Lassez Les Bon Temps Roulez!

Krewe du Vieux last night was the best "grown-up" time I've had in a long time, and a great way to kick off the carnival season...which will from this point on, consist of packing multiple snacks, hauling a ladder, to and from the cars, calculating best vantage points x bathroom locations, etc. So last night it was all about titillating floats, cold drinks, comical costumes, and banter with good friends. Here are the highlights (lowlights would be a picture of me, this morning, nursing an iced coffee with black mascara under my eyes, but hey- there's no one around to snap me!).

We started at the R Bar on Royal, and I couldn't pass up the chance to

photograph the barber chair that I associate with lots of fun (and trouble) in my

pre-married days...

A couple of brass bands...there were great costumes and rowdy floats too, but typical me...I got the back of everything; I'm never ready.

This was the coolest thing ever: A mobile drum circle with a cross-dressing cheerleader atop. And they were rollin'! This would've been one to follow, but we were off to Mimi's!

At Mimi's...we'd gone there to eat, and were a little disappointed at first because it's more club with tapas than sit-down meal. We put our forks in our pocket (note forks in pockets blaring speaker in the heat and tried to have the fun we really wanted to have. All we had to do was be patient (and drink more!)

Hey! That's my fork!

Ready? Set! Go!

Well, the tapas came out of the kitchen--little plates of manchego cheese with sauteed mushrooms on toast, calamari in cream sauce, cooked down stews in rich sauces, and we passed them around, along with more beers, forks out of pockets, and shared delicious morsels with friends and strangers to the pulse of loud music, through a smoky haze of liquor and dissipating inhibition... a uniquely New Orleans moment that I was happy to have.

And how could I not resist a pic of Denice and Dave getting a ride to their car in the back of Paulette's mini-van. At least last night I would've dubbed it The Party Wagon.

I am all about some more grown-up time with my friends, and more of these kinds of Mardi Gras moments...It's great to be in good company.