I Experienced Marti Gras!

Before I go into my Marti Gras extravaganza let me tell you about the part of the weekend that wasn't as crazy! Friday was my Gram's birthday. Derrick and I both left work a little early to join her and my parents for dinner at Bristols in O'Fallon. My grandmother was so happy Derrick and I were able to make it. Besides my parents, we, and Branden are her entire life. I was so happy we were able to go as well. The food was excellent! (Bristols is known for their seafood, and they didn't let any of us down!) When we got back to tihe apt Liz and Charlie came over to spend the night, but I was already passed out, I was pretty tired and wanted to be refreshed and ready to go Saturday morning for Marti Gras!

6:45am came early and Derrick was already bouncing off the walls. He was very excited for the day to begin. This was the first time for both of us to experience Marti Gras. Anyway, I am the complete opposite of Derrick in the morning. I don't like to talk or have lights on until I am completely awake and on my second cup of coffee. The plan was to leave the apt at 9am. Derrick called a cab at 8:30 because we didn't want to drive down to Soulard...just because he thought it would be easier overall. To say the least, at 11:30am, me, Derrick, and Jimmy were still sitting at our apartment waiting on a cab we had called over 2 1/2 hours ago!! Long story short, we ended up not taking a cab, and driving my car down there. We missed the entire parade, which I really wanted to see and everything! The three of us agreed we weren't going to let this ruin our day, so we didn't! We still had a great time. However, it was rather chilly, say 32 degrees?? I was very thankful we had tickets to the Bud Light tent. It was heated, food all day, drinks all day, and we didn't have to wait to go to the bathroom - that was the best perk. Don't get me wrong, Marti Gras was fun, but next year I don't know if we'll do the tent. Our tickets were $100 a piece, so I think we would def spend that on the street between buying drinks and food on the street. I always like being on the street at events like this just because I think I would have saw a lot more people I knew. Again, the tent was fun and I'm glad we did it!

Around 6:30pm Derrick looked at me and said, "Let's go home." I was a bit relieved when he said that because drinking all day really takes it out of you!! Once we left the tent we decided to walk around for a while, which was fun, because it was just us and that's what we both kind of wanted to walk around anyway. We stopped and listening to a band, danced a little bit, and kept walking. Finally we got home around 8pm and were hungry and just plain tired.
(This picture to the left was taken while we were walking around at night!)

When we got home Derrick ordered in Chinese and we both fell a sleep immediately. We left the door unlocked for Liz and Charlie to come in, which I did NOT hear what-so-ever! The middle of the night and early morning were very interesting, and quite humerous. I woke up around 3:30am with a headache like I have NEVER had before. I mean, I thought something was really wrong, my entire head was throbbing, and the worst part about it all was that I had absolutely NO ibprofen. I was pissed and in tears. While I can't sleep I get up to get a drink of water...I turn on the light in the kitchen and see Jimmy just sleeping on our kitchen floor, using his hat as a pillow, and in the family room I hear Liz throwing up into the trash can. The entire situation was just not right!!! I finally took a flu pill to at least help me sleep, which it did, and when I woke up again in the morning, I was so happy because my head didn't hurt nearly as bad. Liz and I made a trip to QT for blue poweraids, coffee, and soda. When we got back, we were all talking about the day and things that happened. We all started naming things that we lost, gloves, sunglasses, scarves, beads, etc. Jimmy told us how he got robbed when he was walking by himself on the street...these two guys asked to borrow his phone then just took off with it, unfortuanately it was an iPhone. (There's just some people out there that are trash and need a good punch in the face.) Later Liz and I went to a sandwich place called Mom's Deli to pick up sandwiches and chips and the sandwiches were very good and hot! Just what we all needed. Apparently, it was what a lot of hungover people needed because the line was so long, full of people that looked like they all experienced Marti Gras and had just rolled out of bed!

Today has been filled with not moving, rented movies, eating, napping all on my pull out couch that we yet to put back. Next year for Marti Gras we will def be doing things a little different due to learning a few things. Goals for next year: 1. see parade, 2. eat a shuskibob, 3. see more friends, 4. go earlier, come home earlier. Overall, I had a wonderful time, but am very happy there isn't an event like this every Saturday!