a Mardi Gras '07 flashback

In my 2/17/07 entry, I wrote:

After the parades, some of us piled into Carter's car and went to Reginelli's for pizza and beer.

The following video is the best part of that car ride.

Mardi Gras '07: part two

liftin' Lindsay to get more beads

with Ben between parades

with Carter and boas

piano man at Jean Lafitte's Blacksmith Bar

apparently it'll be a huge party. see y'all there!

H.R.M. King Okeanos '07

Stephanie, Peter, and their sunglasses

other people's pictures

Krewe du Vieux with Shan - photo courtesy of Gabriela Molina Schleusz

Miss Molly's after-party for Sparta and Pegasus - photo courtesy of Katie Austin

girls on shoulders get more stuff - photo courtesy of Brooke Hansen

with a perhaps (yet unlikely) sober Lizzie - photo courtesy of Meredith Robinson

Peter, Cosmin, and I lookin' tough - photo courtesy of Paul Murphy

Carter's departure - photo courtesy of Will Southerland

5:48 a.m. on Mardi Gras - photo courtesy of Reshelle Smith

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.

Satur(ated )day

So I woke up around four in the afternoon, I think. I returned a few phone calls and considered having the remainder of Marney's chocolate chip cookies for breakfast when Carter called. He came over to pick me up and apologize for the night before. (And I'm cool with everyone now even though I went to bed cursing everyone who was part of my night from 3AM to 9AM.) We went to "brunch" (really dinner) at Port of Call. Huge burgers, extremely loaded baked potatoes, and their signature "monsoon" drinks.

We watched Endymion from downtown. Some 13 year old girl with a mother nowhere in sight had taken off her shirt and was jumping up and down demanding beads from all the floats. She lots of them and lots of disapproving looks from riders and passersby alike. After the parade we hit up Handsome Willy's in the Central Business District. It's undoubtedly the coolest bar in the CBD because they had a television set dedicated to a SUPER NINTENDO ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM. So we played Mortal Kombat 3 and Mario Kart. (I forgot how much the 90s liked spelling C-words with Ks.) Good times.

After that, we showed Alex the craziness of Bourbon and got him the signature drinks. Pat O'Brien's hurricane, Tropical Isle hand grenade, etc. The crazy Christians told us we were all going to hell, but I met my new hero... a sane Christian holding up a huge sign saying "I'm sorry" to apologize for all the nut jobs who misrepresent us.

We left Carter and Will to Napoleon's Itch and went to the dance club next to Napoleon's Itch, where some girl offered to give me head for the huge beads I had on and I was sure it wasn't worth it 'cause she was gross. We then started heading back to Esplanade and Bourbon where we parked. (We had fantastic luck with parking spots this weekend, even better than Ryanne Clarke's.) Carter and Will went to Cafe Lafitte in Exile (gay bar) while Alex and I hit up Jean Lafitte's Blacksmith Bar (oldest bar in the quarter).

We finished off the night in the piano bar of Lafitte's before heading home to crash so we could get up on Sunday for the big camp out!

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.

weekend's off to a great start

Thursday I made lunch for Adrian, and we caught up. For those of you who don't know, he's pledging Sig Ep and is president of their pledge class. And he has a super-single now. Apparently his former roommate moved to another building to be with his girlfriend (and they broke up within three days). I had lunch with Tara and spent my free afternoon doing laundry and studying. Wes and I finally watched the Legend of Zelda: Animated Series he has on DVD, and he lent me the discs so I could finish it. I've watched them all. I made my dish for Italian Night - more on that later - and dropped off a portion for Sarah as thanks for lending me her mixer, but Maddie found it first. Then I went to 80s Night with a bunch of friends and even more were there.

Yesterday after class I slept away the afternoon. Then I went over to Becca's for the ITALIAN POTLUCK DINNER we planned in honor of Giada De Laurentiis, whom we both love. I was impressed with everyone's cooking. The menu:

• two kinds of bruschetta
• salad with parmesan crusted broccoli and cauliflower
• garlic bread
• stuffed mushrooms
• cinnamon gnocchi
• sausage pizza
• two kinds of lasagna
• several kinds of pasta
• chicken parmesan
• and I made a strawberry tiramisu

Also, like we did on Thanksgiving, we went around the room and everyone said what they were thankful for. But this time the things had to be specifically Italian. After dinner, everyone waddled away to various things and some of us hung around, chatted, and drank too much wine. After that, a few of us decided to go out. There was a brief interlude of Nicole walking around Aron quad with a glass of wine and my knife block, looking like a serial killer, while waiting for Will. We all went to my apartment for a bit, and Becca joined us. Nate had woken up, and Nicole had one of my two favorite quotes of the night when she invited him to Bruno's / introduced herself:

"Put your pants on, and let's go! How many guys have I said THAT to??? Oh and my name is Nicole."

On the way to Bruno's, Will had my other favorite quote of the night:

"Well with Top Chef, I can't eat the food... but with Project Runway, I can wear the dresses... So..."

But at least we all agree that Top Design sucks.

I brought out my waterproof cards since last time Nicole and I were at Bruno's (with Carter and Peter even) we ruined a deck playing Kings. This time we ruined the game by not remembering all the rules and by letting two obnoxious drunks play. But it was still fun. After a little Photo Hunt and another round, we called it quits.

No pics yet but here are some screen captures of that dvd.

Princess Zelda, Ganon, and (my hero) Link

the Triforces of Wisdom and of Power

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.