Happy Mardi Gras!!

The famous day!

We kicked it off with a house party overlooking the street! It was pretty intense – I was dressed as Rainbow Brite (Minka’s costume, we are the same size more or less), but it was pretty hot out, so I started overheating. I met Minka’s parents and grandparents, but a bunch of us needed stuff at the house so we made a trip back.





Minka was dressed as her dog with full face paint… Paul was a “server” carrying cups on a server thing for a computer and I had anime crimpy pigtails, a purple and white boa, and my two hula hoops. There were some wicked costumes, but it made me crave my costumes back home. I wanted my petticoats SO BAD! There were all sorts of poofy skirts I wasn’t wearing :(



Okay so after going back home we dropped by Flanigans (wow typing this really makes me realize just how often we are there!) to visit people, and I ran into Corey – I recognized him from his Couchsurfing profile lol. I had my sign I had made for him on me too, so I showed him and it was grand.

From there we went to R bar. Lots of people on the streets everywhere, but this area is less touristy, more people in costumes. I went up to another house, looked over the balcony, and then hula hooped outside of the bar with another lady. This was the first girl that had approached me that was super talented!! We rocked it out!!
Some guy gave us both 5 dollars, so that was officially my first time being given money for hooping. Yay I am finally that good oooooh yeah!

We were stoked! It was becoming evening though (light jacket time) and Minka was very drunk so we got back home briefly. Somehow the group had turned into Mitch from SF, Paul, Minka, some other guy (I forget his name – Minka’s friend) and moi.

We all got Gyros.

Minka had to work, so we went back home to let her nap... Paul had to work early the next day too so he was not planning on staying out late. Mitch and the other guy got distracted by things like Bourbon street... so we went out to Frenchman street to entertain me. I saw Saleem (surprised? not I!) so I chilled with him while Paul went home.

Frenchman street was chaos! Fire performers, costumes everywhere, decorated bikes, live music, full on street party!!! We met up with his Couchsurfer from Australia, and the three of us partied it up! I saw a couple other hoops which was exciting... there was actually a giant eight foot diameter hoop being tried out on the street, so of course I gave it a shot! I rocked it, got an applause, but tried tandem for my first time and failed miserably... but it was fun and now I can say I've tried it.

The three of us continued exploring and found some people that wanted to see the hoops. It was a chill scene, a few people sitting on a stoop playing music. They were rad people so the Aussie and I ended up sitting talking to them for a while! Saleem disappeared for a while, came back (he texted he was at Aunt Tiki's) and they decided to call a cab to go back across the river. I texted Steve from the Yukon, whom I had been casually typing back and forth with all night, and we managed to meet up within five minutes of Saleem and Kay leaving!

By this time I was kinda sick of Frenchman... so we walked down Decatur looking at dive bars. I bet you can guess where we ended up.... Flanagan's! Hahaha well we had a few drinks, ran into a few people, then Minka and Joey showed up as well and then there was a group of us rockin' out! It was the ideal end to the night :)

We all decided to order Quartermaster to Flanagan's hahaha. After that Steve took off to get back to the hostel (it was a bit of a walk) then after some more good times I went back home to crash out.

Ash Wednesday was very chill. I read for hours before really moving, then eventually went to the dog park with Minka. Minka, Paul, and I then went to the store and made some dinner... Went for a walk by the river and saw an old guy playing crystal goblets full of water. He was running his finger around the edges and making songs. The candles and the crystal combo was really pretty, so I tipped and we moved along.

I ended up continuing with the reading and eventually fell asleep...

which brings me to today!!

hoorah!!

caught up!!!

ok.

so today I went to the post office, and organized my beads for hours.



After that I got freshened up and went to Walgreens then Envie (a coffee shop) with my computer, just for a change in scenery since I spent a lot of time yesterday at the house. I typed for a while, read for a short time, and enjoyed being on a chill outing! Now I am back, just eaten Mexican food, and contemplating uploading a few photos :)

luv luv luv!