This weekend I made the trek to New Orleans for Mardi Gras for a Bachelorette Party Deluxe. I was so so awesome to hang out with all my old high school buddies for a healthy dose of girl time and debauchery. The blushing bride is a good friend named Lauren, although I call her Big Red because of her gorgeous red locks. I'm actually really jealy of that hair.

I thoroughly enjoyed the entire experience. I had no idea how much history and tradition is behind the whole phenomenon. I love a good cultural experience, especially those that involve parties and shiny necklaces. There was, obviously, no shortage of beads...and none of us even showed our boobs! That could've been because it was so cold that it would've taken 20 minutes to remove all of our clothes to get the boobs out. Improptu flashing wasn't an option. Maybe a good thing. Nonetheless, the French Quarter and Bourbon street were great fun, albeit a little bit dirty (probably just the weekend we were there, I'll hope).

A lot of our time was spent watching the parades and catching beads. That was great fun and we got tons of beads. These are just the rejects left in the hotel room we didn't bring home!

One problem with the bead-catching situation was that it got a little brutal. Some of the beads were really really heavy and came flying really fast. One of our group got clocked in the head really hard and needed to ice her black eye. It was absolute hilarity. Bless her little heart. We also got the opportunity to attend a wonderful little event called the Endymion Ball. I really have never experienced anything like it. The event was a black tie affair (tuxedoes and ball gowns required) held on the floor of the Super Dome. We ate and drank (BYOB and BYO-Food) and then the last parade of the night came through the dome and we did the whole bead-catching thing there too. After the parade, Lynyrd Skynyrd played! That was an awesome experience, but I felt a little weird belting it out to Freebird in my gown. It was really odd to see the wealthy high-society women of New Orleans in their ball gowns towing a rolling cooler full of beer into the party. It reminded me alot of Texas/OU weekend: a little fancy, a little hardcore party. Anyway, a great time was had by all. I've missed my old buddies :)