happy mardi gras!!!!
Happy Mardi Gras!
It has been five years since I went to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. And this time of year I always miss it and really want to be at the Café du Monde eating beignets and drinking café au lait and walking through the French Quarter following the spindly flourishes of balconies.
I love that I went, though, that I saw the complete and utter craziness that is New Orleans during Mardi Gras; I love that my mom and I were asked whether or not we were "saved" and if we "knew Jesus" by none other than a drunk clown in New Orleans. I love that we went past voodoo museums one moment and the next moment were strolling through the aristocratic elegance of Jackson Square with leaning treebranches and wheeling horse-carriages.
I love that I have a lot of family in Louisiana, that I don't know them that well, but that, when I went, they all seemed like close family even though I had never met them before and had never heard of a lot of them.
So every Mardi Gras I wear my bright flashy strings of beads that I got in New Orleans. Some were bought, some were thrown from parade floats, some were chosen carefully at an open market. Going about a little New England school with the bright Mardi Gras colors around my neck has always felt terribly fun, because everyone I met in Lousiana was truly a lot less uptight than New Englanders, and compared to them New Englanders don't know a whole lot about how to throw a party. I do love New England wholeheartedly, but there is a part of me that lingers a tiny bit in the deep South, even though I may look like a "damned Yankee".
I still can't believe, though, that such a big part of New Orleans is destroyed. I can't believe it at all. The French Quarter and Jackson Square are fine... but so much else of it is hurt so terribly. I did hear some remarks today that made me quite angry (even though I may not have shown it), because New Englanders can be stuck-up, and they do show it by saying stupid things. *sigh*
But, even last September, by mom and I said that of course New Orleans will have a Mardi Gras this year. It can't not have one. I suppose one has to go there to see how important it is, how much a part of the city's spirit it is. It's insane, garish, loud. It's an identity.
It has been five years since I went to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. And this time of year I always miss it and really want to be at the Café du Monde eating beignets and drinking café au lait and walking through the French Quarter following the spindly flourishes of balconies.
I love that I went, though, that I saw the complete and utter craziness that is New Orleans during Mardi Gras; I love that my mom and I were asked whether or not we were "saved" and if we "knew Jesus" by none other than a drunk clown in New Orleans. I love that we went past voodoo museums one moment and the next moment were strolling through the aristocratic elegance of Jackson Square with leaning treebranches and wheeling horse-carriages.
I love that I have a lot of family in Louisiana, that I don't know them that well, but that, when I went, they all seemed like close family even though I had never met them before and had never heard of a lot of them.
So every Mardi Gras I wear my bright flashy strings of beads that I got in New Orleans. Some were bought, some were thrown from parade floats, some were chosen carefully at an open market. Going about a little New England school with the bright Mardi Gras colors around my neck has always felt terribly fun, because everyone I met in Lousiana was truly a lot less uptight than New Englanders, and compared to them New Englanders don't know a whole lot about how to throw a party. I do love New England wholeheartedly, but there is a part of me that lingers a tiny bit in the deep South, even though I may look like a "damned Yankee".
I still can't believe, though, that such a big part of New Orleans is destroyed. I can't believe it at all. The French Quarter and Jackson Square are fine... but so much else of it is hurt so terribly. I did hear some remarks today that made me quite angry (even though I may not have shown it), because New Englanders can be stuck-up, and they do show it by saying stupid things. *sigh*
But, even last September, by mom and I said that of course New Orleans will have a Mardi Gras this year. It can't not have one. I suppose one has to go there to see how important it is, how much a part of the city's spirit it is. It's insane, garish, loud. It's an identity.
posted by Laura at 9:26 PM
2 Comments:
No! That'd burn people!
-I claim innocence in reference to the remarks. Though I tried to fend them off-I think.
Tee hee, Mogg. No, I don't believe so. Their "weapon" of choice was the balloon animal, rather.
Seraface - Yes you fended. :) And it might well burn you, thou fiend. :D
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