Teeming Throngs of Drunken Hedonists

I love the smell of Mardi Gras in the morning. Actually, I imagine the reality of the smell of Mardi Gras in the morning is not all that pleasant. But it's a good opening line.

Being a fan of the hedonism myself, it is surprising that I've never actually been to Mardi Gras. I always meant to go and never quite got around to it (yet). I have, however, visited the fair host city on multiple occasions and found it to be one of my favorite places.

The Big Easy is just that, easy . . . all the time. Easy drinking, easy smoking, easy access to fabulous food, easy to hear great music while walking down Bourbon St., easy to get complete strangers to do remarkable things for cheap plastic beads made in China, easy (and extremely entertaining) people watching, and best of all, easy sex everywhere you look.

As far as I can tell, it doesn't really matter when you go there, it's a little slice of Mardi Gras all year round. That's what I love about it. People leave their inhibitions at the door and the rationalization becomes that they were in "this place" where you drink in the streets and bare your body for beads. It's a great lab experiment that continues to produce consistent results: Bourbon St. + alcohol - inhibitions = SEX. That's science man! And I have the experiential evidence to back it up.

His name started with an "S" and that's about the best I can do on that. Scott, Shawn, something with an "S." He had the most beautiful mouth and a shaved head and kept saying wonderful things about my "skillz." We were both there for different conferences. We found each other around 1:30am and were back at my hotel by 2:30 - the memory of it still makes me smile. I don't remember what time he left but I do remember I had to get up and teach a class at the conference the next morning. It was painful. And I would do it again, no question.

That trip lasted 7 days and I swear I drank more in those 7 days than I drank in a whole semester of college. When I got home I stopped drinking completely for at least a month. I can't wait to go back there, I love that town.

Le Bon Temps!