Pearls of Wisdom and Foolish Mutterings

Happy Mardi Gras!

Well, I'll be darned. I have had an absolutely charming day with some of the most wonderful people. I am in Houma, Louisiana at this very moment. Hubby got a promotion, moved over to a different division within the same company and his new boss invited insisted that he attend Mardi Gras in Houma this week. The new boss is part of a crew here in Houma, whch just happens to be home to the second-largest Mardi Gras in the US, next to New Orleans.

I've never, ever had a desire to go to Mardi Gras. We Texans even have our own little Mardi Gras celebration in Galveston which is just a hop, skip and a jump down the road from me, but I've never had the inclination to make that short trip down there to attend. And I certainly never entertained the idea of getting packed up and jumping in a car to drive six hours into Louisiana to "do" Mardi Gras.

So, when Hubby got this promotion and very shortly thereafter announced that his new boss--who is every bit a died-in-the-wool Cajun--wanted us to drive to Houma to "find out what Mardi Gras" is all about, I was less than enthusiastic about it. But, in a calculated move to show what a supportive wife I can be, I feigned interest and dutifully packed a bag and made the trip to Houma with him on Saturday morning.

Our first "official Mardi Gras" outing was less-than-promising and I was afraid we were in for a long, arduous week. Last night, we attended the Tableau which is a Louisiana version of the hoity-toity social scene where they "present the Royal Court" of Mardi Gras. It was long and strange, albeit very colorful, with unbelievably ornate costumes and much fanfare and pageantry. It lasted one and one-half  hoursl, which in Tableau time is twelve hours Earth time. When we finally got out of there, I was afraid to even think about what the rest of the week might bring. I was so exhausted that I slept like the dead last night.

This morning, we walked a little less than a mile from our motel to a viewing stand along the parade route, to meet up with Hubby's boss's wife and family and spend the day eating, drinking and making merry while waiting for the much-anticipated Mardi-Gras parade and the ritual throwing of the beads. This is where things began to improve exponentially. Hubby's boss's wife, Cindy, is a lovely, warm individual who embodies the term Southern hospitality. Not only that, but her children - who are not children, but young adults - were of the same ilk. Absoluely charming, well-mannered, well-spoken young people who were happy to join in the fun with their parents and other "oldsters." without a single complaint. They displayed the same Southern charm and hospitality that their mother did.

We met others there, too, who were some of the most friendly and welcoming people I have ever met. By the time the parade made its way to where we were, Hubby and I felt completely at home and not at all out of place, even though this was our first time at this craziness called Mardi Gras. As the parade started, our hostess, Cindy, asked if we had a bag to collect our beads in. Hubby and I just looked at each other with faces that asked, "Beads? We need bags for beads?" Cindy scurried off to get a bag for us and came back with a bushel-size burlap sack, which she placed on a bench behind us. I looked at that bag and smiled at the "over-kill" size of it.

Then the parade started. I took picture after picture, so I will be posting a lot of them once I get them uploaded. The pictures can convey so much more than I could with words, but let me just say, if you have never been to a Mardi Gras parade, get thee to one as soon as possible. In Louisiana, if at all possible. I don't know when I've had so much fun. And that burlap bag, well, let's just say that I couldn't lift it by the time it was all over. I could go home to Houston and open a Mardi Gras bead store.

I'm completely exhausted from all the fun we had today and I'm going to finish this entry and take a nap. But there is another parade on Tuesday - the BIG parade! And I will be there with my burlap bag ready for another haul, dancing and singing along with everyone else.

You'll have to excuse me for now. I have to rest up for tomorrow. No telling what kind of shenanigans these crazy Louisianans have planned for tomorrow. I can hardly wait!