no place like home: February 2015

In Jr. High French class we learned a little about Mardi Gras. Basically what I remember is that it means "Fat Tuesday". I believe my exact thoughts were, "well that's a dumb name for a holiday". Then last year my coworker, who had spent some time in New Orleans, brought a homemade king cake to work. That was the first time I had ever heard of one!

But after actually experiencing the holiday down here in Cajun country I'm finally beginning to understand why these people love it! I had a great time while also remaining sober (I know, what's the point?)--so I can only imagine how fun it is for a large majority of the partiers. We also had some delicious king cake from a local bakery that was basically a giant donut. I'm not mad.

I can count on one hand the number of parades I've been to in my life before this past week. We loved it so much and I feel like a stamp card-carrying parade groupie. Dez loved all the lights and music and the people on the floats loved him and threw him a lot of toys! I wish it were candy. But I digress.

I had no idea what we were in for and I wanted to at least catch one set of beads for it to be a success. The next thing you know we are leaving with more than we know what to do with! I don't know what it is that's so exciting about catching 20 cent necklaces but it's quite the rush. On Mardi Gras day I was focusing on one necklace flying toward me while at the same time another one hits me right in the face. Those things travel FAST. (Most of our attention was focused on guarding Dez's face and luckily we were successful with that.) It hit so hard that it scratched my sunglasses as well as the side of my face! Good thing I was wearing the glasses or I might be blind right now. Nbd.