Dimanche Gras and Les Femmes Cassettes

The events of my Sunday resulted in me being able to use a version of a line from Family Guy that I thought could not possible apply to anyone.
In the episode "Wasted Talent", Peter spends an entire evening drinking beer in an attempt to find the "silver scroll" to win a tour of Pawtucket Pat Brewery. Well, when Lois comes in to see him drinking the next morning, she says "Peter, you're drunk." To which Peter replies, "No, I'm not. I'm just exhausted because I was up all night drinkin'."
Well, I got to use that.
When I came in after my day, my parents asked me how drunk I was, to which I replied, "I'm not drunk. I'm just tired because I was out all day drinking."

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Anyway, Sunday I got downtown around 1ish. I wandered around for a little while. I managed to pick out a pretty good spot for the Joe Cain parade It was due to start at 2:30, but it got to my little area around 3. As it turned out, my spot was very dangerous. I took several direct hits to my face. I did see a nice chest, though. Unfortunately, the nice chest was the nicest part of the girl that owned the chest.
After the parade, I met up with Melissa and Daniel. They had just missed the parade. They were a little peeved. We walked to Picklefish, but the bar was closed. We walked over to Grand Central and got some drinks. We then started walking around for a little while and somehow managed to stumble across the Joe Cain parade again. It was on it's return trip down Government Boulevard. Oddly enough, though, we had wandered into an area dominated in population by black people. We were the only 3 white people within visible distance. This, as it turns out (so we think) is what caused us to get so heavily pelted with stuff. I guess the people on the floats noticed us because we stood out from the crowd. By the end of this parade, I had a very heavy load of beads around my neck, and I was up to TWO stuffed animals.

After that, we continued walking. I decided to check on my truck. It was safe. We then walked back down Dauphin Street. We hit up Picklefish again, but the bar was still closed. This was beginning to piss me off. Apparently, the bartender was ASLEEP. THAT was their reason for keeping the bar closed. This resulted in me seeing Ania for like...6 seconds, instead of 6 hours.

We explored various places and managed to find awesome spots for the Krewe de Bienville parade. I was physically about 2 feet away from the floats. I got so much crap from that parade. I got this awesome snake creature thingie. The parade brought me up to 5 stuffed animals. Which reminds me, one of the animals I got from the Joe Cain parade looks exactly like what I might expect a "Picklefish" to look like. I may make it my maskot for Thursday nights. I could bring it in and place it on the table in front of me.
Just a thought.

Well, we hung out for a while until I decided to head toward the Civic Center to get to the Ball. It was a combination ball for the Krewe de Bienville and Les Femmes Cassettes. Being invited to Les Femmes Cassettes gave me complete access to the entire ball.
Anyway...I started the long trek back to my truck. I finally made it, and I put down all the beads. THAT is when I realized exactly how much crap I had. It took me a while to get all the beads off, and they were very very heavy.

I got in the truck and started trying to find the Civic Center. Granted...many areas were still blocked off by barricades. Also, I was a little tipsy. Interestingly enough, despite being buzzed....I pulled up next to a cop, lowered my window, and asked him for directions. He gave them to me. Heh. I rock.

I got to the Civic Center and found a parking place. I then started to change into my Tux. I think I did a pretty good job given the severe lack of space. I finally met up with my date about 10 minutes before the doors were to be shut. No one is allowed to enter after 7:50pm.
We go in, she shows me around, she introduces me to her family and what-not, then I hit the bar. After grabbing a drink, I decided to get some food. I then sat and ate. Virginia's mom pulled me up to go dancing with the pretty ladies and others. After a little while, they took me to look around the rest of the ball.

The KDBs had several bars, I think about 6 or 8, not certain. They also had about 5+ rooms devoted to food. I pieced together THE best deer sandwich I have ever eaten. It was amazing. I loaded it down with meat, and I happily and proudly carried it around the ball with me as I continued to crew the wonderful, tender meat. It was great. Then I hit the bar again.
I actually danced on the BIG dance floor in the main arena. I suck at dancing, but I had forced enough RUM into my system to make me not care.

It was beautiful. The ball, the bar, the food, my date.

At some point, I walked up to some random hottie in a red dress, placed my hand on her shoulder, told her she looked positively radiant, smiled when she smiled and said "thank you", then walked off.

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The stains I found on the collar of my tuxedo shirt left me slightly perplexed. The people at the tuxedo shop told me that beads tend to bleed onto clothing. This I can understand...
but I took the beads off before I put on the shirt. If the shirt got stained by the beads, then the beads would have had to leave one HECK of a stain on my neck. If that were the case, why did not anyone TELL me I had a colored neck?
Oh well.

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I made one peculiar observation about the evening.
It was almost like going to a party at a rich land-owner's house back in like...1798.
Everyone was caucasian.
I saw TWO people that were not caucasian.
One was serving drinks at a bar.
The other was sweeping up trash in the hallway.
It is a strange feeling to realize that while you are actually in the middle of it all.

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I was pretty sober by the time I left, but I was very tired. I had been downtown drinking for a long time. I've had my fill of alcohol for the week.
I must remember to take the Picklefish with me to Picklefish.
Goodbye for now, blog.

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BTW....what is the proper spelling for "Yarrr?"
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That also reminds me. I thought about another language anomaly. In general public, you can use the phrase "kok ay zhun", but not "ay zhun kok".