On Surviving an Absinth Hangover and Bribing a Bouncer

Saturday, October 24th

Oh, it's bad. It's so bad. We both blame the absinth for the shape we're in when we wake up. We're both up and down a few times, getting sick, as one does, and I eventually drag myself into the shower where I remain for an hour before I finally feel better. I probably would have stayed in the Warm Wet Place longer if not for the noxious gas that forms in the steam when it's mixed with the shampoo and conditioner provided in these New Orleans Hilton properties. I don't know what they're putting in those bottles but you have a limited amount of time once you put that stuff in your hair to get it out and get out of that shower before your eyes start burning and you start sneezing to high heaven. Maybe that's just Jess and I being sensitive to whatever's in these shampoos and conditioners, or maybe it's some ploy by the New Orleans Hilton team to get people in and out of the showers in a hurry to save on water or something. I don't know, but either way, I lingered too long in the mustard-gas steam of the shower and as soon as I turned the water off I had to open the door and breath some fresh air because my eyes and lungs were burning. 

When I finally recovered, Jess was still sleeping so I set up at the desk and did some writing, so much writing, my hand hurt so bad, but I got everything caught up. Around 1pm I got dressed and took one of the $20 food credits downstairs to see about getting some food from the Suite Shop. The freezer and fridge are empty, but I manage to find 2 Check Boyardee ravioli's and 2 cup ramens. Given the prices at the hotel Jess works at, I figure they're all gonna be about $5 each, but I go up to the front to ask and make sure I'm not over or underspending my $20. The woman at the desk asked her departing coworker how much the goods were and she was like "Probably $5" and the woman was like "$5???" So she must be new. She checks the chart they keep at the desk and they're all $4, so I still have $4 left. I ask about the bag of Chex Mix and she tries to check the list but she's like "What is the name of this? What is this listed under?" And I get it, Chex Mix probably got lumped in with some other thing and you have to figure out what subcategory it's been put in with, like chips or crackers. She does eventually discover that it's $3 and I decide that's perfect so I grab those and head back upstairs. Jess is up at last, Columbo on the TV, and we eat the two Chef Boyardee's and one of the ramen's and we feel much better with some solid food in us. 

We'd had an idea of going to City Park during the day but neither of us were feeling up to anything so we decide to just relax a little bit, take Rest Day. Well, a half Rest Day, as we had the parade in the evening. So, we hung around the hotel room, watching Columbo, eating Chex Mix and those chocolate pumpkins we still had from ALDI, and doing some light organizing and repacking after the slight chaos we'd left the room in the night before. We started getting for real hungry around 4pm so we decided to pick up some Chinese food. Once again, just what one is in New Orleans for. We decided on a place called Golden Wall on Canel street and ordered some vegetable lo mien, kung po chicken, fried rice, and egg rolls. We arrived at the restaurant a little early and got to enjoy the sights of a classic Chinese food place. You know the kind, the yellowed signs with pictures of the food they sell, ripped faux-leather couches, one customer in the entire place who's essentially camped out at one of the tables eating and doing some kind of work. That's how you know you're gonna get the good stuff. 

Food in hand, we take a walk along Canal street to plan, once again, where we wanna set up and what it's looking like in person after plotting the thing only on the map. We decide the spot we originally picked is still the ideal spot, but now we're sure, so we head back to the hotel. In the elevator we run into a couple and we talk about going to the parade and they tell us we're gonna have such a fun time, and we sure hope so! Back in the room, Columbo returns to the TV and we feast on our bounty! We have to physically stop ourselves from eating everything and making ourselves sick because we have plans for the evening and we can't risk our stomachs being upset while we're camped out on the side of the road for several hours. Having feasted, we lie down and get some napping in before 5:30pm when we start getting into our costumes for the Krewe of Boo parade. We're ready in good time and we're out the door by 5:45pm to get into position for the 6pm start of the parade. The parade starts a good distance from where we're setting up though, so we have plenty of time to get into position before the parade reaches us. 

The corner we'd selected is kinda busy, so we go up a little ways and find a nice spot by a tree where a family has set up. The family is looking for someone else in their part and ask if they can use my phone to call them and I say sure and I put the number in and put the phone on speaker phone (cause you never hand a stranger your phone) and the other person answered and told them they were set up by the casino. The family said they didn't wanna move and if everyone was settled where they were then they would all just meet up after the parade. The person on the phone, however, just kept talking? Kept talking about where they were and what should they do and where should they all meet and one of the women in front of me just hung up on her aha! Just made an executive decision, said we've come to an agreement, calls over. Ya love to see it. 

The sun set as we were standing and it seems like the parade got a late start, which is usual for every parade honestly, so we just people watched and looked at people's costumes. It was fascinating how many women were dressed up nice and how many men were just... not. Like sir, it's a Halloween event and your girlfriend/wife/partner is all dressed up and the best you could do was throw on a t-shirt with a character's face on it? So embarrassing. Put some effort in you losers. But anyway, we saw a lot of Ghostface's, pretty classic, and a lot of children as Minions, and we really liked the group costumes, like a family dressed as all the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and a crew dressed as a hot dog and all the condiments! Some kids on bikes ride up and down the parade route doing tricks also, which is funny and entertaining, until 7pm when the parade finally reached Canal street! 

The beginning of the parade was pretty low-key, a little lame even, with just some cars pulling trailers and a few dance groups, but no floats and no throws. Half-hour or so in we finally get to the real stuff with a float carrying Christopher Rice for the 50th Anniversary of Interview with the Vampire! He is... so out of it up there on the float aha! He has cups to throw and instead of throwing them he just kept waving them at the crowd? No idea why but it cracked us up, like sure man, tease the crowd, whatever you wanna do! This float is followed by the officiall 50th anniversary double-decker float where Jess and I both catch cups! We're very excited about it, but little did we know how many of these cups would be EVERYWHERE by the end of the night! The parade is in full swing by now, with beads and gumbo mix and cups and coins being thrown from every float as it passes. Lots of dance teams too, and there's a whole crew of folks on electric lazy boy chairs and all of them were decorated so nicely! The crowd around us kept inching further and further into the street so when a marching band came around they had to be literally corralled back with rakes and those inflatable noise whacker things! Very enthusiastic folks around us!

The parade kept stopping and starting, which is apparently normal for these things, as tractors break down or floats get jammed on turns or any number of things happen and it worked out that usually the corner Jess and I hadn't gone to did end up being where the floats doing throws ended up paused, but it did work out that the float handing out full-size Monster Juice cans stopped right in front of us and we got 3 cans! That was also, however, the place where they decided to let out the water from their coolers and the street in front of us was flooded with water. That cleared a pretty wide space around us as no one wanted to get their feet wet, but Jess and I were both in boot so we were all good! Elbow room, excellent! We didn't end up staying there for too much longer though, as I wanted to see the IWTV float again as it passed on the other side of Canal street so we cross the street and though we intended to cross back over we end up getting comfortable by a tree on the other side and we actually catch more throws standing there for the last 40-ish minutes of the parade than we did during the first hour and a half or so that we spent on the other side!

At last, the last float passes by and, as expected, most people move over to the other side of the street to catch more throws while Jess and I check the empty grounds for forgotten throws and find SO many moonpies! We also find a bag to hold all our throws, as our purse is insufficient! Throws in hand and parade fun having been had, it's time to hit the afterparty! We walk down St. Peters, which we'd positioned ourself by for ease of access to the route towards Generations Hall where the party is happening. Trash is EVERYWHERE as we walk, it's genuinely insane! The cleaning fees for hosting parades must be crazy! But we end up going down a parallel street to the one the parade is continuing on so we can hear the hoots and hollers but the trash dissipates as we go continue onwards through what seems like a street full of clubs and late-night bars. Lots of folks in costumes getting drinks and heading into events, and we're one of those people too this time! We get to Generation Hall and find the line to get in. Bags need to be checked and we'd forgotten that outside food and drink isn't allowed, but most of our throws are, in fact, food and drinks. We offer the bouncer whatever he wants from the bag and he accepts our offering of two moonpies and just lets us through! Hooray! It would have been a 20 minute walk back to the hotel otherwise! We're actually so excited he let us though, genuine highlight of the evening actually! Hope he really enjoyed those moonpies!

The entrance leads to an outdoor area, where some people are taking a smoke break, and then the doors inside lead to the first of three large rooms: The Live Band Room! The bang, Paper Crash, is in the middle of Rick Rolling the audience as we enter, which is a fantastic start to the evening! First things first, we find a bathroom, which has basically no line somehow, and then we check out the other two rooms. The second room is just a dance floor and a long bar, and the third room is the Live DJ room with dancers on platforms! Neither of us are feeling up to any drinks, having had our fill the night before, so we crack open one of our Monster Juice's (you know, exactly the reason these places don't want to let in outside drinks, because then you won't buy anything from them) and we pass that back and forth. We peruse both rooms but we like the concert vibes of the first room best, so we head back to the live band. The band is so good, great musicians, great singers, and, perhaps most importantly, great presence on the stage! Really good energy from the whole team. And such a variety of instruments! Guitars and bases and keytars and saxophones and horns! 

Jess and I enjoy the show from beside a small gate that separates the DJ/tech guy from the rest of the place and we stash our throws under the gate so we can dance and sing and make merry while still keeping something of an eye on our things. After a good while the band takes a break and the DJ/tech guy puts on some songs and projects the music videos on the stage, including "Thriller", some Taylor Swift and the Backstreet Boys and even Dolly Parton's "9 to 5", which got cut off accidentally by the DJ at one point and he was so apologetic to the disappointed crowd as he put the song back on from the beginning. He did not mean to disrespect Dolly in this way, it was an accident! The band returns after about 9 or 10 preloaded songs and Jess and I listen for a little while longer before returning to the bathroom, where the line has become, as expected, totally insane. It moves quick enough though, and everyone's chatting as it moves so it's not a bad wait. When the band plays "Living on a Prayer" the entire room broke out into the chorus, even the people in the stalls, and that was good stuff. That's the true concert experience: Screaming song lyrics while on the can. 

Once out we decide to see if anything new is happening in any of the other two rooms and end up finding a table with chairs in the Live DJ room so we set up there, rest our feet, and enjoy the remixes the DJ is putting together and the dancers doing their thing while admiring the costumes around us. The Wizard of Oz crew is fun, they looked good, and we spot someone dressed as Bloom from Winx Club! I wonder if that was a solo outfit or if she had friends we didn't see dressed as some of the other Winx girls. After the DJ played Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" we decided it was probably time to call it a night. Heading back to the front we watched the band sing "Mr. Brightside" for a minute, took some final photos, and then headed outside. LOTS more people congregating out there for smoke breaks and fresh air! We passed them all by and began the 20 minute walk back to our hotel, up through the street we'd walked down which was now even busier than before, as the night was just getting started for most folks at 11:45pm.  

We knew when we'd returned to the street the parade had happened on not just from memory but from the trash that was still everywhere. Guess it doesn't get cleaned up until morning or something. We did, on the walk back, briefly make a search for somewhere still open that sold beignets, as I'd remembered jus then that we never got any, but we couldn't find anything nearby that was open and we're weren't looking to wander too far at midnight so we decide to just get extra beignets the next day and head back to the hotel. Back there we take some photos of our lovely throws specifically so I can remember everything we got so I could tell people when we returned as people seemed interested in what throws we would end up getting! We're up until about 1am, eating more of the Chinese food that was waiting for us and watching Columbo and getting ourselves repacked as the following day we're set to check out and head back to the Homewood Suites. The Homewood wasn't available for the Friday and Saturday nights at the team member rate, so we'd had to move for two days, but we didn't mind! For $45 a night, we'll go wherever we gotta go! We never unpack that much anyway so it's really no trouble to get ourselves organized to move from one place to another. So, in a reasonable amount of time, we're all packed up, with our throws divided between now two brown bags of goodies, and we're ready for what we would call a well-deserved rest, despite the fact that our day started officially around, like, 1pm. But, that's what we get for downing absinth shots, and we were ready for the parade and after party, and that's what mattered! At least, to us! 

The Queen is Giving a Ball

Friday, October 23rd

It's the day of the ball! The most expensive event of this trip! But, it's not until later in the evening, so we made plans to visit the Garden District during the day. No real intense plans, I just wanted to wander around and see some of the stuff associated with Interview with the Vampire and Mayfair Witches and just have a look about the district. I'm up at 9am, as per usual, to get yogurts and juice (we never got around to eating yesterday's muffins so I didn't get more). Jess is still snoozing when I get back so I put on Scoobtober and watch the New Orleans episode that's playing! That's the second time a New Orleans Scooby-Doo episode has aired on the TV! What're the odds?

Jess gets up around 10:10am and we eat and start getting ready, leisurely as usual, but we're all packed up and ready to go just a few minutes passed the 11am checkout time. We stop in the lobby to grab a coffee each as I'd forgotten to get some at breakfast and settle down there for a bit while Jess messages our next hotel to see if they hold luggage. The hotel doesn't get back to us in the 20 or so minutes we're having about for and we decide to just head on over and ask in person, deciding if they don't we can just come back to this hotel and ask if they'll hold our luggage. The walk is only 5 minutes, maybe less, it wouldn't kill us to walk it back with our two suitcases and one bag of goodies.

At the next hotel the main door is locked at all times so you have to use a call button to get in, but someone with a key is going in before us so we follow them and then have to take an elevator to the 11th floor cause that's where the lobby is? We work out eventually that the other floors are all the parking garage, which probably gets the hotel a lot of business as parking that close to the French Quarter seems hard to find. At the desk they tell us they do hold luggage so Jess rolls the suitcases in and gets them tagged and then we're off on our merry way! We go up the street just a tick as we're getting the 12 today and that doesn't pick up on Canel street like the 47 and 48. A small crowd is already waiting there and after we join the crowd only gets larger. Getting busier and busier as the parade weekend creeps closer! The streetcar ran a little late, as it does, but we could see why this time as it was pretty full in there already! The driver did a commendable job getting everyone onto the car, making everyone move all the way to the back to fill in all the available space. That did mean, however, that there was no space come the next stop and there was an identical size crowd waiting there for the 12 too. The driver just had to tell em all to wait for the next one and drive on, waiting for people on the streetcar to get off and clear some room before she could start letting people on again. Here and there people did get off, so the car could have fit some people at some stops if people would move down as people got off, but they didn't so the driver just waited until a good amount were gone before stopping and picking up more folks. There was also the issue of the back door not opening so folks had to push their way to the front to get off and good lord the amount of people in the aisle who just weren't paying attention to people coming up behind them. The car is not picking up more people, so if it's stopped it's because someone is getting off, and as the back door is broken that means someone is coming up the aisle. This isn't complicated folks. 

But no matter, we were lucky ducklings who happened to be at the right stop at the right time and we were able to ride that first streetcar all the way to Eight and Charles in the Garden District! That stop is, incredibly, right in front of the house we're going to later that evening for the Labyrinth Ball! We can see them setting up! What're the odds! So, now we, once again, know where we're going later on, which has happened to us multiple times this trip! Anyway, that stop also put us just one block from the Soria-Creel House, also known as the Mayfair Witches House! Of course, I needed pictures in front of it, so we walked the quick but lovely block up and snapped some photos and wondered about the bicycle wheel nailed to a tree and also saw a crow or raven of some kind land beside us! Spooky! No, I had gamed out in my mind the day before that the best route to see all the things I wanted to see was to hit the Mayfair Witch House, then Lafayette Cemetery, then Anne Rice's Second Home, then finish at Magazine Street where we'd get food and drinks at The Vintage. For some reason, however, I confused myself, and we ended up going from the Mayfair Witch House all the way to Anne Rice's Second Home. I don't know how I got myself confused about where we were going, but it was so nice walking about the place that I didn't mind us taking in more of the streets and scenes doing things the long way. 

After Anne Rice's Second Home, which is semi-concealed with mesh on the fencing by the current owners who likely experience lots of tourists such as myself coming for photos, we passed a gas station and we decided to pick up an energy drink and use the bathroom before continuing the journey back up to Lafayette Cemetery Number 1. Despite going a different route to see more of the houses and whatnot we end up passing the Mayfair Witches House again so naturally we take more pictures, and then the cemetery comes into view. It's literally RIGHT there near the Mayfair Witches House, not sure how I got confused about where we were originally set to go next but I must have just not been looking at anything besides the house the first time aha! 

I knew going in that Lafayette Cemetery was closed, and has been so for a good while, for refurbishment, but like the Ursuline Convent I just wanted to see it from the outside. Google Maps took issue with that however and kept trying to remove that location from my route? Like it told me if I didn't select a button to say I still wanted to go it was going to remove that stop from my route and just send us to the next one? What a weird feature. But we don't need the map in the end because it's RIGHT there. It's basically a giant square in the middle of the Garden District, just plopped right in there, with 4 points of entrance, one on every side, all currently locked tight. The walls of the cemetery are just that, walls, but the entrance-ways are gates, so we took a turn around the place to get a look at the cemetery from every gate to get every possible angle. We did walk passed one without looking in and then turn around to go back because an employee of some kind was in the middle of locking the gate and we didn't want her to see us looking in because... Well I don't know actually, because she might have thought we didn't know it was closed and try to tell us we can't go in or something? We're just awkward like that, I can't explain every single thing we do. 

On the final side there's a little table set up and a tour guide greeting people who are coming for some Garden District and Cemetery Tour and I wonder if they get access to the graveyard or if they just have to do the tour from the outside currently, but I don't bother to ask as I'm not interested in any tours and we keep moving, taking a few turns around the cemetery before deciding it's time for food and Magazine street. Google Maps is DEEPLY confused about where we are, but we've got a pretty good sense of where to go so we set off and let the app catch up with us when it figures itself out. The streets are so lovely, but they reminded both of us so much of Minnesota ave in Deland. I suppose there's not really that much difference between the people who were building stately homes in Louisiana and the people building the same in Florida! 

Magazine street is hopping, as expected, since it's a Friday leading up to a parade weekend, and we pop into an artist co-op on our journey. Lots of interesting things, some actually quite neat stuff, like the Witchy Stuff right at the front, but also, as usual, a lot of stuff that's fun to look at but not really worth anyone buying. At least, that's what I think. I think a lot of artists are making art that would do well in an exhibit or showcase, but they're not really being made with customers in mind. But still, neat to look at, and Jess did actually find something she wanted to purchase, an ornament to get as a gift for her boyfriend, Chris, so ya! A purchase has been made! Woo! After a few turns about and a look at the shop cat who is being showered in attention by a little girl, we're off on the hunt for The Vintage! And we find it! 

The place is jumping, but we find a two-person window seat right away, go us, and I go up to the front to put in our order, as there's no table service. The barista taking my order is nice, but boy I could NOT understand anything coming out of his mouth. My hearing is a little lousy after years working in front of loud, industrial washing machines and there was pretty loud music playing in the place and the guy's mouth didn't move that much when he spoke so I probably annoyed him a little bit asking him to repeat himself, but I did say my hearing wasn't great and he did not do anything to accommodate that so it's kinda on him if he didn't like repeating everything. I do eventually manage to order the Three Sisters Panini with truffle fries (which I didn't know cost more but I like truffle so it was worth the extra dollar or 2), the Fancy Beignet Flight (with my three choices being everything but the Matcha flavor, so just the Smores, the Mud Cup, and the Raspberry), and their cafe au lait, as they were out of the cafe au lait with chicory that we'd wanted to try. 

I bring back our Table Card, which is a picture of Hannah Montana as all the Table Cards are images of famous people?? and we wait for our food. We do our usual chit-chatting and also our usual judging of the people around us, as we're sitting net to a weirdly loud group of people about our age who we can't really judge too much for being enthusiastic and having fun but yeah they were kinda annoying and it was nicer when they left just as our food arrived. Everything was so good! Except maybe the cafe au lait which, compared to the one we had the other day, was just ok. As we're eating people keep poking their heads in, looking around, and leaving. I don't know if it's just to say they've seen the place, which seems to be some kind of staple to visit in the area, or if they're just looking to see if it's busy before deciding to go elsewhere, but it was good people watching to see folks pop in, do a turn, and walk out. 

That was everything on my list, so one we finish eating we're headed back to Eight and Charles to catch the streetcar and return to our hotel so we can get ready for the ball! Check-in for the hotel is 4pm and it was about 2:45pm so we figured we'd be arriving at the hotel just in time! We take a new street up to Eight and Charles, a street with a lot of lovely one-story houses which was rather different from all the other streets, and arrive at the streetcar pickup spot basically just as the streetcar was arriving and once again just barely get on as the last people who can be picked up for a while until some folks get off. The driver wondered out loud why it was so busy and a passenger told her it was Krewe of Boo coming up and she was like "AH! Ok, yeah, that explains it", confirming for me that these crowds are about the parade weekend and aren't just usual weekend numbers for New Orleans. The streetcar deposits us that nice 4-5 minute walk from our hotel and Jess noticed when we were leaving in the morning that the garage door is always open so we just enter through there and head up to the lobby to see about checking in. 

There's a huge line though, so we just set up at one of the tables and drink the cafe au lait we're still working on and wait for it to disperse before Jess goes up to see if our room is ready. The woman working the front is so nice, and also so flustered to explain that the hotel is overbooked on Double Queens because of some fraternity event happening and asks if we could stay in a King room instead. Jess and I both get it, that the team member staying on the cheapo team member rate is the guest that gets bumped and lodged in the problem rooms and whatnot, so we're totally cool with it and she seems so relieved to have sorted out at least one of the overbooking issues with people who don't mind sharing one King bed for two nights. So, she gets our keys and gives us our food and beverage credits (which Jess gets as a Gold Member at hotels that don't have a free breakfast offered) and she almost forgets to get our luggage and we have a laugh about that as we go to the storage room and grab our stuff. Our room is on the 14th floor so up we go! Actually down we go, because we got into the one elevator that is having issues with the key reader which is necessary to go up to the guest-level floors so we go down, pick up some people at the bottom level, and then head back up to 11 to switch elevators for one that actually takes us upstairs and to our room! It's an ok room, nothing special, but it has a microwave so that's nice. It also has the craziest looking AC/Heating unit I've ever seen, but it mostly did the job.

The live TV feature just... doesn't work in the room, but this hotel has TV's with the apps on them so we just pull up PlutoTV and put on the Addams Family channel! Jess takes a shower while I do some writing and when she gets our she changes the TV to the Columbo channel as she debates which dress she's going to wear to the ball. Both dresses were selected by Jess and she couldn't choose between them so I said she could bring both of them and I'd just wear whichever one she decided not to go with, but it was crunch time now and she had to finally make a decision. She putters and debates and decides on the silver dress. She puts it on and... nope, she actually wants the pink one, she's sure now, so she puts on the pink one and I can now do my hair and makeup as I officially know which outfit I'll be wearing. 

We're ready and headed out the door to catch our Lyft outside the hotel at 6:20pm, as we decided we didn't want to deal with the streetcar on the way in while we want our outfits to look nice and want to arrive on time. We get quite a few looks standing on the sidewalk in our costumes, but not unkind looks as people certainly expect to see that kind of thing in New Orleans. Our Lyft driver arrives, literally just stops in the middle of the street and lets himself get honked at as we verify he's ours and climb in. He does not say a single work to us aha! Not one, man just drives the car and that's it, and yeah, ok, whatever works man, just get us where we're going. And we do get where we're going! There's already a line forming outside the place and we join the queue, peaking in through the gates to see the VIP's already being let in and looking at all the cool decorations while also looking at all the costumes people around us are wearing. There's dragons and monarchs and fairies and knights and sorcerers and a Marie Antoinette with a bloody neck, which doesn't quite fit the theme of "Medieval Reign" but it's close enough and it's a costume, which are required for this event! It says so explicitly on the invitation! 

All along the line there's people taking photos of the manor house and the costumes, some who were just passing by and noticed the event and others who seem to come out every year to get photos of everyone's costumes! We pass that assortment of folk as the line begins to move and we head inside! A woman had already come down the line while it was stationary to scan everyone's tickets and get us wristbanded, which I think is so great cause that meant as soon as gates were open we all just got to go in! At the gate on person checked that everyone entering had a wristband (and costume), another handed everyone a glass of champagne, and a woman in giant wings and a goddess costume welcomed everyone to the ball, doing little bits with folks as they entered, including telling the woman a few people ahead of us "Wow, those tits! Sorry if I read the situation wrong, but WOW, those titties be tittying!" Which got a nice laugh from that woman and everyone around her. She told me she loved my weird face cage, the first of many people across the evening to comment on how cool it looks. 

Inside is so cool! We drink our champagne as we explore, going up to a way that's temporarily blocked at first, the back of the Queen's gazebo where they're setting up still for the opening show, so we have to go back around to where the DJ booth is and from there head towards the left side of the gazebo where there's two bars, one serving a Limoncello drink and a TCH drink, and the other serving Old Fashioneds. We don't care for Old Fashioneds, but we decide we'll head back to get the Limoncello when we finish our champagne. From there we enter the Queen's Labyrinth! And discover a fairytale themed room full of deserts! We grab some cake and meringues, and a mixed absinthe drink from one of the two absinthe bars in the room, and eat and drink those as we check out the rest of the rooms. They're open to explore, but there's clearly spots where performers are going to be later, such as a stage in the Queen's Livery, a confessional booth in the Cathedral, dance cages in The Pit and Pendulum, and a throne in Arachne's Web. By the throne is a bottle of absinthe and tiny cups, so Jess and I pour ourselves a shot, encouraging the person exploring the space behind us to do the same. Might as well, right! We toss the little plastic shot cups but hold onto our purple champagne cups to use for the rest of the evening, as those ones feel special to us, and we get a drink at the Pitt and Pendulum bar before heading out of the labyrinth to watch the opening show we can hear starting. 

There's a flock of dancers dressed as ravens who do a number down the dance floor/aisle to the Queen's Gazebo before the emcee, a jester, announces the arrival of a three-headed Raven God, who does a dance number, and then there's these fire dancers and the one closest to us almost knocked her fire-headband off and had to try and get it stable on her head while performing with the fire sword and boy was that something to see! Finally the jester gave a little speach before welcoming the Queen and her entourage, who ascend to the gazebo. The queen is played by someone much younger than I expected, but I suppose the event if supposed to have a youthful energy. She has some lovely ginger hair though, and it didn't look like a wig! As we're watching the people in front of us have taken a seat at the table there, only for the people who actually reserved that table to show up and tell them to beat it. Like, folks, there's a BIG sign that says RESERVED on every table along with the name of who's table it is. No, you can't just sit there for the show. Scoot. So we really got two shows for the price of one, which is always fun. 

The shows ends, and the Labyrinth is officially open! Hurrah! We take a peak inside the garden labyrinth and see the actors have gotten into place, but the place is much busier now it's officially open, so we decide to stay out of it for a bit and explore what's going on outside, and get a Limoncello! While perusing we discover that not only is the outdoor labyrinth open, but the manor house is now open too! Cool! We didn't know that was gonna be open to explore! The first room is full of food, but Jess and I aren't hungry as we've eaten a number of the hors d'oeuvres that have been passed around on trays by the staff since the start of the event and the line is huge anyway, so we just take a look and walk through. In the room off the entry room there's a fortune teller and a sign that says you have to have the right token to get your fortune told, and we remember the emcee saying something about the queen and her party giving our tokens for games and such. Past that is a room for photos and to the right is a staircase, which is roped off, and a small parlor where you can see through a window to a room with a stage where a marionette show is happening! We take a seat by the window and drink our drinks and chit-chat a little about how cool everything is! When the show ends we pop into the room and there's a bar there but it's not serving any specialty drinks so we're not interested, as we'd rather try the selected drinks than just order something regular. 

As we're heading back outside to find new drinks and hit the desert room again, two things happen. First, we hear some girl coming out of the indoor bathrooms saying to a friend, in her most horrified voice, "Girl, they're doing COKE in the bathroom!" which made Jess and I chuckle quite a bit because, well, yeah people do that at parties like this, but the sweet, innocent thing sounded so shocked, it was wonderful to overhear. Second, we run into the queen, who says she loves our outfits and hands us two tokens with horse heads on them. She doesn't explain where to do with them or what they do, and we don't ask, we just say thank you and smile and enjoy the fact that we got handed tokens at all! We hit the desert table, get some more treats, then go to the Pit and Pendulum bar for another drink there and we run into the Minotaur performer and decide to ask this horned man in assless-chaps if he knows what we do with the token. It's loud and the guy is wearing a mask, but Jess thinks he says we go to the "room with a bathtub in it", so we figure we need to head back to the manor, stopping to get the TCH drink on the way.

Back at the house we get some strawberries from the food table and end up taking a seat in the parlor by the stairs to do some people watching, having discovered no bathtubs in any rooms and feeling we must have misheard the Minotaur. While there were watch people taking pictures on the staircase, including one woman who's dictating to her friend like "You wanna get a photo of just the titties? That's what they're out there for!" She and her group have someone take their photo together and the woman taking the pics is so funny, posing them and hyping them up, and that group in turn does the same for that girl and her group, who are all dressed in cloaks with dark face paint, and it was all great fun to watch! We also chat with a woman and her husband who are dressed as characters from A Court of Thorns and Roses who both love our outfits and we do the usual drunk-girl thing of showering each other in compliments and whatnot! 

We grab some more strawberries and exit the house, returning to the Labyrinth and while wandering a woman in the queen's entourage comes up to say she LOVES my outfit and gives me a little metal sword! She decides she also loves Jess's outfit, and I think feels it's wrong to give one of us a gift and not the other for some reason, and gives Jess a little sword too! Free souvenirs! Nice!

As we enjoy those little trinkets, a random woman notices our champagne cups, which we still have, are empty, so off we all parade together to the desert room for more drinks! This time we get the pure absinth drink, which is WILD, and we discover a secret macaroon table! Nice! As we're eating our macaroons and having our absinth, we work out that our tokens are for the Queen's Livery (duh) and they go to a woman who's essentially treating guests to some light BDSM play. You give a token, you get brought up onto the little stage to get some light spanking with various instruments while the guests friends, and anyone else about, all hoot and holler and laugh. We watch this little show for a bit before deciding to hit the bathroom for, shockingly, the first time that evening, and decide to go to the house bathroom as that line is shorter. Inside the bathroom is the usual drunk-girls-in-bathrooms behavior, which is somewhat understandable but given how much everyone has paid to be here, it does seem silly for the women present to be spending such an awful lot of their time in the bathroom. You can be drunk girls together in the garden you paid to have access to. I end up forgetting my token in the bathroom stall, but the woman after me brings it out to me while I'm washing my hands which was quite sweet of her to do as she could have just taken it. 

Back to the Livery we continue to watch the insane little show and while we're enjoying watching it, we aren't sure if either of us are quite game to participate but the decision is made for us as a staff member comes in to tell us that they're closing down the labyrinth for the evening. Jess asks what we do with the tokens we have, as in, if the labyrinth is closing is there anything else we can do with them, and the staff member seems confused by the question and a little upset she doesn't have an answer, just telling us that she's sorry, she doesn't know, she was just told to clear the area. We understand and figure if there's nothing else to do with them we'll just keep them as free souvenirs, which works for us! We love little free mementos! Outside the labyrinth we see people with headphones on and know the Silent Disco is starting. We surmise that the close everything down at 10pm and start the silent disco because of some noise ordinances in the Garden District. The silent disco lets them stay in the boundaries of those ordinances while also allowing them to host a late-night event. Smart. Except Jess and I can't participate until we find some headphones and we have no idea where they're being handed out. 

We make a turn around the gazebo and dance floor, looking around, and finally ask someone who directs us to a table between the two primary outdoor bars. The table, however, does not currently have any headphones. Seems they were expecting more people to leave early than actually did and they don't have enough headphones for everyone. The guy handing them out tells us people will be leaving them about or bringing them back and we say we're fine with waiting and grab some of the pralines that are on the table. A woman comes back with two sets of headphones to return and Jess and I let a man who was waiting before us and a woman who arrived after us but was waiting to get a second pair of headphones for her friend take them because we're in no hurry! Some more people join us at the table as the guy disappears to check tables and see if he can find any abandoned headphones, and he does! He finds five! Everyone around us immediately wants them but he insists that Jess and I have been waiting the longest and gives them to us first! Nice! 

The headphones have three settings for three DJ's and all of them are playing just the worst music aha! It's all club beats and club beat remixes but no, like, songs, possibly to discourage people from singing along out loud and breaking the noise ordinance? I dunno, but Jess and I flip through them and decide we like the Green setting best, which features what can only be described as Club Penguin music. We do some dancing on the dance floor before Jess decides she wants another drink, but both the specialty bars are closed, but in the top right corner there's just a regular open bar so we go there and order some fruity drinks after asking the bartender her opinion on what to make. Mine is fruitier than Jess's but both do the trick as we return to the dance floor. One of the DJ's plays Taylor Swift's Love Story as his final song and a bunch of us near the gazebo just have a ball of a time singing along until it ends and the music cuts out. Two of the three DJ's just cut their music when the disco time was over, but the Green DJ kept playing the music and just got onto the mic to say "I'm not gonna stop the music, but they're telling me you need to return the headphones now. Yeah, I know, write your senators about it or whatever." which Jess and I found quite funny. He does, eventually, cut the music and we hand our headphones in and stand at a table to finish our drinks while the staff whirl about us to get a start on clean-up. 

We hit the outdoor bathroom, where some guy is in one of the stalls actively on the phone with someone while peeing, which I always think is bizarre but whatever, I guess the person on the other end can end the call if it peeves them. As we're exiting we stop to get a few more pictures of the house and we end up chatting with a couple about the movie versions of Rogers and Hammerstein's Cinderella on account of Jess's double-coned hat, which we saw a couple other people wearing at the party! Not the same one as her, but we always made a point to bond with the other person wearing one when they were spotted. While talking with them I do end up dropping Jess's phone, whoops, and cracking the protector screen, but she said she needed to change it anyway and it's not like the phone itself was damaged so it's whatever.  

When we're finally ready to go we decide we're fine just taking the streetcar back, save us $14, and we cross the street to the Eighth and Charles stop. There we run into a woman we'd briefly spoken to during the ball and we have a lovely chat as we wait for the streetcar and she waits for her Uber. It was nice to have someone else there to talk to so we weren't just standing alone at a streetcar stop at midnight. Her Uber arrives just before our streetcar and despite being full of so much alcohol, Jess and I are quite lucid getting on, scanning our passes, and talking about Jekyll and Hyde for some reason all the way to our stop a few minutes from our hotel! There we put on Columbo (the episode Short Fuse with Roddy McDowall was on!), and get ready for bed so fast. We're entirely satisfied with our fun-filled evening, but we're also beat, drunk, and ready for bed!