Sundi Gras

Sunday started off with a trip to Popeyes, so it was a good day by default. David and I picked up the chicken he bought for the day long camp out on the neutral ground that our group of friends planned for the Krewes of Okeanos, Thoth, Mid-City, and Bacchus. It was amazingly successful. I'd say about fifty people were there at one point. Besides the Popeyes (and requisite biscuits and sides), we had king cakes, chips, crawfish, burgers, hot/corn dogs, random food items people bought from nearby places all day, and gallons of beer and liquor. (There was a creation of a controversial new drink called "The Peter," which is cranberry juice, vodka, and champagne.)

I got kicked in the stomach! Looking back, it was pretty hilarious. I'll be nice and not say who the culprit was. I was upstairs with some other people in the apartment of our friend Brooks, who was nice enough to let us use his bathroom. I went back down the stairs to head out to St. Charles when I saw a girl coming in, looking madder than a wet hen and soaking wet. I said "____, what happened to you???" And I admit I was chuckling a bit because it was a funny sight. "I HATE YOU. DON'T TALK TO ME OR TAKE A PICTURE. I'LLFUCKINGKILLYOU!" Then she kicked me in the gut and ran away.

Explanation? Apparently Drunk Cosmin, who was watching the parade from a window upstairs spilled his beer... and it landed on poor _____. She thought I had decided to throw alcohol on her then run downstairs to laugh at her. Pretty funny. Well, maybe not to her.

At the end of the parades, ______ and I rode back with another fun Drunk Girl and got caught in traffic. _____ took a nap on me, and we cuddled and she said "we should sleep together more often." At the end of the ride - luckily Sober Peter was driving - she told me it was the best nap she ever had and napping on me was "like sleeping on a cloud!" I guess that kick softened me up?

Carter&Co, Nicole, and I went out to dinner but wound up at New Bruno's because everywhere else was already closed or extremely busy. Everyone else got the usual cheese fries and sandwiches, but Will and I decided to accompany our Black 'N Bleus Burgers (dressed 1/2 pounders with bacon and blue cheese) with Debris Fries, which are amazing waffle fries topped generously with roast beef debris, green onion, and a little horseradish sauce.

After a pitcher of beer, we walked back to Nicole's place for the travelers to crash and for me to say seeya to 'em. And somewhere in that ten minutes, the world fell apart.

When I got back to Bruno's, Car Ride Drunk Girl had apparently left due to a personal crisis of sorts. And members of the baseball team that had been bickering in Bruno's had been exiled to the street where they were openly brawling now. Bouncers from both of the Bruno's had to pull them apart and eventually N.O.P.D. showed up. At the end of this, I was about to walk back in and some bitch tried to shove me out of the way. Then I realized the bitch was Kicking-Cloud Drunk _____. She said she was so happy to see me, and then she hugged me and went to stand in the corner and looked upset. She called me over, and I asked what was wrong and if I'd seen Someone, and I told her I hadn't, and she told me to leave her alone. Emphasis added for irony's sake. Then Lauren came rushing out to save the day.

Eventually Lauren came back, and life was fun again. Lots of other people were there too. Sometime after as-yet-unmentioned Drunk Girls had made out (apparently prompted by my t-shirt) another new Drunk Girl grinded with Jordan to Boyz II Men's "I'll Make Love To You." They were grinding in front of the dartboards to the chagrin of all the players. I wouldn't want to piss off people holding darts but whatever. Last Drunk Girl of the Evening decided to throw up in her drink, set it back down on the table, and pick up a new one. (That's when Lauren and I decided it was time to leave.)

On the way out, those two tried to convince me that New Orleans is "pretty tame" and that Gainesville is the party capital of the country. They asked what time our bars closed. Ours don't! Shut up, bitches.

I like [drunk] girls that like [drunk] girls.

F-ed Up Friday

It was... in both the good way and the bad way.

First class: Canceled after we turned in our discussion topics. Second class: Short. Third class: First exam. SERIOUSLY WHO GIVES AN EXAM THAT'S NOT ON THE SYLLABUS AT THE START OF THE YEAR ON THE LAST FRIDAY BEFORE MARDI GRAS SAYING THE ONLY OTHER DAY WE COULD HAVE HAD IT IS THE FIRST DAY AFTER MARDI GRAS AND DOESN'T OFFER MAKE-UPS? Joyce. That's who.

After that, I checked mail and found I'd gotten a package of homemade chocolate chip cookies from Marney, mother of my brother's best friend, lovely woman that she is. Makes me wonder what she send Adrian or her own actual son. That was a nice pick-me-up after the exam

Carter & Co came over to meet up with Peter and me, and we went to happy hour at the boot for a quick round before some shopping on Magazine St. (Apparently Carter missed certain stores and me as a "shopping buddy.") We picked up some new duds at the style lab and found exact replacements of ruined clothing at buffalo exchange.

Ben was nice enough to put us on the guest list for watching the Krewes of Hermes, D'Etat, and Morpehus at his St. Charles condo, so we stopped by The A&P to pick up some ice, Jim Beam, and a bottle of Grey Goose as a present for our gracious host. (We later found out that during the parades I ended up drinking half the bottle of Beam by myself; no mixers for it and no one else wanted it straight up.)

After the parades, we went to Sake Cafe and had a sushi feast and then went to Bruno's for a few rounds. Ben and Peter went their separate ways, but I went to Frenchmen Street with Carter & Co. Cafe Negril had an amazing live reggae band playing, and James Gandolfini was hanging out there too. We made eye contact and I mouthed "Tony Soprano." He responded with a smile and handshake and told me Happy Mardi Gras. Awesome

The rest of the night (or morning since it was 3AM at that point) went downhill from there. We should have followed Tony Soprano's lead and gone home and crashed, but we didn't.

A few highlights of the short version are:

• loud, sloppy Bourbon St
• tired and drunk and annoyed at the bar
• Carter&Co, aka my ride home, wanted to stay
• quest for a cab with Ben
• We became the drunk guys with dead cell phones and no rides.
• minor bitchfest with Ben
• almost fist fight with cab driver
• loud altercation at my front door with Carter

The story ends with me going to bed at 9AM.

Thirsty Thursday

Lord, this weekend needs to chill as soon as possible. It's off to a fantastic start even though last night there was kind of a bump in the road... or more like a huge f-ing pothole. But it's all good.

Thursday I got up after lunch with Tara, I hung around my room and waited for Carter, Will, and their friend Alex to arrive. (The collective trio will hereafter be referred to as Carter&Co or C&C if I feel really lazy.) So they arrived and met my non-Peter roommates. We mixed a few beverages to go and off we went to the parades to meet up with a bunch of other people. We were going to watch outside Fat Harry's-ish but moved a block down St. Charles to outside Cannon's since there was more space there.

The Krewes of Babylon, Chaos, and Muses all rolled and were lots of fun. In between parades, we went to Cannon's for more drinks.

After the parades, some of us piled into Carter's car and went to Reginelli's for pizza and beer. In the interest of being respectful, I'm not going to say which guy passed out at Reginelli's or which girl said this quote after she fell down a few times:

"I don't know where the fuck I am, but I fell and broke my knee or something. I should probably go to Tulane Memorial Hospital, but those bitches don't take greenbucks!"

Nicole and I split a Parthenon Pizza, which is garlic herb sauce, mozzarella, feta, artichokes, roma tomatoes, onions, mushrooms. It was delicious. and we all nursed a pitcher or two of Abita.

After we dropped a few drunks people off and picked a few up, and the rest of us went down to 80s Night. Unfortunately a lot of the regulars weren't around, but I did gather another "welcome back" from Strict-Bouncer-Guy. Dancing. High life. Dancing.

We came back uptown, and I showed Carter and Alex the new Bruno's. We crashed (relatively) early at about two in the morning since we figured we needed our strength for the next few days. We were right.

I still have an entire album's worth of photos, but don't expect any soon. They might not get loaded until after Mardi Gras itself.

goin' to the Mardi Gras

The past few days have been more catchin' up with friends while goin' out to eat, but I received some riveting news this morning. Carter is officially comin' down for Mardi Gras. In the unlikely event you don't remember him (or even more unlikely event you don't know Peter and me) he's the pirate on the right. So excited I just can't hide it!

The reunion of the brothers of Alpha Pi Chi is not far away.

AND if that's not thrilling enough, an hour later I found out that not only have the lovely Gisela "No Longer A Ho If She Comes To Mardi Gras" Lopez and Mikey, Mr. "I'm Just Having Fun," himself hung out since I introduced them in Chicago... but they are also both comin' down for Mardi Gras! It will be like this but less chill and more Patron.

Photo courtesy of Mike Kunen

Less than a month until Fat Tuesday. Be there or be sober.