Mardi Gras

Last Friday, the elementary school that I teach at held it own Mardi Gras parade. The parade theme was "rockin' the decades," and fourth grade had to dress like the 1950's. I was trying to rock the rolled skinny jeans, red lipstick, pony tail, and pink sweater look. But I really just looked like an out of place goofball. Now I thought that this was supposed to be a 'mini' Mardi Gras parade, but this Georgia girl was in for a surprise.

The streets were lined with all sorts of people. I was amazed by the number of folks who want to snag beads from a bunch of elementary age kiddoes. Now, I understand that most of the people who came out have kids attend the school, but come on... it was 1:00 on a workday! 

 One might think, "Ohhh how cool! That must have been neat to get to walk down the street in a mini parade." But I got hit in the head, arms, and back so many times by flying beads that I lost count. Just imagine the chaos of walking along side 75 fourth graders, each with their own stuffed bag of beads, trying to 'spin and fly' them to the crowd. Their aim wasn't so great, and what 10 year old wouldn't get a kick out of hitting their unexpected teacher with flying beads, frisbees, or cups. It was fun, but this gals ADHD and OCD were shot by the time we made it back to the classroom. I think my personal worst part, was that I had no idea where all my kids were. I kept relaying in my head how someone could easily nab one of them and I wouldn't see it.

Despite all my written negativity it really was pretty cool. It was fun walking down the highway getting to see all kinds of people cheer you on. Only in NOLA would a school day be devoted to this kind of mayhem, and it was fun to be goofy and act like a clown with fellow teachers and students!

Tuesday was a pretty yucky day and the sky couldn't decide if the sun was going to come out or if it was going to monsoon. Chris and I decided to stay in because the news casters kept predicting that it was going to be a downpour at any moment. We figured that it wasn't such a great idea to be out among the crazies who were already holding the cities self proclaimed, 'best and biggest wet t-shirt contest ever' with all the drizzles and misting. 

Instead we watched the parades on television and spent the evening with some seminary friends eating BBQ. We've decided that we are going to go out to a St. Patrick's Day parade in a few weeks, where they throw out large cabbages and carrots to the crowd, to make up for our lack of attending a Mardi Gras parade!