I was so sad when I woke up this morning and learned Baton Rouge was blanketed (I mean, relatively. This is Louisiana, after all.) in snow. I had thought briefly of bringing the boys to my mom’s last night so they could see it for the first time, but I figured if I did, it wouldn’t snow. (You’re welcome, residents of Baton Rouge.)
Here it’s been cold and drizzly, but I guess cold enough for a bit of slush to accumulate on my windshield, at least.
Frosty the Slushman! Isn’t he adorable? I’m a natural.
PS I’m not as sad now because apparently it snowed at school and they let the kids out to see it. It didn’t accumulate or anything, but I’ll take it!
PSS It’s not really the first time they’ve seen snow. Once they trucked in snow to City Park and we brought them. And it snowed once when they were babies, but they were at daycare, so no pics.
After I wrote yesterday’s post about riding in a parade, it was brought to my attention that a lot about Mardi Gras doesn’t make sense. Now, I’m really not the best person to write this probably but it’s my blog so I’m going to anyway. Interspersed are random Mardi Gras pictures.
How many krewes are there? Are there always 42 floats? What are throws and why do some krewes have certain ones? Do krewes have a theme? Do they have a larger goal (like donating to charity)? Do they do other parades?
There are a bunch of krewes. If I had to guess, I’d say…50. Now let me google that to see if I’m right.
Okay, I was wrong. 35. That said, those are only the ones that roll in New Orleans. Metairie has ten parades, and there are more on the Northshore. So maybe my initial guess was close. My memories of Mardi Gras as a child involve going to my aunt’s house on Bonnabel in Metairie and watching the parades roll by while my sister made out with her boyfriend on the sidewalk. Good times, good times. So I can’t discount the non-NOLA parades.
Stuffed animals are very coveted throws among the younger set.
The number of floats in each parade vary. I’m going to guess again and say 42 is on the high end, but I don’t really know. I could probably look it up. Nope, wrong again. Endymion has 81!!! Holy cow!
I should back up. What is a krewe, and why is it spelled so…ugh?
According to Wikipedia, “A krewe (pronounced in the same way as “crew”) is an organization that puts on a parade or ball for the Carnival season.” I can’t see any good reason they spelled it “kreatively” but it’s been spelled that way since the 1800s so I’m going to just have to let it go.
They are non-profit organizations, or social clubs. I think some of them do charitable things throughout the year, but I’m not sure, to be completely honest. The purpose seems to be to put on a parade at Mardi Gras. And for some krewes, to show how fancy and rich you are. (I mean, that’s probably not in their mission statement, but let’s face it, it’s true.)
A good wig collection is a must.
Anyway, a krewe basically equals a parade. So the Krewe of Nyx rolls on the Wednesday before Mardi Gras, and that’s the Nyx parade. The Krewe of Endymion rolls on the Saturday night before Fat Tuesday, and you say, “I’m going to Endymion tonight.”
So on to throws. A throw is anything you throw off the float. Get it? Beads are the traditional throw. But most krewes have a signature throw. As I mentioned, Nyx has glittered purses and Muses has shoes. Tucks has toilet paper. Zulu has coconuts. They also will have custom cups and doubloons and stuffed animals and basically all sorts of random stuff. That’s part of the fun! But the purses and shoes and coconuts are the coveted prizes. Those are the things you want to get.
When you see your mom’s friend all dressed up to dance in the parade.
All parades have a theme. For instance, Nyx’s theme was something about music and dancing so all of the floats had a music or dance theme. My float’s theme was Belly Dancing so our float and the headpieces reflected that. Tomorrow, Thoth will roll with a theme of “Thoth’s Cookin'” so I imagine they will have a lot of cooking-related throws. (Great chance to restock the kitchen!)
Oh, and how could I forget what goes on between the floats? A parade is not just a line of floats going by. Oh no. Between each float might be a high school marching band. (Or elementary school!) Or a group of grown women dressed in corsets and wigs doing a choreographed dance down the street. Or men, for that matter. The music is what makes the parade.
There’s Liam marching!
Okay, I think I hit Zandy’s questions. Robyn asks:
I actually want to know the schedule of things. How many parades? Are they all different? Why was your parade NOT on Mardi Gras? Does the whole city get involved? Is it a school holiday?
As I said, there are 35 parades in New Orleans. They are all different, yes. Mine wasn’t on Mardi Gras because…well, 35 parades running on roughly the same route uptown at an average of, what, 3 hours each (totally making that up), would take, well, a lot longer than a day. So they’re spread out over a few weeks. The majority of them run from the Wednesday before Mardi Gras through Fat Tuesday.
How you parent at Mardi Gras.
I’d say the whole city is involved in some way. I mean, you can’t really escape it.
School is out for Mardi Gras. The boys get off the entire week of Mardi Gras which enrages me, since Mardi Gras is on Tuesday. Why they need Wednesday – Friday off after the holiday is beyond me, but I know a lot of people vacation then. But still. A week? Ugh.
I suppose you might also want to know about King Cake. It’s basically a circular brioche bready thing, maybe with cinnamon, usually frosted with colored sugar on top. Everyone has a favorite bakery or grocery store king cake, but I’m not even going to touch that with a ten foot pole, so I made my own.
I could go on for hours talking about the weirdness of Mardi Gras. But I have a parade to get to!
Two days ago, I rode in a Mardi Gras parade! I feel like the whole process is shrouded in mystery, so I am here to BLOW THE WHOLE THING WIDE OPEN!
Just kidding. Am writing it here because that’s what I do.
So I think two years ago I filled out a form for the Krewe of Nyx in the hopes that one day I’d get to join. My friend Megan had been riding in it for a while, as well as my friend Mary. Last year not long after Mardi Gras I got an email saying I was in, if I wanted. So I paid my dues (I mean literally, I sent them a pile of money) and then not much else happened for a while.
In the fall I officially found out I was on a float with Megan and Mary, yay! I figured I should start working on my purses. Nyx’s signature throw is a glittery purse (think Muses and their glittery shoes and Zulu and their famous coconuts) and we were allowed to decorate and throw 20 of them. I couldn’t even think of starting until after we got back from our trip to the UK, so not long after we got back I went to a Mardi Gras supply store and bought 20 cheap glittery purses and a shitload of glitter glue, feathers, plastic jewels, and other random bits and pieces.
Yeah, really not my strong suit, decorating purses.
Meanwhile, Megan and I decided to share a package of beads and throws, so she took care of ordering that.
In early February was the first big event with Nyx, the ball! I’ve already written all about that, but let’s look at the glamorous picture of Pam again, shall we?
There.
Next was costume pickup. We had to go to a warehouse to pick up the satin tunic, wig, mask, and headpiece we were to wear on the floats. These all had to remain TOP SECRET until parade day.
Finally, it was nearly go time! The day before the parade, I went early in the morning to bring a cooler and some other throws I’d bought and put them on the float. It was exciting to see it up close and to go on a float for the very first time.
Later that day, I needed to go back, so I brought the boys on the way home from school. They got to climb up to the top deck where I’d be riding and look around. Cool!
Up on top
Miles
In front of the float (theme was Belly Dancing)
The next morning, after I brought the boys to school, it was finally time to get ready! I put on my tunic over some Mardi Gras leggings I got from my friend Mary, my glittery sneakers I’d made for the parade I marched in last weekend (more on that later) and the wig. I mean, typical outfit for a Wednesday, right?
Then I glittered up my eyelids and waited for Megan to come over so we could ferry over to the pre-party.
We stopped on the way for some food and daiquiris, and then it was time to go into the pre-party! Booze flowed and I found some friends who were riding on other floats. Not easy when everyone is wearing wigs and elaborate headpieces!
Checking my glittery eyelids.
Wig! I kind of want a perm now. JUST KIDDING. But I really loved the wig.
At the pre-party with Megan (left) and Marie, wigless at the time.
After getting the headpiece (which was quite heavy) ziptied to my head (not joking) and finding some tylenol because it was squeezing my brain and giving me a headache, it was time for our float to get on our floats!
It was pretty early, maybe 3:30 or so when we got on our float? Keep in mind the parade wasn’t supposed to start until 6:45 and we were the 41st of 42 floats. So we were going to be on that float for a long, long time.
It’s hard to describe how full of beads and other throws and women and coolers the float was. We were on the top deck (no shade up there, but at least the sun was on the way down) so we unloaded our throws while sipping on the daiquris we brought on board. I talked to some of the other riders, including a twin mom that I had a lot in common with. That was fun, meeting some new people!
A sea of women on floats.
Megan with our stuff.
I’m sure we were stone cold sober in these pics.
After a few hours, it was time to go! It had rained quite a bit the day before, so our float got a bit stuck in the mud and it took a bit to get out of it, but soon enough we were on our way! Well, on Tchoupitoulas, the road I drive on every day on the way to get the kids from school. That’s where the floats line up before the parade. It was so beautiful with the sun going down, the cool breeze blowing through my polyester curls, a daiquri in hand…
The kids waiting for me to get there.
We were on Tchoupitoulas for three hours waiting to get going. We hung out, read books (thank god for the Kindle app on my phone), chatted, went into a bar (we were stopped so long we got off the float), and reorganized our throws for the tenth time. Finally, we turned the corner onto Jefferson, then hit Magazine Street. We were off!
Tee made this one for me!
I had made a list of the friends I had along the route. I looked for signs and threw beads and purses and bracelets and spears and about a million Nyx-branded throws.
The best parts were seeing the people I knew, but nothing could beat seeing George and the boys and a bunch of my friends. We waved and yelled and I gave them a huge bag of fun stuff, and we blew kisses and the boys were jumping up and down giddily and too soon, we had rolled past them and they were out of sight. (Just as well, it was 10pm by that point and the boys had school the next day.)
Megan did a photo burst as we passed everyone. Yay!
A pic of me throwing stuff:
The rest of the parade was more throwing, more waving at friends, more and more fun. My neck was killing me so I had to take the headpiece off.
A video I took as we rolled down St. Charles Avenue:
Near the end, as we passed Gallier Hall:
I really loved it when we got down to Canal Street at the end. It seemed to be a lot more tourists down there (which makes sense, it’s where the hotels are) and they were very grateful for whatever you threw them. Uptown, people wouldn’t bother to pick up anything off the ground. Argh. THAT WAS A PERFECTLY GOOD KOOZIE SIR. That kind of thing was what I yelled a lot.
So after it was over, we got off the float and…went home. Kind of anticlimactic, but it was midnight at this point and I was exhausted. Would I do it again? Probably not. I had a fun time, but to be honest, it’s a lot of pomp and circumstance that isn’t really me. Also the expense and the time, I dunno. I’m really, really glad I did it once, though.
And now I can enjoy the rest of Mardi Gras with no stress!
This weekend, I went to a ball! Oooh, fancy. Well, I’m riding in a Mardi Gras parade this year for the first time (one of those things to check off the ol’ bucket list, if I were the type to use the phrase “bucket list”) and part of being in a krewe (no, that’s not a mispelling) is that there’s a fancy ball.
There are all sorts of rules like you have to wear a mask and you have to wear a floor length gown. FLOOR LENGTH GOWN? This was sounding expensive. Fortunately, my friend Lorie had a dress that I could borrow. I was skeptical, since Lorie is about 6″ shorter than me, but magically, it fit me perfectly!
Anyway, I had the dress. I ordered a mask off Amazon. Terry’s daughter was coming to braid my hair to put in an updo. My friend Jenn was lending me some jewelry. I joked that I felt like I was Cinderella and they were the little birds and mice coming to dress me.
In the end, I felt more like an glamorous screen siren than a princess, but whatever.
We had a full on photo shoot while some of the residents of the assisted living facility looked on.
Soon, my chariot arrived (Jenn’s Jeep, that is) and I was off to the ball!
Now just some random pictures:
If some are blurry, it’s because there was an open bar.
Anyway, in true Cinderella fashion, I was home by midnight. Only because I’m at least twice her age, and I couldn’t hang that long. But at least my glass slippers (er, black flats) both made it home safely.
The Europe post really took it out of me for blogging. Whew. But now I can talk about other stuff.
Like how I went to the gym the day after I got home (so proud of that) and afterwards, stepped off a curb wrong, sprained my foot and shattered my phone screen. Winning!
At least it was just a sprain, but it won me a couple of weeks in a boot that the boys are insanely jealous of. (They call it my robot foot.)
Actually, I haven’t been wearing it much. My foot feels a lot better now. Probably didn’t even need to go to the orthopedist. Oh well. At least now I have a cool robot foot costume.
I also went to a fun costume party for my friends’ birthdays. It was superhero themed. I was Super Ute.
My cape
And from the front.
The fourth was Monday (in case you missed it) and we went to our friend’s house and then watched fireworks. As one does on the fourth of July.
I’ve also been spending a lot of time working on WordCamp NOLA, which is coming up really soon. Ack! If you’re interested, buy a ticket or sponsor us! Please, so I can sleep at night.
Last night I took the boys to meet a coworker for dinner at Pizza Delicious (and yes, it lived up to its name) and then we finally got to check out Crescent Park. There’s this insane bridge you have to cross to get over the railroad tracks. The boys were quite taken with the park when we got to the other side.
Well, I suppose that’s enough for now. Taking the boys to see The BFG this afternoon after camp (Oliver finally finished reading it) so I’d better get some more work done.
We went to a parade on Saturday that takes place within walking distance. My friend’s son Liam marched in it, so of course we embarrassed him thoroughly by screaming his name as he walked by.
I volunteered in Linus’s class for the school Mardi Gras parade yesterday. The theme for his class was French artists, and the cute was overwhelming. They all had artist’s smocks, floppy ties, mustaches, and berets, naturellement.
Remember the last time I did one of these? I said it was the last time ever? Well, I mean, somehow I signed up for this one and it was all my fault (I can’t even say anyone else twisted my arm into signing up) but for real this time. This was my twelfth half marathon and I think that’s a nice roundish number. (Except I can totally see myself saying one day, “but 13 is even more perfect since that’s how many miles are in a half.”) Fortunately, my brain won’t be able to let go of the .1 so I’m hopeful I’ll be able to ignore that argument. From myself.
Anyway, this one was kinda spooky. And I don’t mean because it was on Halloween.
It all started when I went to put on my number. Heather had grabbed my number and t-shirt for me from the expo, and I hadn’t even looked at them before this morning. As I went to put them on, the thought, “it would be cool if the race number had ’42’ in it.”
I picked up the shirt and saw the number.
So close!
As it turns out, they were giving out the numbers in order of picking up race packets, so Heather got number 42! I mean, it’s still kinda weird, you have to admit.
Anyway. Drove over to the race, and spent a lot of time trying to find the parking space I’d reserved. Finally found the lot, and pulled into a spot on the third level. Went to the race and ran into some of my NOMB friends.
The weather was a lot warmer than I was hoping – in the low 70s, but at least it was cloudy, unlike in 2013.
Anyway, off we went. I kept to a 1 minute run, 1 minute walk. It’s amazing how later in the race that first minute lasted an eternity, and the second minute went by in a flash.
Some pics along the way:
Uh, just running.
There’s the winner!
Really glad to get ahead of the 3 hour pace group.
Running into Audubon Park at about mile 7
Ran by a spooky house!
I honestly had no expectations for my time, which in the past have ranged between 2:33 and over 3 hours. Even though I’d done some decent training, I am still dealing with Achilles tendinitis. So I just wanted to finish.
First, I just wanted to finish in under 3 hours. And then I thought, maybe I can finish under 2:50 with a stretch goal of 2:45. If I kept to a 13 minute/mile pace, that would put me in right around 2:50ish.
And I did it! Finished in 2:48:39. Woot!
And, I mean, you know, not last. (Though now I’m in the “Masters” division. That means old.)
Got a decent medal:
then found some of the NOMB ladies again.
So, remember my scintillating story about parking from earlier? Well, I got in my car and was sitting there for a few minutes when Ashley (the one on the left there) knocked on my window. Randomly, she was parked in the space next to mine! Okay, maybe you had to be there. It’s a big parking garage, okay?!?
I went to get something yummy for lunch, but Taco Bell wasn’t serving Cantina Bowls yet (I’m fancy) so I decided to try to catch the end of the boys’ soccer game, which I did. They were pretty excited to see me. I was wishing I’d brought a jacket. I felt faintly ridiculous in my green sparkly skirt. Oh well.
We all hit Waffle House for brunch and I basically used up all the calories I burned during the race. Worth it!
Low blood sugar strikes
Now. If someone sees me mention signing up for another half marathon, please just stop me.
A while back, I was asked to take photos of our friends’ wedding that took place last month. I was nervous – I had never photographed a wedding before, and quite frankly, I never wanted to. So nerve-wracking! What if I totally screwed it up and they ended up with zero pictures? Well, I got over myself and agreed to do it. And here are some of the results. I really just wanted to capture the spirit, not have a ton of posed stuff.
One of my coworkers, Deborah, came through New Orleans today with her family, and the boys and I met them all for an adventure. I haven’t seen her since we were in Barcelona, so it was exciting to see her again.
First, we braved the boiling heat to meet them at the streetcar stop on St. Charles. We stopped for fun pictures at the steps of One Shell Square first.
Then, we met up with them and made her daughter, Vera, take pics with the boys, since they were all wearing their Wapuu shirts. Meanwhile, her son Isaac closely scrutinized the boys to figure out how best to tell them apart. (I will be asking him for tips.)
We got on the streetcar and had a great ride down St. Charles.
Until they kicked us off and made us get on a bus. At first we were disappointed, but then we realized it was air conditioned, and the kids got to stand up, and hey, the bus is really better than the streetcar!
We got to the park where Deborah and I sat on a bench in the shade while the kids played. And she realized her hat was still on the bus. Ack!
If you look closely you can see Vera putting her stuffed animals in a swing. (Foreshadowing!)
We made them pose by a tree.
Got back on the streetcar and bus to go have lunch at Slice. Yum! I bought a Groupon on the way. Handy!
After we ordered, Vera inquired about the whereabouts of her stuffed animals. ACK! Still in the swing back at Audubon Park!
Deborah zoomed off in an Uber to retrieve the animals – luckily they were safe! while I hung out with the kids and stuffed ourselves with yummy pizza and salad.
After lunch, we headed back to the streetcar, and then to our car. I was sad our adventure had come to the end. I was very tempted to swipe Vera and take her home with me. She’s adorable and sassy. But I left her with her family, alas.
In early February was the first big event with Nyx, the ball! I’ve already 
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