Mardi Gras.

Just saying those two words brings me back to a five day EPIC trip to NOLA. It brings me back to crawfish and Jesters. It brings me back to Minnesota boys who are EXACTLY like my ex Jason, except with a Minnesota accent. It brings me back to a long ass road trip through six states. It brings me back to a group of Kentucky boys.

Lisa and I left Saturday morning for Montegomery, Alabama. It was Valentine’s day but that didn’t mean much to me this year. I was more concerned with all the booze and hot boys waiting for me in Nola. Lisa drove all the way to Montgomery (and I had to sleep most of the way so I wouldn’t die of suffering from her show-tunes soundtrack she liked to sing at the top of her lungs). We arrived around dinnertime, checked into the motel outside the city, had an ordeal trying to get a taxi before finally Lisa decided to drive into downtown. I’d been drinking fireball and sprite, something Christian had taught me last fall, and was a little tipsy. Of course, tipsy Katie can’t remember things like, I don’t know, her wallet. So we get downtown, I try to order and they card me for a margarita. I don’t have my ID. I don’t even have my debit card. Epic fail. Lisa pays for my food, thankfully, and since we can’t exactly go to any bars, and we both are tired after dinner, we do a loop around downtown, which is actually pretty gorgeous, and then head back for the night.

Sunday morning we get up bright and early and start the next leg of our journey through Alabama and Missippi and then finally Louisiana. We stop at every “Welcome to ___” sign, taking pictures. We arrive around 10am to the house where we will be staying. The area is a little sketchy at first, with people sitting on the front of the house, and when we go inside, there are people everywhere and our host, Anthony, and his girlfriend are busy cooking everyone dinner. We sit down in one of the living room areas and watch a couple episodes of Entourage with some of the other guests. Anthony’s house was technically four apartments at one time. He owns them all so now it’s one big house, with four of everything. It’s pretty cool. He rents out most of the rooms for Mardi Gras, and some throughout the year. I found him on AirB&B but couldn’t pay upfront so he sent me the craigslist ad. We communicated through email (and exchaged IDs and such) to make sure everything was legit prior to coming down. We paid him cash when we got there. I was a little nervous doing this but our experience with Anthony was perfect. We met some really awesome guests, and Anthony and his girlfriend were pretty much at our service 24/7 with whatever we needed. You could text him at 3am asking for a ride back to the house from downtown and he’d be there in fifteen minutes, with a smile on his face. He only charged us $5 roundtrip each time, which was way cheaper than a cab. He also made us a hugeeee breakfast every morning, and even mimosas! I can’t say enough how great of a host he is.

Once we had breakfast, Anthony took Lisa and I and another group of girls uptown for one of the parades. Lisa and I met up with Kayla, a friend from MIDDLE SCHOOL! I was so excited to see her. We hadn’t seen each other since 8th grade when she moved away. Her little boy is adorable, and I swear she looks just the same as she did. I hope we can reconnect again soon.

After we left Kayla, we walked the parade route all the way downtown to Bourbon st. The rest of the afternoon/evening is a blur of drunkenness involving one too many Jesters and one too many Grenades, both popular frozen drinks in Nola. We met a group of guys from Kentucky and spent the night with them. Eric and I hit it off, and I spent most of my time with him. He was a lot of fun, and really funny. The funny thing though, was that one of his other friends was trying to get with me at the same time. Every time Eric’s back was turned, the other guy was trying to kiss me. He couldn’t take a hint! Finally, Eric and I ditched him. But not before they BOTH bought lap dances for me… separately. It was an interesting experience.

I even got to meet up with Sarah briefly that night. We went to college together and were in Tri Sigma. I missed her so much! It had been years since we had seen each other. I wish I could have spent more time with her.

The next day was just as fun. We walked around the city some, even ran into Sarah again. We then spent the day drinking a crap ton, had a great lunch at Acme (mmmm crawfish!) and then met back up with Eric and his friends. They were on a balcony of a strip club on Bourbon, so we joined him up there. I’m not ashamed to say that drunken Katie enjoyed yelling at girls and throwing beads at them. There’s just something about having that kind of power… ha..

Anyway, I spent the night hanging out with Eric again, which was nice. Unfortunately, the next day, Fat Tuesday, we did not connect (my phone kept dying and trying to coordinate where you are with drunk people is harder than it sounds), so this was the last I saw of him. Luckily, we kept in contact for a while after Nola, and we still text every now and then. He may also be coming to NC in July, so fingers crossed we cross paths again.

Fat Tuesday was miserable. Cold. Wet. Rainy. Way less boobs. Yeah, it could have been worse I guess. The parades were a lot of fun, even with the miserable atmosphere. Lisa and I had come to the parades with Janice and an older lady (can’t remember her name to save my life). They were both staying desperately with Anthony as well. We all ate lunch after the morning parades. I got a little drunk, of course. Janice and Lisa went back to the house while the older lady and I went to some more parades. She almost got beat up by some girls who were WAY too intense about catching things thrown from the floats/trucks. It was just a damn parade!! I made friends with a girl and we kept swapping prizes since she had a girl and I had a boy. It worked out perfectly. Jude got SO much swag from the parades.

I went back to the house after this, cleaning myself up and dropping off all the goodies. Lisa and Janice went back out a litle while after. After I’d gotten a pretty good buzz from the fireball I was drinking while watching The Bachelor reruns, I decided I would go back out and either meet up with Lisa or see Eric again.

I ended up doing neither. Literally the minute I got dropped off on Bourbon, I ran into a group of three guys. They were hot and had Minnesota accents, what’s a girl to do? Well, I’ll tell you… she is going to pretend like she lost her friends. So that’s what I did. I don’t remember any of their names, although I’m pretty sure I’m friends with one on Facebook, but one in particular (who ended up having a girlfriend- of course) was like Jason reincarnated to be a dude from Minnesota. He looked similar- dark hair, beautiful, blue eyes- and he even acted like him. When this guy got drunk, he danced just like drunk, dorky Jason. He dipped, go figure. He wore a hat all the time. He had an accent – albeit, a Minnesota one, not a country one. BUT he was country as hell- boots, hunting, country dress. Yep. He was a redneck from Minnesota. I sounded a little dumb when I told these country boys that I didn’t know that country existed outside the south. Apparently it does. we ended up at a country bar, and then somehow I ended up dancing on the bar with a girl I just met for (one too many) free shots. Finally the nice boy, the one without a girlfriend, pulled me down (he watched my purse the whole time- what a gentleman!) and we went to another country bar. The girl I danced on the bar with was awesome. I wish we had been able to talk more and exchange info. Anyway, so the final bar we were at, I switched to water. Then when the night came to a close, I went back to their hotel for a while to hang out. We sat outside the pool area, which was closed even though the Jason look-a-like SWORE that at midnight a party was happening. I should note that on Fat Tuesday, everything closes at midnight due to lent. There was no party, but we did talk for a while, which was nice. There’s something comforting about revealing your deepest secrets to strangers, telling them things you wouldn’t dare tell the people who know you. You don’t have to worry about judgement, because you’ll never see these people ever again.

After our talk, I got Anthony to pick me up. He had been drinking, not drunk, but a little, so when he asked me to make out, I laughed him off. But then when we were about to get out of the car, he leans in to kiss me! I pull away, not letting our lips touch. If I am anything, I am NOT a homewrecker. I give him a short lecture about not cheating on his awesome girlfriend, then give him a hug and go to sleep.

I didn’t see him the next day, so we never talked about what happened. But he did text me some the next day, wanting me to come back and visit. I’m still deciding about that. I just don’t know if I’d trust he wouldn’t drink and try and put the moves on me again.

All in all, the trip was a success. There were a few things I would change, like getting all the way back to Charlotte and my car blowing a tire. That wasn’t so fun. But it was an adventure, and a damn good one at that!