biting. Read Pete’s post for a good description of this krewe. Post-Katrina, there was a big brouhaha about whether to have Mardi Gras or not. It was too soon and there were no extra resources for the city to cover it (police and clean up), some said, and it’d send the wrong message (that we are a party city even in out darkest hour) to the rest of the country. I tended to be in this group.

The other group felt that we needed to carry on, show the country parts of the city were intact and that we were ready for tourism, ready for business. This group won the day.

Mardi Gras 2006 was one of the most special I ever experienced. Very few tourists came. My first parade that year was Le Krewe d’Etat. The floats began to roll and it was clear that they were taking aim at Katrina, FEMA, local, state and federal government. This article explains the krewe’s 2006 parade far better than I can.

When I saw the float of the moldy refrigerators rolling past, tears welled in my eyes (just as they are now recalling the parade). This parade, this Mardi Gras, this one was for us, the locals, the New Orleanians. I realized then that had my out-of-town friends come in for this Mardi Gras, the satire mostly would have been lost on them. Sure, they had HEARD about the moldy refrigerators but had they SMELLED them? No. They had SEEN the levee breach on TV, but did it blow a hole in their lives, really? No. They had heard of the troubles with FEMA but had they had the run-around getting help from them? No.

Those on the route that night, they, we, had lived it. We had survived it. We WERE living it, surviving it. And sometimes you just don’t know how bottled up your stress is until you have a release to let your guard down. And that’s what Mardi Gras 2006 did for the city, it began the healing process. It was the first time we, collectively, LAUGHED at it all. And with that laughter came tears. Tears of unity and community.

Thank you Dictator and Le Krewe d’Etat. See you tomorrow night.

When I was around six years old,  my parents took all us kids to see Bacchus. For some reason, my father needed to move his car from where it was parked. He did this during the parade. After the parade, we returned to our car. Except that I walked back from the way I came and got separated from my family. I didn’t realize I was alone until I could walk no further–I ended up at a canal or some other body of water. When I turned around and saw no one I recognized, I FREAKED OUT. Being six, this freak out was more of an internal shuddering with quiet external tears.I didn’t know what to do. Stay put and hope they’d find me or retrace my steps and look for them? I froze.

A couple approached me and the woman asked if I was lost. She was being polite–of course I was lost. I nodded and sniffled. She took me by the hand, and the three of us began walking back to the parade route.

En route, we came upon my family. All I remember is my mother. She, too, had been FREAKED OUT and was in tears. She scooped me up and thanked the couple for helping me. I was neither punished nor chastised. I was missed and loved and appreciated. I will never, ever forgot the look on my mother’s face that night nor the fear I felt being lost nor the love I felt being found.

I love reading my fellow NOLA bloggers, and I’d love to meet you, too. With Mardi Gras in full swing, it seems like a good opportunity for us to mingle. So, here’s the invitation:

For the Sunday parades as well as Monday evening (Lundi Gras), we will be catching the uptown parades right at the beginning–on the downtown (sidewalk) side of Napoleon Street near Laurel Street (very close to Tipitina’s). Come join us! I’ll be there in my fabulous blue wig along with the divine Captain Sarcastic, Sun, and Pete, plus my Colorado friends atop one child’s ladder. There may even be beer and jambalaya for you to enjoy (depending on how many of you actually come)!

If you need more specifics, feel free to e-mail me (nola@nolanotes.com). If you plan on meeting, please leave a comment so that other NOLA bloggers can get inspired (Southern Mom, what do you say?) to brave the traffic and the crowds and make it out, too.

Hope to see you out there!

This week will be spent consecrated in preparations for Mardi Gras weekend. Technically, “Mardi Gras” is French for “Fat Tuesday.” We have gotten lax in calling the whole season “Mardi Gras.” My grandmother never made that mistake; the season is, and for her always was, carnival. She loved carnival. When I hear that word uttered with a NOLA-accent (”cah-nivul”), I think of her.

Already done: The stringed huggies have been located; Mardi Gras tunes have been loaded on my iPod; the wheeled ice chest has been taken down from the attic; the hand-warmers are on stand-by; and arrangements have been made for a parking spot and table along the route of Endymion and a baby sitter for Saturday has been lined up.

To do: general grocery shopping and house cleaning; a trip to Hi Do Bakery in Gretna to buy a king cake in the shape of a crab (look at this thing–how can I resist?):

beer and ice purchased; cook jambalaya for Bacchus; procure seated ladder:

(Photo credit: Jenni Lawson, NPR.)

Oh, and pick up friends from the airport on Friday.

This will be my friends’ first visit back to NOLA since Katrina. They’ll want to see the “Katrina tour.” It will be their daughter’s first carnival. And Sun’s too. They have matching ladder t-shirts.

The anticipation my friends and I have for this carnival is great. Greater, in fact, than I can recall feeling in a long time. Even CS, the self-proclaimed “Mardi Grinch” has decided to stop hating Mardi Gras and revel in our city’s unique offering.

Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Yesterday, CS and I (and Sun) drove to LaPlace to buy andouille for jambalaya Pete and I will be making for Bacchus next week. I could get acceptable andouille a bit closer than LaPlace. But I so enjoy the drive that I wonder if maybe it’s the drive that I go for and not the meat.

I take Airline Highway, and along the way there is a stretch of the road that abuts a swamp. Maybe its the runoff from Lake Pontchartrain. I don’t know, technically, what it is. But it takes me breath away and causes me to slow down and take it in. Here’s what I see:

There was a sole cypress tree (the cypress tree is a part of my very soul) that sat in the middle of the water for which I will have to return to get its picture. I could tell CS was getting antsy with my picture-taking (and by that, I mean the pictures I was having him take).

A short way up that same road is this stunning sight:

Truly magnificent. Then a wee bit further is some livestock (cows and goats). Here’s one of the cows:

And how many other places in America, or even the world, can you see this on the road with you?

Yes, LaPlace is the capital of cajun meats. But it’s scenery doesn’t suck either.

The Krewe of Barkus rolls walks tomorrow in the French Quarter. We will not be able to make it. But it made me recall the last time we did make it, back in 2005. The theme that year was Hairy Pawter and the Sorcerer’s Bone. If you don’t know or haven’t figured it out yet, the marchers in this parade are dogs.

This parade is a doggone good time a whole lot of fun. The costumes are just too much! The dogs are so well behaved, and viewers bring their dogs too. All involved love it.

There are floats:

And bands:

And great costumes:

Is that a polar bear behind this little dog?

Although this little fella is not in line with the theme, he’s my favorite borrowing from Rodrigue’s Blue Dog (how long do you think he stayed blue?):

Then there were these fellas that were mimicking the great Clydesdale horses Pete recently wrote about:

And just so you don’t forget that you ARE in the Quarter, there were even a few of these:

There are dog-related throws and even a dog-costume contest. I caught a pair of beads made of bones. There were many, many other great pictures we took that day. It really is a thing to see. So if you can suffer the weather, get out there and see this one.

I know I have gushed a lot about king cakes lately.  And generally, I can’t get enough.  But what I witnessed this morning is TOO MUCH!

The office king cakes (one plain, one stuffed) were duly placed in the coffee room this morning.  And as I was enjoying a nice slice (or two), someone pointed out something that made my jaw stop in mid-bite: A BOWL OF ICING. 

Yes; apparently the bakery (following Belle’s lead, I won’t name the culprit–but it too was a bakery on the Northshore) gave the girl picking up the cakes “extra icing.”  These cakes already have so much white icing that I scrape some off.  And now they are adding a nasty bowl of white icing as a side?  Why?  Seriously, who could need/want MORE WHITE ICING?

It was such a spectacle that other co-workers were hearing about it and had to come see the “bowl of nasty” for themselves.  We are all aghast.  It is just too weird.  Who sells a cake (king or otherwise) and offers extra icing?  I hate that I know the answer to this question.

Before we can even get through Mardi Gras, the Times-Picayune is reporting the lineup for the 2008 Jazzfest, and, man, is it chuck full of good performers.  There’s to be Alison Krauss and Robert Plant, Sheryl Crow, Billy Joel, Al Green, Elvis Costello, Randy Newman, Kermit Ruffins, Widespread Panic, Ellis Marsalis, Cowboy Mouth, Dr. John, the Imagination Movers, Irma Thomas, Jeremy Davenport, Trombone Shorty, Stevie Wonder, Bonerama, the subdudes, The Dixie Cups, the Radiators and OH SO MANY MORE!!!

If only I liked JazzFest.  Even so, I am really excited for those that do that the lineup is so awesome!

Kim from Jogging in Circles tagged me for this meme about why I blog. Here goes:

How long have you been blogging?
Since early March, 2007. Approaching a year already!
What inspired you to start a blog and who are your mentors?
One of my BBFs, Wendy over at Southern Mom, was outed by her husband that she had a blog some time ago. At the time, I was all “what’s a blog?” I came to really get addicted to reading her blog, even though as her friend I knew a lot of what she was writing about. It was so fun! Add to that my secret desire to become a novelist, and the flame was lit for me to blog.
Are you trying to make money online, or just doing it for fun?
I do have ads, but unless things change soon and real revenue is earned, I will be canceling all ads.

What 3 things do you love about being online?
1. The new friends. I have made contacts with people that I don’t think I would have otherwise. Some from finding my blog and some from me finding theirs.

2. The new eyes I have. Blogging, I find that when I am in a situation that used to make we want to get out off at the first chance, I now slow down and take mental notes of the craziness of it so that I can blog about it later. Talk about turning lemons into lemonade!

3. The timelessness of it. I can hop online when Sun wakes me up at 3am and catch up on things that I may not have had time for earlier in the day. It’s 24/7 and I love that!

What 3 things do you struggle with online?
1. Content. I try to write about things that are not just “a day in the life” because, trust me, it’s not exciting. And I hate when I have nothing to write about and I feel I am “forcing” a post. I am getting better about not blogging on those days.

2. Not caring about comments. When I decided to blog, I gave NO THOUGHT to comments. And now, I hate to admit that I do care! Yet, I am amazed at the posts that get high comments and those that get low comments. I am TERRIBLE at predicting what will strike a nerve with folks.

3. Staying positive. I don’t want my blog to be the place where I piss and moan. Nor do I want it to appear that I am a Pollyanna. I struggle to find the things in my life, in my beloved NOLA, that are positive to blog about. But sometimes I’ve got to “blog it out” to get something off my chest. I tend to regret my negative posts.

Okay, so now onto tagging other blogs:

1. My “mentor,” Wendy;

2. A new blogger, Penelope; and

3. Another NOLA blogger who needs a distraction, Katie.

Growing up, we called those things that keep your beer chilled “huggies.” When I moved out of state for school, my new friends called them “koozies.” To me and my family, they will always be huggies. I have an odd fascination with huggies (not unlike my fetish with coasters–hey, they are both drink related. Weird.) and have many in my pantry.

I have some for bottles, more for cans; some that can lay flat (my grandfather prefers these because he can tuck one into his pocket and take it to the casino with him); some with competing attorneys’ logos (what a smart idea they have!). I have one with a Saints logo that I bought from the hardware store where I held my first job. This one has a cup insert that’s kinda cool:

The first week I was practicing law I was brought in to assist in estate planning for folks that had just won over $10,000,000. I was requested to take “copious notes,” and I got this huggie as a souvenir from the clients:

Then there is my “floozie koozie,” that’s its marketed name. I gave these out to friends that came in for Mardi Gras a few years ago. Feathers, dangly beads, leopard print and all:

My latest addition is this little gem from Princess Penelope (that “S” is for Sarcastic, of course):

So, what brought on this post? Well, Mardi Gras, of course. With friends coming in next week, I am in prep-mode. And one item on that list is my Mardi Gras huggie, because you need your hands free to catch beads: