So I survived Gasparilla. Yeah, it was billed as a Mardi Gras beads-and-boobs style parade, but it was mostly beads. Not a single boob! I feel so cheated. Apparently that’s more the thing for the Gasparilla night party, which happens in two weeks.
But there were thousands of beads. Cops would pick them up off the street and give them to parade-watchers if the people from the “krewes” (on the floats) couldn’t throw them far enough. Some cops were smoking cigars. What a change in attitude from Victoria! Though — Jeff tells me — Tampa cops aren’t typically known for their sunny disposition, either.
And the drinking. The public drinking. I’ve never seen so many people drunk in public! Practically everyone had a drink in their hand. Or two. Being that we were rolling a keg down the street in a shopping cart, the group I was with didn’t have a problem. 🙂 Other highlights include corkscrew fries — which were created by a guy with a Black and Decker and a wood drill-bit. A little greasy, but the best thing in the world when you’re drunk out of your tree.
The parade lasted from around 2:30pm til 5, after which we headed to another house party. From there, we went for dinner at a Thai restaurant, back to the second house party, to a bar to see a live band, to another bar, then back to the second house one last time, then took a cab back to the first house where I crashed in a chair, around five in the morning. A ton of fun, but man, I need to drink less next time. The hungover drive home the next afternoon was not fun. No pictures for you tonight, because stupid me forgot the card reader at work, but soon. 🙂
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