Mardi Gras 2012

 It was a nice, calm, settled MG this year.  We walked from the Quarter to Uptown to visit my cousin's family for a bit.  Then we took a cab back downtown, (remind me to never walk from downtown to uptown again; ohhhh my feet!), and spent the rest of the day in the Quarter.  The first two photos and video are of  the Krewe of Orphus' parade; it has some of the most beautiful floats IMHO.  (Sorry 'bout weight loss Wed. but was worn out from MG and gave myself a break.)

Even the rear of these floats are beautifully decorated.

It's a shame that the tiny fiber optic lights that
highlight the float didn't really show up in this picture.

This is Vic n Nat'ly.  We dressed as Vic n Nat'ly.  I was Vic.

This is the Rosenberg's girl.  It's a NOLA thing.
The little niece went as the Rosenberg kid
and sang the tune for everyone who asked.

This pic really doesn't do it justice, but my poor floor, furniture, cats, husband, porch, stoop, car, and neighborhood are covered with glitter.

I used news paper to make a pattern for the Rosenberg girl dress. 

Here's the family: Vic, Nat'ly, and Rosenberg.  Yes, I am willing to be a bald man with hairy legs, (stockings with black embroidery thread, and yes that is my sister's real hair, (Got 2B Glued is the best hairspray ever).

Mardi Gras for the locals, really is a family affair.
We stood next to these people for the Zulu parade.  They were awesome!

Yeah, I know you shouldn't walk through the most shee shee pooh pooh hotel in the city, (the Roosevelt), in order to make the route shorter, but we are just a little naughty.  What was even more pathetic is that we behaved badly and acted like the loud Yats that we are the whole way through.  It's a good thing the staff thought it was funny.

This is the Rex parade.  Rex is a traditional old line organization and the king of Rex is made ruler of the city for MG day.  No, really; the mayor declares Rex ruler for the day.

This is not a fancy float, but it is probably the most important float in all of MG.  It is the Boeuf Gras, (fatted cow).
The Boeuf Gras is probably the most representative of what Mardi Gras is all about.  It's all about that last hurrah before Lent, having that last bit of sugar, or meat, or in my case saying my last curse word because when Lent comes, well you've got to behave yourself.  The Boeuf Gras is a permanent float in the Rex parade.  A hundred years from now, as long as there is a Rex and a New Orleans you'll see that fatted cow parading down the street on MG day.

Beads stay in the trees all year long or until they fall out.
It's one of my favorite things to see as I drive down St. Charles Ave.

If I had a nickel for every Jack Sparrow I've seen...  But this guy...  This guy was a genius.
He imitated Depp's walk to perfection.  He was the costume and for that here is his picture.

These are the shee shee pooh pooh people waiting to toast Rex.  His Queen is somewhere in there.

This is the neutral ground.  It is packed with families who stay in the same spots for generations.  There are families who have held these spots for fifty years.

There is the Rosenberg girl and Schwegmann's on a Truck float.  We had a Schwegmann's shopper in our little group, she is in a pic further down.  Truck floats are when groups of families, friends and or co-workers all put in and decorate specially built trailers for trucks, (it's way cheaper than belonging to Rex).  This particular truck parade are the Krewe of Elks Orleans.

St. Charles Ave. fence and parade watchers.

Frog on a bike.

Up ahead is Nat'ly (pink), Rosenberg girl sans wig (red), Making Groceries Schwegmann Style, (yellow robe and curlers), and the boyfriend who was sorry he didn't dress up, (HA that'll teach you!).  Also a couple of angry birds heading towards the camera.  

Okay they look store bought but these super heroes were in lame' so they have my respect. 

This was a great moment in our day.  Costumed people tend to congregate on the street and get into character.    Here's our Schwegmann's Shopper, Jesus, and Tim Tebow, (done in 70's rock star style), planning a tableaux for a photo shoot.

I am sooo disappointed that I didn't get a great shot of this.  There were several poses and it was as funny as, well I can't say because I gave up cursing for Lent, so just use your imagination.

Me and sis, with some guy from Devo's Whip It video in the background.

You know for a last minute addition, our Making Groceries Schwegmann's Style Shopper looks pretty good for only two hour's notice.  It was shortly after this pic when the Rosenberg girl was picked up by her cousin and taken off to the mattress ball.  (Actually she sat up 'till we got home playing on the computer with her uncle who wouldn't go out with us because we get too wild.  Now do we look like a wild bunch to you?  Nah, meek as mice.)

This is a drag queen.  In this family you have to be a fan of drag queens.  It is essential to have drag queen approval on our MG costumes.  It's a tradition.  If a drag queen approves then, and only then, are we successful.  God bless her heart, she gave us much approval!  Whew, we passed the test. : )

I stood up and clapped over these glitterific shoes!  What a wonderful shoe choice!

This is a view from my home away from home.  Yeah, it's a bar.  The Pirate's Alley Cafe crew got me through that first year after Katrina.  Or as Jez said on MG night, "blank, (remember no cursing), it was the alcohol that got us all through."  I love my PAC krewe; mmmwwwwahhh!

Nice.  Love the wind-up key.

As with all good times, things must come to an end, and so we end up at Cafe Du Monde.  It's also a MG tradition.

Cafe au Lait and beignets; midnight soul food.

Midnight it's all over, well if you are a native anyways.  It's just not right being boisterous on Ash Wednesday.  So as we walk back to the car we see interesting things in the windows.  Aren't these the coolest barber chairs?

This is our scary, built in 1930, looking,  before safety codes parking garage.

I have to admit these columns are the bees knees.

Look ma, we were good girls.  home by 12:30AM!

I make one sexy, fat, balding, middle aged man don't I?  (Look my bald cap is coming off in the back, ha!)

Sigh.  One whole year before we can do it again.  Sis said in the car on the way home, "It's too bad MG couldn't be two days, huh?"  We think alike.

Helping Tornado Victims & Happy Mother's Day

WARNING: Huge long post, but I'm trying to squeeze in two topics, so if you are just interested in say, just tornados,  well, scroll down.  

MOTHER'S DAY

I wanted to throw this up on the blog earlier, but the computer cord died and I ended up heading out to stay overnight with Mom, (80 somethings need regular care and maintenance).  As usual we decided not to do Mother's Day today.  It's nuts imho to head out to a crowded restaurant, wait for a table, try to hear each other over the noise, and be rushed by the wait staff because there are forty more people waiting for tables. We'll do something sometime this week.

     I'm the mother of one twenty something male.  He's still not fully mature.  Today I hit Facebook only to see he used the word, (don't look if you are going to get offended), "dildo."  Lord knows I'm no prude, but that is just unacceptable.  The kid knows the rules, he's been hearing them since he was two.  "Yeah, I know you know those words, and I know you want to show them off to your friends, but here is the deal...  If you use them in front of me, or if someone approaches me and tells me you are using them, it will be all doom and gloom."

     I don't know if it's a cultural thing, but here in the New Orleans area the Mama is sainted and hallowed ground.  People here ask, "How's ya Mom n dem?"  My sister who left home and landed in Virginia met a woman who grew up on the Northshore and exclaimed, "Oh my Gawd, I can't believe you moved away and left your Mama!"  Here, in this town, it's rare to leave your, "Mom-n-dem," well at least before Katrina.  So anyways, here this kid is telling some friend they apparently need, (word alert) a dildo.  This was for all the Facebook world to see.  I cringed for I know what is coming.  The social outrage this is going to cause amongst all the grannies, aunts, uncles, cousins, (first and second), etc., is going to make it's way back to me, the mama.  In these matters dads don't count; it's mama territory.  People go to dads for things like, playing in the forbidden canal, acts of vandalism, and fights.  I think it's a Yat thing.

     I like to think that I'm the quintessential Yat mama and will of course play my part to it's fullest.  Yat mamas in some ways can be compared to Jewish mamas.  We love to feed you, lay on the guilt and we live to be the myarter.   I feel that I have perfected the part.  Don't think that the lines, "...to embarrass me in front of all those people, and ...and on Mother's Day of all days!" won't fall out of my mouth.  Of course they will.  If I've done my job correctly, he will apologize and next Mother's Day do it all again.

     I'm no prude.  I've been to a strip club or two in my day.  Heck, I've even had a lap dance courtesy of the guys whose bachelor party I was attending, (long story).  It's just that here there are certain social rules you follow.  Don't look like anything but a choir boy to your mama, always call anyone old enough to be your parent "miss" or "mister," (even if you are fifty), and never use the word dildo in front of your mama and her friends.

Note:  Lets hope that my mama & her friends don't see these blogs or I'm in trouble.

TORNADO

     With the river (Mississippi), being a problem in the immediate future I figure I ought to mention this this one now before my focus turns to problems closer to home.  Those tornado folks could use some of our support.  It sounds silly, but a pack of clothing hangers, nail clippers, a hair brush, were difficult to obtain after Katrina.  We had a million people standing at the same four Wal-Marts fifty to seventy miles away from the affected areas looking for those basic and very taken for granted things.  One of the best and most memorable things I got after Katrina was a coloring book bear packed in with some dish towels.   It had one sentence written by a child it said something along the lines of , "I hop you lik bear I lik you."  I framed that bear and he's on display every Christmas.  A ten dollar gift card, a pack of hangers, bottles, a thinking about you card it doesn't have to be expensive, showy, or even much of anything, just do a little something.  Here's a link to another blog for some ideas if you don't know who to give to:  Thanks, Katrina: Helping Tornado Victims  Thanks