I UNDERSTAND YOU AND YOUR SISTER HAD A GIRL'S GETAWAY TRIP TO MARDI GRAS LAST YEAR? HOW WAS THAT?
"Yeah. She and I and my old college roommate and her two friends all went. It was... crazy. Not really sure what else to say about it. Cool but crazy."

SO YOU DIDN'T ENJOY THE EXPERIENCE?
"I did. I mean, I like to try new things. I like to be able to say, I did this, or I did that. Kind of like another item off the bucket list, ya know?But, it's not something I would really care if I did again."

WHAT WAS IT THAT DID NOT APPEAL TO YOU?
"It's not really that it didn't "appeal". I love New Orleans. I've been there a couple of times for work related conventions. I'm just not a super partier I guess. I would go for the food way before any of the craziness."


NOT MUCH OF A PARTIER. SO WHAT'S THE CRAZIEST THING YOU'VE EVER DONE?
"Geez, I have no idea. I mean I partied and had fun in college like everyone else, but I don't know if you could call it crazy. Oh, you know what, when I was in my last year of school, there were a bunch of protests going on, I can't honestly even remember what they were for. We staged a big school wide walk-out. It was my job to distract our econ professor in his office so that they could put the plan in motion. So, I went to see him and I pretended to be really sick. I basically fake passed-out on he floor of his office. It sounds so funny now. It was so cheesy. So, so horribly cheesy. Like right out of a bad cliche, a Lifetime movie or something. But yes that may be the craziest thing I have ever done! I'm a terrible nerd I guess. Oh I got alcohol poisoning once. I'm such a rebel." 

NOT EVERYONE WAS BORN TO PARTY I GUESS. SO DEBAUCHERY ASIDE, WAS THERE ANYTHING YOU DID LIKE ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE?
"Like I said, I liked the city. I like the sights, the restaurants, the shops. I really did like the floats and the costumes- I mean most of them. I'm just not really one to be up 24/7, be drunk for days at a time, show my boobs to strangers, etc."

I GUESS A GOOD PARADE FLOAT ISNT ENOUGH TO GET YOU BACK?
"Eh. I mean, I have The Mummers for that. I know it's not quite the same. I can do a parade anywhere. And costumes for that matter. Hey, I've got Halloween. I'd just as soon go to the beach and sit there for a week with a daiquiri in my hand, and stare at the ocean."

YOU SAID YOU LIKED THE CITY THOUGH, THE FOOD AND SIGHTS. WHAT DID YOU ENJOY MOST ABOUT NEW ORLEANS?
"I just liked walking around. We took the cemetery tour which was cool. And we took a river boat cruise. The food is great. Commander's Palace. Oh my God. So good! I'm kind of a "foodie", so that is more appealing to me. I'm that annoying girl in the nice restaurants that is taking 15 pictures of her dinner to put on Instagram before she eats. I took close-up shots of the little crawfish on my plate! I take a lot of pictures, just not of people's boobs or of people puking into a garbage can. Although they make interesting shots too I guess."

MARDI GRAS CULMINATES ON FAT TUESDAY, THE DAY BEFORE LENT. I KNOW A LOT OF PEOPLE GIVE THINGS UP, FOOD, VICES, ETC. DO YOU GIVE UP ANYTHING?
"I'm not Catholic so we don't do that. I can tell you I'd never give up food! Or coffee. I'm not sure what I'd give up. I'm kind of glad I'm not Catholic now that I think about it."

SO IF YOU DID HAVE TO GIVE UP SOMETHING, ONE THING, WHAT WOULD IT BE? 
"I guess I'd give up trips to Mardi Gras (laughter)."

YOU WENT TO MARDI GRAS LAST YEAR DIDN'T YOU?
"Yes! My sister and a few friends all went for a girls getaway."

WAS THAT YOUR FIRST TME THERE?
"No. I had gone with my ex-boyfriend three or four times over a decade ago. Then we broke up and I met my (now) husband and had a baby. That was pretty much it for trips to Mardi Gras, or anywhere like that."

ANYWHERE LIKE THAT? HAVE YOU BEEN TO OTHER SIMILAR PLACES?
"Well, we went to Burning Man the first year we were together. And a bunch of other festival type deals. But, when I was much younger, my Godmother and I went to Carnival in Brazil. It was part college graduation gift, part going away party. She was moving to Spain for work and we were really close. I knew it'd be really long stretches between times we'd see one another. And that trip was what really made me just love that kind of thing, that carnival type atmosphere."

WOW. CARNIVAL AS A YOUNG COLLEGE GIRL! WHAT WAS THAT LIKE? CAN YOU TELL PEOPLE WHO ARENT FAMILIAR WITH IT A LITTLE ABOUT IT?
"Well, I was 20, so not even legal to drink here in the U.S. but yeah, it was totally beyond anything that I had ever seen. Like a million times beyond. Basically it is a big street party that takes place in Rio (de Janeiro, Brazil) every year. It lasts like 4 or 5 days. It is just total debauchery. Naked or half naked people parading down the streets. Really elaborate costumes and flashy floats in a big parade. It all culminates with a big masquerade ball. I actually think I was too young to even fully appreciate it. I mean, I thought it was cool obviously. I was really excited by all the drinking and the staying out all night and that stuff. I really didn't appreciate the cultural aspect of it, and all of the incredible costumes and masks and things like that."

SO YOUR TRIP TO CARNIVAL INSPIRED YOU AND YOUR BOYFRIEND TO MAKE THE TRIP TO MARDI GRAS?
"Well, obviously people always draw on the similarity of the two. It was really his idea though. It was while he was in grad school. His friends wanted to go in lieu of going on spring break that year. I basically tagged along. I wasn't even really thinking about the connection. But we had so much fun and it had been really reminiscent of having been at Carnival several years before that. We went back the next, I guess three years in a row."

SO, MARDI GRAS AND CARNIVAL HAVE SIMILARITIES. CAN YOU TALK A LITTLE ABOUT MARDI GRAS?
"Well, when we go down it's usually the Friday or Saturday before Fat Tuesday, but there is stuff going on for a while before that. It starts right after The Epiphany, but the parades and all of that culminate in the big party on Fat Tuesday. It's always the day before Ash Wednesday, which is the start of Lent, so basically it's the last hoorah, the last chance to go crazy before giving up whatever vices you plan to give up for Lent. It's pretty much accurate as to what you see it portrayed as. Drunken revelry. Parties. Parades. Lots of women (and men) showing their breasts and other things. Beads. It's pretty much a no-rules, no holds barred situation."

I THINK EVERYONE PROBABLY KNOWS ABOUT THE BEAD TRADITION. SO, DID YOU EARN YOUR BEADS?
"Well since I'm not giving my name and I know my kids won't dig this up someday, I have definitely earned a few strands of beads in my day. But that was before I was married with a child."

SO ON THIS LAST TRIP THERE WERE NO BEADS GRABBED?
"I'm going to plead the fifth on that one."

YOU MENTIONED LENT,  DO YOU TYPICALLY GIVE UP ANYTHING FOR LENT?
"No. I'm not Catholic. If I did, I'd probably give up something I really would't miss all that much, like doing laundry (laughter). My husband is Catholic, at least he was raised Catholic, and every year he tries to give up bread. Every year in the 7 that we've been together, bread. Usually by about 4 days in I find him in the kitchen making french toast or eating a bagel, and I'm like, "How's that whole Lent situation going?" It's harder than it sounds I guess."

ARE YOU HEADED DOWN TO MARDI GRAS THIS TIME?
"Nope. We had a great time last time as a girls getaway, but we are planning on trying to do a different place every other year."

WHAT'S NEXT?
"I think we're doing Austin next time. Riverwalk and all of that stuff."

THAT'S A BIT OF A DEPARTURE FROM MARDI GRAS AND CARNIVAL ISN'T IT?
"You think (laughter)? If it's somewhere I can take my son, it is definitely NOT anything like Mardi Gras!"

YOU NOW LIVE IN NEW ORLEANS. WHERE ARE YOU ORIGINALLY FROM?
"I'm actually from Madison, Wisconsin. I grew up there. Then I lived in St. Paul, Minnesota for about 13 years and then made my way to New Orleans." 

WHEN DID YOU MOVE TO NEW ORLEANS?
"It's been 6 years." 

WHAT BROUGHT YOU THERE?
"I had come to visit. I really had not even heard of New Orleans. I came to visit a friend and literally, the day I came here, I was like "I love this place. I want to live here!" So that kind of got the wheels turning and 2 years later I sold my house, changed my job and got a new house in New Orleans."

WHAT DID YOU LOVE SO MUCH ABOUT IT, THAT YOU WERE WILLING TO UPROOT YOUR LIFE?
"Everything! I loved the people. Everybody's so laid back and fun and spirited. Everything's a parade, a party. I love the houses, the architecture, the food, the music. Any given night, you can go listen to free music. Amazing music anywhere you go."

THE MUSIC WOULD BE A HUGE DRAW. WHEN I VISITED THERE LAST YEAR, I WENT TO FRENCHMAN ST. AND SAW SOME GREAT LIVE MUSIC!
"What's cool about that is it's not as touristy. That's where a lot of locals go. It's not as frat house as Bourbon St. is (laughter). It goes all night long, music in very single club." 

I REALLY ENJOYED THAT. PROBABLY MORE THAN BOURBON STREET.
"Right. And people do. That's what's so wonderful. A lot of people will come to New Orleans and they're like "Agh, this is it?" Cause they hear about Bourbon St., but it's kinda like a frat house extended down the street. But if you can get them onto Frenchman or some of the local places, it's a completely different atmosphere." 

DO YOU EVER REGRET MOVING THERE?
Oh, never! Never, never, never! Especially when I go home and it's like 20 degrees. I love it (here) so much. What's so wonderful is that, when my family comes to visit, they absolutely love it. So much so, that my mom bought a house last year here. It's a rental. She's not living in it. She comes to stay with me. She comes a lot. My brother and my dad, they've come quite a few times. I miss my family and I at least get home quite a few times a year, so that makes it worth it." 

WHAT DO YOU DO DOWN THERE?
"I run my own business called "Rustik Nola". I make art and furniture out of recycled wood and tin. There's still so much home construction going on since Katrina, that there's just so many recycled wood items. It's such a big thing here. I have my items in two different stores. That's really nice. I do art markets."

DO YOU SELL OUTSIDE OF THE NEW ORLEANS AREA?
"I do.  I have a website (www.rustiknola.com) and a Facebook page (Rustik Nola). Quite honestly, I've put pictures of the art booths on Facebook and I sold and shipped it in different states. They'll look at the picture and message me that they want the wall hanging in the left corner or something."

SO, DO YOU LIVE ANYWHERE NEAR WHERE KATRINA HIT?
"What I learned the first time I came down here, and I had no concept how much of the city was flooded until then, was that 80% of the city was under water. I didn't really understand that until somebody said "Picture the city you live in (Madison, Wisconsin) that 80% of the city boundary being under water." Anywhere from 3 feet to 18 feet. In that aspect,I was able to really see and understand how much of their city was really hit. And the fact that it wasn't that the water just came in and left, it sat, because New Orleans is like a bowl, for weeks. So that's where the damage really happened, was sitting water for that long. My house (previously owned) didn't flood. It came up to the step. And the only reason was that my block and a few blocks around my house, sits just enough on this little ridge, just enough so that the water only came to the top of the steps.
I'm right in the middle of the city, I'm 3 blocks off the street car line. 
2 blocks away my friend was under water and she couldn't get in her house for 8 months and she's only a few blocks away. She was living a little outside the city and coming in to work on her house every day. She had to rip out sheetrock and all. She had about 3 feet of water, I believe." 

DO YOU STILL SEE DAMAGE AROUND THE AREA?
"Definitely. It's crazy, but they are rapidly fixing up houses right now. It's getting further and far between where you see it like that. Certainly, when I came here two years after the storm...I mean, how much work has been done in those years is unbelievable. It almost doesn't see like the same city." 

DO YOU THINK THERE HAS BEEN PROGRESS AND IMPROVEMENT IN NEW ORLEANS SINCE THE STORM?
"It's hard for me to really gauge that since I wasn't living here then. But things that I DO hear, is that the school system they've improved. And it's cleaned up tons of housing that was dilapidated anyway. That has changed. They're building a world renowned research center, VA clinic and all that in the downtown area and that's been being built over the last couple of years. I think that's changing things tremendously because the whole area is bringing in a lot of professional jobs and people. The rent and housing has gone up. You're bringing in thousands of people to work in these clinics and they need homes. So that's been a fast track to fixing things up."

BEING A RESIDENT OF NEW ORLEANS, AND OBVIOUSLY, MARDI GRAS IS GETTING READY TO TAKE PLACE, WHAT'S THAT LIKE AS A LOCAL?
"When I first moved here, the week that I moved here, was the start of Mardi Gras. I was blown away cause I'd never seen anything like it. I worked downtown where a lot of the parades are. And there was this smell! I went into work and was like " What is that smell outside?" My co-worker said "Well, like my Grandma used to say; it smells like sin." (Laughter) I've never forgotten it. It was my first year and it totally does smell like sin outside. So that's kind of a little phrase that I think of at Mardi Gras. It kind of encapsulates it all."

WHEN I WAS THERE, IT WAS JANUARY, NOT EVEN MARDI GRAS YET, AND IT WAS PACKED. I CAN ONLY IMAGINE HOW CROWDED IT MUST GET! DOES THAT ANNOY PEOPLE THAT LIVE THERE OR DO THEY WELCOME IT? I MEAN, IT'S A HUGE FINANCIAL BOOST TO THEIR ECONOMY I'D IMAGINE.
"I would say there's a rally small percentage of people that don't care for it. They (the ones that don't like it) actually go out of town. Because all the kids have off the week of Mardi Gras, so a lot of the families may go on vacation, skiing and stuff like that, I've heard. 
The thing that's amazing; It does get crowded, but when you go to a parade, there's just as many locals there as there is tourists. It's so mixed. When you said that your site is "One, Unified" (and what it meant), that's what's kind of cool about it. There are so many tourists, but there are so many locals that every year think it's the most awesome thing, as if they're seeing it for the first time. That's the thing that's so amazing. You can go to a parade and there may be three others parades going on in the city at the same time and it's packed, it's rows deep. And I'm like "Where are all these people from? There's so many people here and there's other parades going on as well, that there's just as many people at!" 
You cannot catch a cab. I had some cousins come down one year for Mardi Gras and I took them out, not even Mardi Gras day, a few days prior, and you can't catch a cab. It is packed." 

WHAT'S THE CRAZIEST THING YOU'VE SEEN THERE DURING MARDI GRAS?
"Probably Mardi Gras day in the quarter. We typically go early, like 9:30 in the morning, and it's crowded but you can still move around. Just the costumes! You could sit and people watch and hours could go by and you think it's 10 minutes, just cause of the costumes that people come up with. I don't know if there's any one specific moment. To me it's just the whole thing. It's hard to describe. To be honest, we leave the French Quarter on Mardi Gras day by 3:00 in the afternoon 'cause it's getting jam packed where you can hardly move. I never even stayed down there at night time on that day." 

IT REMINDS ME OF OUR MUMMER'S DAY PARADE, THOUGH IT DOESN'T GET QUITE THAT UNRULY. YOU DON'T TYPICALLY SEE ANYONE PULLING UP THEIR TOPS AT A MUMMERS DAY PARADE. (Laughter)
"You know what, this is actually a good thing (to share with your readers):
On Bourbon Street you certainly see a lot of that but at the parades, it's very, very family friendly. I was at a parade a couple of years ago. It was a day parade and, you know, of course there's people that are absolutely loaded around there. And this woman pulled her shirt up and the police came and got her. She was a tourist and they were like "You know what? This isn't what this is. This is a neighborhood. There's kids all around." She was crying. I don't know what wound up happening. They took her to their car. I don't know if they gave her a ticket, or what they ended up doing. My cousin, from out of town, couldn't believe they "arrested her" or whatever. But people don't do that at the parades, cause it is family friendly. I mean people are drinking but it's very family friendly. Now, going down Bourbon Street is a totally different story." 

MENTIONING THE POLICE; DO THEY HAVE A HARD TIME HARNESSING PEOPLE? 
"I would say it's almost organized chaos. I think every police officer in the city has to be on duty during Mardi Gras. They also call in the state police, just so there's police presence. But what's amazing is that the energy is so happy. There may be pick-pockets here and there. But I think the police just, with their presence, and there's certainly people that are drunk, but it never seems to get out of control. It's such a happy time that people are happy drunks and in a happy mood that it never seems to (get out of hand). I'm sure there's some arrests for public drunkenness. I've never been around, at any parade I've been at, or really even heard of anything horrible happening. It's so different from anything that I've ever experienced. It's just fun."