Bringing the Drama

I posted this picture of myself Sunday night, which I will now explain.

(I uploaded more pictures on my Flickr)

I am not sure how many of my readers even will understand this, but I will type about it anyway. As mentioned previously, CZ’s dad is in Endymion. When CZ and I arrived at our hotel on Friday afternoon, her dad called her, and asked her to ask me if I wanted to ride in Endymion if the parade was rained out Saturday night. I’d have to pay $550, but that was it. I told her yes, without really thinking about it. How often do these kinds of opportunities come around? Besides, at that point I figured the parade would not be rained out so I wouldn’t ride anyway.

That night at Herbsaint, he told me everyone had gotten an email that the parade was in fact rained out, I was riding. Also, I had this AMAZING duck and andouille gumbo that ruined me for eating gumbo the rest of the weekend. Dinner was fabulous, watching the parades roll by on St Charles was great, and ending the night at the Carousel Bar was excellent.

The next morning, I went over to the Hilton to meet her dad and go with him to a traditional pre-parade luncheon for members of a few floats. It was pretty cool; they had a live band, open bar, and buffet. The gumbo made me miss the Herbsaint gumbo. The rain came about an hour after we got there and was POURING. The lights even went off a couple of times. We left after doing everything they normally do before Endymion rolls, including second lining and doing Kamikaze shots. I ended up taking home some bananas and grapes. After a trip back to the Hilton that took a few detours, I was able to trade the tux I had rented for the costume I would wear. The guy who was originally going to fill in was going to wear my tux for the ball and luckily he’s the same size as me.

That night at the Endymion ball, we were supposed to get on the floats in costume and ride through the Convention Center. I had never been on a float, much less thrown anything from a float, and now I was about to ride through a massive throng of nicely dressed people on a float with Elvis on the front. All of my throws were already on the float, so all I had to do was organize them on the racks. We rolled through the ball and I threw a ton of stuff. I realized pretty quickly that I was terrible at aiming. I’m trying to throw a football from a moving float with an overhang, and the first few I airmailed over my targets’ heads. After the inside parade was over, I met up with CZ at the table and watched the concert.

The next day was the big day. I put on my costume and walked over to the Convention Center to board the float about 4:30. I had found out where Jacob would be, and where my parents would be. I had put together a bag of stuff for Jacob to get, and set aside things for my parents. We loaded stuff onto the racks and waited. The anticipation was crazy. Once everyone seemed to have their stuff ready, it was cool to look around at the other people without having to say “this is going to be incredible!” You could just feel it. The first few floats rolled out and it was happening.

Rolling down Tchoupitoulas was slow and go. We’d stop for a few minutes, then go, then stop, then go. It seemed like it took forever. The coolest part of the whole night was seeing the shadow of the float on one of the warehouses. You could cleanly depict Elvis on the front, then the people on the top of the float. I checked my phone and saw we were 3 blocks from Napoleon and texted my mom. When we got near Tipitina’s, I saw them. I threw them stuff, and thankfully the crowd wasn’t CRAZY INSANE, so they caught everything I threw them. I was going to throw them beads but they were loaded down so I said “y’all have enough beads!”

We turned the corner to Napoleon and it was like nothing I had ever done. The people were so loud and all over the place. I threw the stuffed animals CZ’s dad gave me to the little kids I saw. I threw the bigger beads I had and tried to get them to people who didn’t seem like they had very many beads. The glow sticks I had to throw were very popular. I have no idea why. People LOVED them. I would throw a bunch at once and people would scramble.

The most awkward thing was when the float would stop. CZ’s dad told me not to throw anything when the float stopped, because the crowd would just expect more. If you threw one thing to someone, then someone else would ask if they could get the same thing. The guy next to me threw when we were stopped, and every time he threw, people would want more. I made myself busy with unpacking more beads while we were stopped, but that did not make the situation any less uncomfortable. The highlight of the ride down Napoleon was the guy who asked for a blinky bead that was “a collectible”. As if I would throw some random dude on the street a collectible pair of beads even if I had any.

We turned onto St Charles, and I knew Jacob was going to be one block off Napoleon. Sure enough, I hear him yelling and saw him. I threw a bunch of glow sticks and had the crowd scatter and was able to hand him the bag. It was a successful handoff!

The farther we got down St Charles, the more the crowd changed. Less little kids, less families, more drunk frat boys. I knew CZ and her mom were going to be near Herbsaint, but I had to cross over to get to the other side of the float. The crossing over was not a problem, and I thought they’d be up near the barricade, but they were kind of far back. Then when we got in front of where they were, we couldn’t see them. I spotted CZ as the float pulled away and tried to toss a football, but I don’t think it made it.

The crowd was noticeably different on Canal. By that time I had gotten rid of my good stuff and was chunking everything I had left. CZ’s dad told me to throw everything because anything I did not throw I’d have to carry off the float. That was not happening, so I was throwing everything. I finally ran out after we had turned on Loyola, so only a couple blocks from the end. The float stopped, and all I had to take off was the stuff I was going to hand to CZ and CZ’s dad canvas bag. I had met a couple of new members at the open house a couple of weeks ago, and those guys did not throw all of their stuff. They had a lot leftover, so they were going to have to take it all off the float. I was glad I did not have anything more to take off than what I had. I said my goodbyes to the guys around me and got off the float.

I met up with CZ’s dad and we ended up walking up Poydras back to the Hilton. We caught up with his friends, and then ended up hitching a ride back when a guy in a black pick up stopped and offered us a ride. That was a blessing, because my legs hurt. After hours of balancing myself from the float starting and stopping, my left leg was really sore. We made it back to the Hilton where we met up with the women. We ate cheeseburgers at 1 am. It was the first food I had eaten since lunch. CZ and I made it back to our hotel about 2 am and I made it to sleep shortly after that. My first time riding on a float in Endymion was over, and now I’m thinking I may want to do it again.

Most of the wedding planning at this point is complete. The only things left are things like the bachelor/bachelorette parties and finalizing the cake. We crashed a wedding at the reception place to see everything in action and taste the food so we could refine the menu to our liking. The big thing I got done last week was finalizing the tuxedos. My mom had called me and wanted to make sure my dad could go with me, which was fine. I called him on my way home one Tuesday night and had him meet me at the tux place by my house. We met at 7 and were both measured by 7:15. I did not leave until 8:15. I have no idea what took the guy so long to enter everything into the computer. I only filled out one page of information. Maybe he was recreating the entire form in MS Paint, I have no idea. I did not take very long picking anything out, so the problem remains a mystery. Once I left I had what I needed and went home. Changing the vest color on my tux was not a problem. Getting them shipped to a different tux place location was, but fortunately the guy who originally helped me was able to get the job done.

Another box checking event was a few weeks ago when we went to a seminar called Day of the Engaged. We’re getting married in a Catholic church, and the rules are you have to attend one of their prep events, and the DotE was the most efficient and cheapest. People were telling me horror stories about the seminars they went to in the past, but I was keeping an open mind. We had to drive to LaPlace for the seminar that apparently is only held every few months. LaPlace is not the most convenient place to get to from the northshore, and we had to bring our own lunch. The seminar garnered high expectations because of all that. Turns out the seminar was led by an older couple who’ve been married for over 40 years. It was pretty awesome. The guy, Marcel, talked most of the time, and I wrote down some of his most interesting quotes. My favorite was when he was talking about different activities you can do after you’re married, “skinnydipping is silly, yet delightfully risqué.” He said this near the beginning of class, and I laughed. It was going to be a good day. Others like “you can’t build a house with two sets of blueprints” were good too. Not sure if that was original or not, but I enjoyed it. It was a great day; we laughed and talked to each other about whatever we were filling out questions for. When they called us up to get our certificate, I shook Marcel’s hand and thanked him. I think we had more fun than a lot of the people there.

8 days

Before Monday night I had no idea how to make a roux. I mean, I knew it was flour and oil, but I had never made my own before. I’ve made gumbo from a box. Please don’t stone me! This has all changed now. About a month ago, my aunt emailed me about a cooking class at this new store by her house and the class was on gumbo, from scratch. We signed up. I’ve wanted to learn how to make gumbo from scratch for a long time. I was tailgating for an LSU game one time where a guy made gumbo on a cooking stove. I wanted to learn how to do that.

I got there after work Monday night, and was the first one there. I thought the class was for 6, but it was actually 6:30. I was able to talk to the chef and walk around the store, so that was cool. She said how she’d need a volunteer to make the roux, so I volunteered. There were about 9 people in the class, and it was one of those places where you bring your own wine. When the class started we sat there and listened to the chef introduce herself and everything. She called me up to make the roux and walked me through everything. All I had to do was stir. I did not let it burn! It worked! It only took 5 minutes! It ended up being the base for a chicken and sausage gumbo that was DELICIOUS! She had some other guy make the seafood gumbo roux that was darker, but that worked too. Amazing! We all left full and happy. It was a great night, and now I know how to make a roux.

To my faithful reader(s), in the eternal words of Michael Jordan….I’m back. It’s been a while since I even started to type an entry. I’ve been keeping the good things posts and all, but over the summer was not very interested in blogging. Most of the stuff that would happen was because I was unemployed, and that was not very fun to talk about. It was embarrassing, and I know it should not have been, but I hated talking about it. HATED IT. So I didn’t type posts, because I felt everything that happened was somehow related.

The anger I had towards my old job has mostly subsided. I really hated working there the last few months. Nothing made sense, managers were clueless, and program directors had no idea of what actually went on. I think I was axed because I was truthful about looking for another job rotation because of the grim program outlook. I even buffered what I said with “I’m just trying to find out all my options.” When it came down to it, none of my managers were helpful trying to find me another job. I’ve learned in recent grad school classes how managers should behave, and none of my old managers did any of that. No wonder the program is on shaky footing.

I went on an interview to ATL (with the same company) over the summer and eventually was offered the job. The job seemed interesting enough, and the guys I interviewed with were cool, but the pay increase was peanuts. I had always felt underpaid, so to move to ATL for a 5% pay increase was not worth my time. I was in touch with a recruiter for that job, and when I showed doubt about the offer, he made me feel like the company was doing me a favor because of all the layoffs in NOLA. Thing was, I was the one who found the job and I was the one who applied. No HR person helped me, even though I had heard people were supposedly doing that. When I turned it down, he asked me what I was going to do, as if I did not have any other options. Of course, that’s his job, to get me in that position, but I just felt most of the people I dealt with whether it be the recruiter, or the worthless people who worked in the ‘transition center’, did not know how to deal with an educated person who knew his options. I explained to the guy that I was dating a girl at the time, and engagement was imminent, also that I did not think the salary was worth me moving away from her and all my friends for a job that was not THAT great. I even told him “it’s not like I’m taking a pay cut because I’m signing with the Yankees.”

I eventually found a new job thanks to a friend at a job fair. The interview went well, and I weighed the pros and cons. The only con was the commute. I grew up at my grandparents’ in Metairie during the day while my parents worked downtown until I went to 1st grade. I remember those long drives in the evenings. I never thought I’d be doing that. I needed a job though, and this one seemed to be giving me a good opportunity I had never had before. I had grown tired of sitting at home and reading books. Not that there’s anything wrong with reading books, but I wanted something to do. (Incidentally, I reached my goal of reading every HP book before the first movie) The commute has not been as bad as I thought. I wake up by 4:30 am, leave by 5:30 am and get home around 5:30 pm. I’ve gotten used to the drive, and the times I am traveling on most days it has only added 15 minutes to my commute. The job has been awesome. So far so good.

So I’ve been on Twitter, and I follow a few sports writers. My friend Aaron also follows a couple of the same sportswriters, and we’ve been keeping unrecorded score of who gets responses from the sportswriters. I think unofficially I’m in the lead because I notched Peter King, but everything is unrecorded. Monday the heavily twittering duo of ESPN (Mortensen and Schefter) were concluding their training camp bus tour with the Saints. My grand plan involved somehow meeting them and persuading them to tweet to my friend Aaron. It didn’t matter what it was really, just that he got it. In my scheming mind it would be a photo of me with one of them with “wish you were here @am_mgmt” or something.

Since I was going to training camp, I took along my copies of the books from Sean Payton and Drew Brees that I just received last week. Players and coaches sign autographs after practice, and even though I’m not a big autograph guy, it would be cool to have them sign their books. I figured if for some reason they signed after practice, I’d give it a shot. I got there about 20 minutes after practice started and snapped a few photos. After practice was over, I stood over where the players were signing autographs. Other players like Reggie Bush signed, but no Brees or Payton. I waited around, but no results, so I started walking back to my car.

The ESPN buses were parked outside of the practice fields on the way to my car. Since I had shown up later, I had to park in a Zephyr Field lot. It wasn’t a big deal, it was better than parking across Airline Hwy. I saw there were about 15 people waiting at the buses, so I figured maybe Mort and Schefter would come out and talk to people. Here was my chance! People were walking around the buses, taking pictures, holding the ESPN mic that had been left on one of the chairs, etc. Then some sheriff’s deputies showed up and shooed us back away from the buses. Good thing I had already taken a few pictures.

It was cool seeing the stickers and what people had signed in person after seeing it on TV and reading about it.

So I’m in this group of people who have been herded a safe distance away from the broadcasting equipment, when all of a sudden Drew Brees comes walking out of the Saints office building with some PR people. He comes right over to the group of people, but I didn’t have my book or Sharpie ready. By the time I had my book ready he was on a bus to film an interview. Then, Sean Payton gets off a bus, and walks across the parking lot. Luckily I was standing with people who are REALLY into autographs, so they were the ones yelling “Coach! HEY COACH, could we get an autograph, there’s only a few of us over here!” Sure enough, my buddy Sean came over and signed autographs. I figured, I was standing there, I might as well get my book signed. Someone had brought a gold Sharpie to get his poster or something signed, so then that pen ended up being used for all 8 or 10 things, including my book, so I have my book signed by Sean Payton in gold Sharpie. What up.

So back to the waiting. A lot of the people left, and there were only three other guys and me waiting. I still figured Brees would come off the bus, and the ESPN guys would be available to shoot the breeze (HA!). I stood under a tree in the shade while the others stood in the middle of the parking lot. All of a sudden, Brees exits the bus and walks over to the few people left. I had my book ready and he signed it. We all thanked him. I figured, NOW is the time, but no. After Brees left the bus, then Saints owner Tom Benson and a couple of other people got on to do interviews or something. ‘That’s it!’, I thought, and I walked back to my car. On my way back to my car, I called Aaron and left a VM telling him what all happened. I genuinely went over to the buses to talk to the ESPN guys, but walked away with two autographed books. It ended up being a pretty incredible Monday morning.

In 2007, a couple of friends and I went to the 1st and 2nd round NCAA games at the Arena. There are four games on Thursday. Two in the afternoon, and then two at night, with a 2 hour break in between. In 2007, we left our car parked near the Arena and wandered down to the Warehouse district where we ate an early dinner. Last Thursday, I thought the same plan would work again. I was with different people this year, but the overall goal would be the same; leave the car parked and walk to the WH district to eat.

After the 2nd game ended on Thursday, we left the Arena and walked down Girod St. I suggested Lucy’s to have the people with me see the place where Drew Brees led people in the pregame chant after the SUPER BOWL VICTORY PARADE. We walked and got to Lucy’s, and got our table. Our service was AWFUL. Our first waitress took our drink orders, then a few minutes later another waitress came and told us she was now going to be our waitress, and needed our drink orders. We basically had 10 minutes of our time wasted by this ridiculous waitress handoff. Why not go put the drink orders in at the bar, THEN hand off? So the new waitress takes our drink orders, then our food orders. A few minutes later, the same waitress comes back and says she lost our order and she needs it again. She had no idea what we had ordered just a few minutes earlier. Then the appetizer we ordered was still not at the table after 20 minutes, to which our waitress said “it’s not an appetizer, it’s a meal.” What? We talked about splitting it as an appetizer, she was there for the conversation. Everything happening caused tensions to run high at the table.

In the midst of this, I spotted who I thought was Mickey Loomis check out the tables in the dining area, then walk back to the bar. I did not get a really good look, so I couldn’t confirm. Then a few minutes later, Sean Payton, some other guys, and then Mickey Loomis walk past our table and sit down at a table in the back of the room. SEAN “I just coached the Saints to a Super Bowl Victory and am completely awesome” PAYTON! I was able to manage a feeble “Hey Coach” as he walked past, but I don’t think he heard me.

Sitting there was one of those moral dilemmas. I did not want to go bother them as they enjoyed their afternoon, but on the other hand, how many times do you get to have your picture taken with someone that awesome? The service disaster ended up having our entire table’s meals and drinks comp’d (first time that has ever happened for me). We learned this right when the actual food arrived, and I could hardly eat. All the waitress drama and we’re also in the room with Loomis and Payton. It may have helped that I had already had a bloody mary.

People were going over to the table with the famous dudes and getting their pictures taken, or saying “thank you” or whatever. I even saw some people bring their baby over. I didn’t see if they got Payton to kiss it or anything. I didn’t want to do that. I wanted to have it happen more natural than that. I didn’t want to disturb them, I mean, they’re just there to drink some beer and talk. We were making plans to leave, but I wanted to finish my High Life before I left. I was kind of delaying leaving, so that maybe by some chance I had an opening to get a picture. If not, I thought I’d cross that bridge when I came to it, which probably meant interrupting them. As I’m staring at my beer having two or three swallows left, I hear Payton tell the other guys at the table he was having to go. I got my camera set, and as he came back by our table, I said “Coach, can I get a quick picture?” He replied “yeah, real quick”. BOOM!

I’ve been told I was blushing, and I probably was. I don’t remember if I shook his hand, or if he knew when I said “thanks” it was for more than the picture. I would have loved to have recounted how I felt when Tracy Porter made the game clinching INT, or how I appreciated him calling for the onsides kick in the SB, or how he let people touch the Lombardi. All I remember is I got my picture taken with Sean Payton, and it was awesome. WHO DAT!

(BTW, I don’t want to make Lucy’s out to be this horribly serviced place, it’s not. We just had some really bad waitresses. That was not my first time eating there, and won’t be my last.)

Sunday morning I woke up with a lot of nervous energy. The Saints playing in the Super Bowl was finally going to happen later in the day. I couldn’t concentrate on anything. I watched some soccer, the SB pregame, and I played around on the internet. I had taken care of some grad school stuff on Saturday, so I wouldn’t have to worry about getting anything done Sunday morning. Things were moving so slowly, much like the last two weeks since Garrett Hartley’s kick split the uprights to beat the Vikings.

Finally, it was time to leave for my friend Melanie’s house. On the way there, I had a frightening thought the game started an hour earlier than I thought, and we’d miss the teams running onto the field. Thankfully this was not the case. We arrived with our High Life and appetites in plenty of time to see the team introductions, crisis averted. I honestly didn’t know that many people at the party other than the people I came with and the hosts. We all had one thing in common, we were all Who Dats. The setup was having the game projected outside onto a screen hung on the side of the house. Best setup to watch a Super Bowl ever! We all had camping chairs and blankets to keep warm.

Once the game started, it didn’t feel like watching a Super Bowl, it felt like watching a Saints game. That may not make sense, but it was the first time seeing MY team in the Super Bowl, so after the initial shock wore off of the teams running onto the field, and seeing the end zone painted black and gold, it was just like the other 18 games I had watched so far this year. The first half was so nerve-wracking. Peyton Manning seemed to be able to work the ball down the field, and he was making some PERFECT throws. A lot of people I read or saw talk about the game kept building up Manning as this unbeatable Superman of a QB. I knew he was good, but not that much better than Warner or Favre, who the Saints had beaten. The 4th and 1 at the goal line that the Saints did not convert made me really nervous, because the Colts could have come down and made it 13-3 or worse 17-3. Fortunately the defense was able to hold, and the Saints made up for the missed opportunity with another FG. I was encouraged at the half that it was 10-6 Colts, esp considering how sluggish the Saints offense looked, but how they had started to break out of their shell at the end of the first half. Still though, Manning didn’t seem to be too rattled.

After watching the two remaining members of The Who struggle through halftime, the 2nd half was set to begin. Everyone was back in their seats when the onside kick happened. Seriously, an onside kick in the Super Bowl! WHAT?!? The Saints TD that came after made me start thinking “this might actually happen, the Saints might do this.” The rest of the game until the famous INT was a blur. I remember Stover missing the FG (honestly, never thought he was going to make it and wondered why the Colts went for the kick). I was so happy for Jeremy Shockey to get a TD. I follow him on Twitter, and I watched his interview at Media Day. He gets a bum rap IMO, so I was glad he was able to make a big play in the Super Bowl. Lance Moore’s 2 point conversion was good when we watched the replay. I’m glad Sean Payton heard us screaming to challenge it. We also noticed Peyton Manning looking frustrated on the sideline, so maybe the Saints weren’t sacking him or getting INTs, but they were still getting to him in other ways. Advantage Saints!

So here we go, Saints leading by 7 and the Colts have the ball. I thought at worst, they tie the game and we go to OT. What I wanted though was to finally get a turnover and put the game away. I had been yelling for a turnover hoping it would actually happen….and then, it did. Pandemonium ensued when the play happened. I had not been sitting down since the TD to go ahead 24-17, and I started hollering, and I could not yell loud enough. I could not jump around enough. There was so much emotion that I could not express it all. People hugged, cried, and high fived. It was crazy. Fireworks went off in the distance. Two people from a party across the street ended up coming to our party. When the final whistle blew, more fireworks went off, a nearby church was ringing its bells, and the party across the street moved to our party, including their keg. I remember thinking “this moment is perfect.”

I got a phone call from my friend Jim, who I work with. He’s not from NOLA, yet he was excited for everything that had happened. I thought that was cool. I was yelling into the phone. The excitement was just incredible. I talked to my friend Jacob by phone and realized while talking to him, that the Saints, a team I love, a team my family loves, and a team my friends love, won a title. It’s the greatest sporting event ever, in the history of our lives. Nothing could ever top this. I told people it didn’t feel real, like in Back to the Future II, Marty sees that ad for “Cubs Win World Series”. That’s how it felt almost when we saw the headline on the news “Saints Win Super Bowl”.

I might have slept 3 hours on Monday night. I stayed up late watching every video I could, then woke up at 4 am and watched more video and Sportscenter over and over. I ventured out to get a paper at 6 am. It’s incredible. It actually happened. I’ll never forget Sunday night. I’ll never forget that feeling I had when Porter made the INT. The flood of emotion in that moment was incredible. The Saints are Super Bowl Champions! WHO DAT!

After Deke and Bobby went back inside to broadcast on the radio, they announced anyone wanting to enter the Best Dressed or Hairy Legs contest, please come to the right of the stage. I had to fight my way over to the right of the stage. It was still ridiculously packed. I got to the stairs and had the lady see me so she’d pick me out of this throng of guys in dresses.
Once I got on stage, everything seemed a little disorganized. There were about 20 other guys on stage with me, but they didn’t really divide us between the two contests. I pulled my socks down so people would see why I should win. They had people go to the front of the stage because I think they were judging by crowd reaction. One of the ladies in charge looked at me and my legs and told me I’d be a finalist. Guys would go to the front of the stage, then step back. Slowly but surely they were eliminated. They hadn’t asked me to go to the front yet, so I thought the hairy legs competition would be coming up. I was going to stay up there until they asked me to leave.

Finally I got motioned to go to the front to show off my wares. I did, and my friends in the crowd had summoned help from people around them to cheer for me. Unfortunately, I did not make the finals of the Best Dressed, but I was still staying up there until they told me to leave. One of the ladies came up to me and told me she had something inside for me, and to stay up there. They announced the winner of Best Dressed, and the lady came up to me again, and said “follow me inside, we’re going to put you on the radio.” I motioned out to my friends about the greatness that was happening.

The lady told me to grab her hand and stay close. It was still crazy packed. We made our way through the crowd, and since I was with the radio lady, I got past the security guard. They had me wait near the table that was being used for the broadcast. I thought they would eventually give us microphones or something, and ask us a couple of questions.

I was going to thank my dad for the hairy legs. Sadly though, I never got the chance. They took my name, and the name of the guy who won Best Dressed, and said them over the air, so that was cool. My parents heard it. When they said my name, I turned and waved to the people in the restaurant. It was all kinds of awesome. The lady gave me a bag full of stuff from one of the local Saints shops. I wanted the plaque that the other guy got, it even had Hairy Legs on it. I think they only got one plaque though, and it did say Best In Show, so he got that.

We left the restaurant and got a picture at the Andrew Jackson statue to add to my collection. Then we made our way to Fleurty Girl, where I met THE Fleurty Girl. She asked to get a picture with me, and then she tweeted it! She’s like a real celebrity with all the local and national interviews from the cease and desist selling WHO DAT shirts thing. (or so I have learned this week) My sister was able to buy a shirt she’s been wanting. Afterward we went and ate at this BBQ place called Squeal where they had the most amazing corn grits I’ve ever had.

I have told this story over and over since Sunday. I keep thinking how incredible it all was. I was expecting a lot of guys to show up and march and all, but the amount that did blew my mind. The amount of people who turned up to watch was just awesome. The crowd was so happy. Everyone was having such a great time. I’m so glad I did it. I can’t wait till Sunday. WHO DAT!

(I divided the story into 2 parts, both parts will be posted today. Part II later this afternoon)

Last week, Bobby Hebert announced that there would actually be a Dress Parade to honor the late Buddy D and celebrate the Saints going to the Super Bowl. Later on in the week, I called my friend Jacob, who’s probably one of the only friends I have on the same level with the Saints. I asked him if he wanted to do the parade. I thought it’d be fun. We agreed. He called me Saturday, and we nailed down more plans and particulars. It was on.

Saturday night, I went to the local Goodwill to get a dress. I went through the entire rack of dresses and found two black dresses. They were pretty much the same style, so I was just going to try them both on and go with the one that fit the best. The tags were ripped off, so I had no idea what size the dresses were. It was obvious one fit better than the other, so I bought it. When I went up to the counter, the lady said “you must be going to a party”, to which I said “no, I’m going to be in the Dress Parade tomorrow.” The people around the counter laughed and encouraged me to have a good time. The dress was $5.43 total, not bad. I stopped off at the store and got a 12 pack of High Life cans, because I knew we’d need beer and I thought we’d get in trouble for having bottles. I was going to use a couple of the reusable shopping bags to split the beer between me and Jacob.

The next morning I went to early church and listened to another boring sermon. On my way home I stopped off at Academy and got some black soccer socks. I got home and threw on my dress. Since it was going to be cold, I put on my long sleeve compression shirt that I wear for running, and some compression shorts. Then I put on a long underwear shirt on and some boxers. I did not want to have to wear a coat or anything, I wanted to show off the dress!

We got downtown about 11:35 or so, and parked across the street from the Holiday Inn. We were having to wait for Jacob, and I had to go to the bathroom, so we walked across the street to the hotel. I walked into the waiting room type area, and walked past three guys who were just wearing long skirts over pants. LOSERS! That’s when I knew I had done the right thing, and the apprehension I was feeling disappeared. They saw me with everything on and I could tell from the look on their faces that they wished they had gone all out like I had. Yeah, I was working it. My sister nicknamed me Sassy Sally.

We walked over to the Dome to meet up with Jacob. There were so many guys out there, and more impressive was the number of people who came to watch.

We walked down the street doing the Who Dat! Chant, chanting Buddy D, Black and Gold Super Bowl, etc. It was amazing. The first block or so I must have said “this is awesome” 20 times. Everyone was laughing and yelling and waving. There were tons of people on both sides of the street taking video and/or pictures. It was crazy. Some of the guys took the dress wearing a little too far IMO. One guy readily admitted he was wearing a thong underneath. One guy took our picture, and then tells me “if you’d have shaved this morning, I’d be turned on”. I told him “I’m glad I didn’t!” The guys in makeup were also kind of weird.

When we made the turn onto Carondelet, there were still tons of people. It was almost as if the amount of people increased. I high fived a girl for wearing a Scott Fujita jersey. This one guy was filming and says “this is going on youtube”, so I got in the camera shot and yelled “What up! Youtube! Who Dat!” I have no idea if it’s actually anywhere yet, but I’m in a video somewhere for sure.

When we got to the Quarter, it almost became single file because of all the people on the sidewalks. These guys in front of us were just walking in jerseys and jeans, and I spoke loudly that they shouldn’t be in the parade. I don’t think they heard me. But really, we’re in dresses and you’re not, get out of our parade! Most importantly, we made it to the stage at the end of the parade and we had not run out of beer. Also, I wasn’t sure exactly where we were going, all I knew was we were following Bobby Hebert.

I knew there was going to be a hairy legs contest, so I didn’t wear stockings. I wanted to be able to enter the contest. The stage was set up in the street, and it was packed. We were in front of the stage, but it was just wall to wall people. I kept yelling for Bobby Hebert to come out, because he was our leader for the day, and I wanted to see him. I had not seen him all day. I booed a guy who was dancing on stage with a Mic Ultra. Finally, Bobby came out, and he appeared to feel very good. He said some pro Saints stuff, about how awesome it was that we all came out, that the Saints were going to the SB, life is awesome, whatever. Deke, his radio co-hort, was also there, but he didn’t have a dress. In fact, he was wearing a Bobby Hebert jersey. I think Deke’s an idiot, and his costume was just stupid. Fine, maybe you’re not man enough to wear a dress, but for crying out loud, do you have to wear the jersey of your radio partner like that? LAME!

(the exciting conclusion in part II)

Because I’ve suffered from severe writers’ block lately but I still want to document the awesome things that happened over the weekend of my triumphant return to Nashville after a 2 year absence, you get the incomplete sentences of the awesome and not so awesome:

- shared plane with inappropriate singer
- lady’s excitement over inappropriate singer
- beer shopping
- trip to recycling collection place
- Dagny!
- well, now don’t you feel horrible for parking where kids in wheelchairs are coming out?
- 2 for 1 High Life
- seeing friends from across the room in the Ryman, feeling like a rock star
- realizing God still chases after me, no matter how unintentionally I seem to run from Him
- sleeping late
- ridiculous federal job app
- meeting blog friend Mandy
- making it to Fido for the first time ever
- Miles!
- Jack White’s house!
- eating sushi for the 2nd time ever
- interesting shop talk
- Hank/Hank Jr mugs
- Jack White’s record studio/shop was closed
- picture of me with Andrew Jackson statue
- Grimey’s with drunk Santa and ‘drunk’ elf
- Saints/Cowboys!
- “chicken/taco/really good whatever it is officially called” soup
- Missed FG! Craziness!
- Saints sadness
- awesome sermon at church
- leading the youth group boys to a gift wrapping championship
- blue coast burrito
- 5 NFL games at once
- free airport wifi
- home