Mardi Gras...The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

We left for New Orleans last Friday and arrived back home on Wednesday afternoon. I meant to blog about the trip yesterday, but I was so behind with everything so the blog had to fall behind as well...

Anyway, we got to New Orleans on Friday and my husband and I went to the Zulu ball that night. We had so much fun. Dancing, partying, mingling with old friends. Babyface performed on stage and my husband and I danced the night away. We partied until 4am Saturday morning! WHOA! Where did the time go?? We headed back to my parents' house for a few hours of sleep before having to get up to help prepare for my mom's party that night. I ran some errands for her and then took a much needed nap with J. Then we got up to help set up for the party. I was the photographer for the event, and I found out that night why I do not and never will (again) photograph another event. My cousin was at the door telling the guests as they arrived that they needed to have their picture taken now if they wanted one to take home with them. That went well for the most part and everything was going smoothly, but obviously, a few people did not listen and didn't have their picture taken as they arrived. So many people showed up for the party, that I ended up printing pictures ALL NIGHT. I missed all but an hour of the party. My mom had a brass band to come and play towards the end of the party and as they walked out, a crowd of people followed the band out and I guess that was when some people noticed the backdrop and remembered that they hadn't had their pictures taken yet. The only problem with that was that I was printing up the last 3 pictures for the night. If they would have taken their pictures in the beginning I would have been done. I told the lady that she would have to give me a few minutes b/c all of the pictures were supposed to be taken in the beginning. She was drunk, so she was very disrespectful and was telling me how to do my job. She told me, "All you have to do is take the camera and snap a picture of us really quick" Oh really? It's that easy?? Hmmmm...I told her she would need to wait a few minutes before I could take her picture. She walked off mumbling something about me to her friends. I called them back after I printed the last few pictures and went to the restroom for the first time that night, and she came with 7 other drunk people who were yelling at me, stumbling and wasting drinks on my backdrop, and almost pulling the entire backdrop down. Let's just say it was very ugly. And I got very angry. The lady and I exchanged words and in the end my mom apologized for even asking me to do that for the party. The thing is, it would have went much smoother had everyone followed the directions provided. I was able to enjoy a slow dance with my hubby before the party ended and that was the highlight of my night.

Monday and Tuesday, we took J to some parades. He had a ball and he called all of the floats trains (of course) and he would yell "Heeeeyyyyyyyy!!!" LOL! Unfortunately I won't be able to share any pictures with you b/c they are gone. Someone walked away from my mom's party with my camera. All of my memories from the zulu ball with my husband and from the fun we had that weekend. All gone. I was able to replace the camera, but not the pictures. That hurts me to the core. How could someone be so rude?? We turned my mom's house upside down looking for it, so I know it's gone.

Monday night, we were on our way home from the Lundi Gras celebration when we got caught in some pretty bad traffic that was at a standstill. We were MILES away from my parents' house so we decided to turn around and have dinner with my brother and his fiance' hoping the traffic would be moving by the time we were done. As we were driving to my brother's house, my mom called. She was stuck in the same traffic and wanted to know if there was a detour that she could take to get home. My brother gave her directions and then went online to see what had happened to cause the traffic jam. He immediately found the story of a truck that crossed the median and ran head on into another truck. The truck caught on fire and the driver was burned beyond recognition. We drove home a few hours later and the next morning we met our family for the Mardi Gras parades. We enjoyed them and it was a beautiful day, After the parades we all just sat around talking and eating when my aunt got a phonecall that made everyone's jaw drop. The victim of the horrible accident the night before was our cousin. His funeral is tomorrow morning.

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So that was our trip in a nutshell. It was like a rollercoaster ride for sure...