Mardi Gras … King Cake! Gumbo! Parades and Krewe floats! Get Stupid and Oh Dear God daiquiris from Jacks Drive-through Daiquiri Bar! (Promised to keep this PG rated so I can’t put in print the names of the other drink choices!)

This is my fifth year celebrating Mardi Gras in LA. The first few years SK was with us. Krewes love throwing the beads and stuffed animals to the little ones at the parades and boy did that chick always leave with some serious loot!

And then there was the year without SK … there we were …lined up on the street … and I’m thinking there’s no way we are getting beads this year. Low and behold, about that time here comes the Krewe of Twelfth Night! YES! I know some of these ladies! And I start screaming, “BEADS! BEADS! Throw me some beads please!” Nothing. No beads. Suddenly I hear someone say “Beads, beads, throw me some beads, I have a sick child at home!” What the heck?!! Who said that? Oh dear God in Heaven. It was ME! I said that! (Is it ok to fib when you’re all amped up on Mountain Dew? 😳 What in the world is it about beads at a parade that turns a normally sane adult into a lunatic begging for a brightly colored ten cent string of cheap pearls? Good grief, I have lots of necklaces at home … nicer, prettier necklaces worth a lot Moore!) But … I digress …

Beads? Why ask … and you shall receive. Girl! She clocked me at about 50 mph, or so it felt. First thing I did was put that sucker around my neck – man, if I was gonna have a war wound, I was sure gonna wear that Medal of Valor! Second thing I did was raise my cup! My cup full of Mountain Dew … filled with ice … to my forehead… not about to take time out to go get an ice pack … better to look like I’m having fun than appear injured. I got beads to catch for my sick child at home 😉 The third thing I did was try to figure out why they were throwing a purple rubber band to my husband!  What is the symbolism behind that? Oh wait! When you’re seeing stars, objects appear different than they really are. That purple rubber band was a pair of thong panties! Whoa! Hold up girlfriend! Wasn’t this supposed to be a “throw me some beads mister” rather than a “throw me a thong sister” partay?

I spent the rest of the afternoon walking around in a daze with a cup of ice stuck to my head as my ice pack telling my husband to wipe that silly grin off his face. He did his best to try to convince me I was still seeing double and that his smile was an upside down frown. I wondered  what Mardi Gras is like in the Big Leagues ~ New Orleans ~ where I am certain we are talking R or even X rated instead of “purple rubber band throwing-small town Alexandria-middle of a Sunday after church- parade”.

Fast forward 72 hours and it’s Ash Wednesday … when everyone is walking around with ashes on their foreheads, I’m still sporting a big ole bruise right between my two eyes. I couldn’t get my ashes that year … too painful, just too painful, but I think God forgave me since I promised to give up Mardi Gras parades for Lent!

Man .. you need a Purple Heart to survive Mardi Gras Loosiana Style! 💜

L to R ~ Mardi Gras through the years ~ King Cake, beads, beads, lots & lots of beads, Krewe of Twelfth Night medallion aka, the infamous weapon, ice and “Mountain Dew” to the forehead, dear friends, Angie, Monica and me, me and The Jokester – smile right side up, Monica and me, and my sweet SK and me … Need I Say Moore?