The madness

I don't know what made me decide to want to attend this yearly, drunk, crazy event, but one day last summer I told Mike, Chad, and Todd that it would be a great idea to reunite at Mardi Gras in New Orleans! I looked up the flights, booked a cheap and close hotel, and it was in the works. Also joining was Jessicant and Jared from IUP, Porno Dan from LA, and Brian and Kevin Spacey from Todd's work.



It took about 2 hours to reroute around the parade going on, but on our venture, we saw most of the condemned/wrecked houses and they had marked coordinates. Maybe for inspecting, quarentine, i really don't know. It was pretty depressing to see all the abandoned houses and busineses but finally we got to our hotel. We all came separately, with the hotel being a bit suspicious of fitting so many people in one room, but quickly ran out, grabbed some frozen hurricanes, and ate at a Jazz Bistro. I had Crawfish Etoufee, Todd had Jumbalaya, and we watched a guitar player.




We headed back up Bourbon Street to a parade that was going on and stopped by a few bars and shops. The street was already getting crazy, filling up with Dixieland bands, frat boys, sex and strip joints, beads, and crazies




(a live sex show shop)


We headed up to the first parade for us. We say Taylor Hicks American Idol!, Journey had a float, and a bunch of Saint's players were throwing beads. There were already people in costumes and just blitzed. We started our weekend of Sparks at the same time and returned to many of the hundreds of port-a-potties over and over.






(kevin federline?)


(i told this guy to look like a dinosaur)

(guess we couldn't find potties this time. 8 of us just peed on the street)

(a beeded hippie mobile on the street. it's where i'd smoke all my weed...if i smoked weed)


We had made a bet that Chad was the drunkest and would probably fall first...but we didn't expect that by me pushing him, he'd break his ankle. Now he has to have plates in it for the rest of his life. And it's still funny to me.

this is where he actually fell

chad being miserable

us being drunk and making chad more miserable


Porno Dan came, we went to Carosel, Voodoo, and Dungeon themed bars.


He drank a 4 dollar Huge Ass Beer while the rest of us drank from other theme-cupped drinks. Like Jessicant's "Horny Gator" in some Alligator Cup, Jared's "Hand Grenade" which had this mean face printed on a ...Grenade. And Todd and Dan got these sweet Goblin cups.


The next day we woke up, went our separate ways, and Todd, Dan, and I walked in the Riverwalk (pretty much a worse version of the Inner Harbor.) We ate fried alligator (mine was on a Po-Boy) and we saw another parade. We couldn't even figure out the theme it was so random-Beauty and The Beast, Wizrd of Oz, Peanut Butter and Jelly???





these huge ladders were all up and down the street that people would stand up on. It looked like families prepared a year ahead of time to make their own

We ended up at Landry's for dinner, eating Fried Crab Legs and Gumbo.

I met up with my coworker, Jessica, who is from Louisianna. She insisted on taking us to Two Sisters Kitchen for some Southern Cookin. (Not the Two Sister's Court, which my mother reccommended. And which was really expensive.) I got fried chicken, red beans and rice, and cornbread. Todd had some smothered Pork Chops...mmm.


Then we walked around, saw a bunch of bands, and explored the French Market. It just seemed like a gloried Flea Market, but it smelled delicious! We shopped at some punk stores, danced to some bands, and drank some more hurricanes. We saw Jackon Square, costumes, and gutterpunks (apparently I just missed the gutterpunk walking parade!)









There were some live statues that moved if you threw them money.

This guy let us pick a song and then "play it"



We ate a shitload of crawfish that night. 2 pounds each to be exact! It was kinda like eating crabs (they used old bay), but not as much meat.


That night, we got free passes to a Sparks party. If you have any idea how much i love Sparks, you know how much more I love a Sparks open bar with Mickey Avalon performing. We couldn't go in the VIP area because there was a Saints player and Better Than Ezra! I did have a danceoff with some man doing a gorilla walk-and somehow he won. A dixiland band also waltzed in the club and just got up on stage to play-I really like that about the south. and about Mardi Gras.


We gambled a bit. Todd and i learned how to play craps! And i lost 5 bucks in BlackJack.



It was dirty, but awesome!