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I was headed to New Orleans to meet up with my boss and coworkers from the catering company I worked at in DC though really they are more of a second family than anything else. They were coming in to NOLA for a catering conference and had offered me a place at their Airbnb.

Somehow I got my dates confused and got there a day early, oops. I booked a hostel for $15, not too bad. I made friends with some guys from europe we had dinner at the hostel before heading down to Bourbon St. for a fun evening drinking beer and watching the absurdity, a week before mardi gras the city was already flooded with tourists. We made it back to the hostel a bit before 1 where we met some girls we had been hanging with earlier and somehow 15min later I was in an uber heading to back to Bourbon. One of those decisions you know you will regret before you’ve made it but the girls are pretty so you make it anyway.

I tend to be a control freak when it comes to my body and mind, as such I am a rather careful when it comes to drinking.

I am also fairly immune to peer pressure, I just don’t care what you think. My downfall is that I am polite(ish) and a cheap bastard so, when someone buys you a $12 hand grenade (the epitome of college drinks, tastes like lemonade and has enough alcohol I’m pretty sure I could put it in my gas tank) it’s hard to refuse. I did make it back to the hostel around 5am and after a solid 3hrs of sleep only had a medium sized hangover.

The next day I spent 3 hours trying to get around a parade that went right past the airbnb when I finally did get there I parked the bike and didn’t move it until I left New Orleans.

There are few things as frustrating as being 1/2 a mile and 3hrs away from your destinations
I have never seen a place with as many police, it was like every float needed its own motorcade (That’s only a slight exaggeration.)

The airbnb was pretty awesome, even more so was seeing old friends. While they went to their conference during the day I would go out and explore the city. In we would go out for delicious food (often recommended by the uber driver). I don’t think I’ve ever had fried chicken as good as Mama Mae’s… and why haven’t beignets become a global thing?

Parades on the other hand confuse me entirely.
How can you be that excited to have cheap plastic crap thrown at you all day long and then go and do it again tomorrow?
What motivates people to build a massive float buy a shit ton of crap and drive it slowly around a city so you can throw that crap at people?
Not to mention all the people walk around in the heat all day carrying heavy instruments or jumping up and down
I find the whole affair to be rather odd.
This old man came up to me and tried to give me his beads. I had to decline, I dont know what to do with them either.
It didn’t take long for him to find someone that wanted them.
Sometimes the things you don’t want will make someone else happy.

A bit more of New Orleans to come