Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler

28 February 2017

Tree in New Orleans . . . heavy with Mardi Gras beads

 I grew up with no real knowledge of this holiday . . . we weren't from Louisiana . . . not French . . . certainly not Catholic . . . but I knew what Ash Wednesday was from lessons in Sunday School. Since I grew up with no clear religious denomination, even this holiday didn't hold much water . . . but Easter, which comes 40 days after Ash Wednesday was always significant.

But it's not Ash Wednesday . . . 

. . . and it's not yet Easter!

It's Fat Tuesday! The day before Ash Wednesday . . . Mardi Gras Day . . . Shrove Day . . . a day when people eat and drink all they want . . . of everything and anything . . . because tomorrow is the beginning of a long fasting period for Christians!

So, I mentioned this when I wrote about the Epiphany . . . remember? The Feast of the Epiphany? Really?? The Three Kings?! The Wise Men that set out to find the Christ Child?! Yeah, those guys.

 The origins of this celebration are really unclear . . . centuries old beliefs steeped in tradition in many countries around the world. In the U.S. the revelry typically begins on January 6th with parties passed from household to household until the apex on Fat Tuesday.

Mardi Gras arrived in North America as a French Catholic tradition with the Le Moyne Brothers in the late 17th century; King Louis XIV sent them to defend France's claim on the territory of Louisiane, which included what are now the states of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and part of east Texas. It's a really long story, but they sort of pounced on a spot about 60 miles south of what is now New Orleans . . . right on the banks of the Mighty Mississippi . . . called the place Point du Mardi Gras . . . translated Mardi Gras Point. In 1703, French Settlers established the first organized Mardi Gras tradition in an area that would eventually become Mobile. New Orleans didn't have their first official celebration until 1837.

I went to New Orleans for Mardi Gras . . . once . . . way back in the 80's . . . it was crazy even then!

We're all over the place here, aren't we?!

Anyway, one of my favorite things about the Mardi Gras season: King Cake! When I first moved to Louisiana with your grandfather I discovered so many new delicacies . . . crawfish, Doberge (they call it Dobosh down there) cake, red beans & rice, gumbo, etouffee, jambalaya, fried gator tail . . . good grief those people can cook!!! Got my first taste of King Cake in 1991 . . . whoa! In reality, it's a giant cinnamon roll . . . coated with a sweet icing . . . sprinkled with colored sugar (green, yellow, and purple of course). There's a tiny plastic baby hidden inside, and the tradition is, whoever gets the baby in their slice has to hold the next party.

And no, it doesn't LOOK like a regular cake . . . 

. . . and then I discovered they also fill them with all sorts of deliciousness: cream cheese, fruit, chocolate, praline!

Ask any Cajun which bakery is their favorite, and you'll get a number of answers! A place called Gambinos is one of the oldest . . . I've had King Cakes from there . . . Dobosh too . . . I'd say they rate pretty high on my scale!

“Let the good times roll!”

 

Fashion in the 80's

27 February 2017

Your Auntie M was on the cutting edge of fashion in the 80's . . . cut up jeans, shredded t-shirts, bandanas tied in strategic places, wild hair . . . whatever new look came out, she was on it! She even wore what looked like a Samurai outfit one time . . . not even kidding! I only WISH I had a picture of that!!

Me . . . I was the nerd! Khaki pants or jeans . . . button downs or Polo shirts . . . concert t-shirts and bandanas . . . an occasional {{{gasp}}} floral skirt and sweater. You had to double the Polo shirts though . . . the collar of the one underneath worn popped up, the collar of the one worn on top turned down!

I have no idea why the "shooter" sunglasses were necessary

Either Brandy thought I was cool . . . or weird . . . not really sure what THAT look is about!

Here's a short list of some other the other fashion items that were HOT in the 80's:

• Fanny Packs (little purses you wore belted around your waist)
• Slogan T-Shirts (not sure these have really gone out of style)
• Jordache Jeans (the tighter, the better)
• Triple Fat Goose Jackets (filled with so much down you looked like a marshmallow)
• Scrunchies (fat fabric elastic for holding those top and side ponytails)
• Spandex Pants {{{{{shudder}}}}} in BRIGHT neon colors
• Lacoste (the coveted polo with the embroidered alligator)
• Airbrushed T-Shirts (sadly, these are still around)
• Sweaters (from Benetton . . . tied around your neck like some kind of super-prep cape)
• Parachute Pants (a trademark of M.C. Hammer . . . our favorite rapper)
• Perms (the bigger the hair, the better)
• Ripped Jeans (ask your Auntie M . . . she once let some cousins shoot a pair with buckshot)
• Faded Jean Jackets (an absolute MUST . . . they went from casual to formal) . . . Levi's only
• Zubaz (the weirdest pants I ever saw men wear . . . meant for the gym)
• Leggings and Dancewear (discos were full of women dressed as if they were professional dancers . . . and aerobics had just been introduced)
• Z. Cavarrici (high waisted, darted dress pants . . . don't look them up)
• Down Vests (because unless you had a Triple Zero . . . )
• Miami Vice (mention this to any kid of the 80's and watch their eyes twinkle . . . white linen suits paired with pastel shirts . . . loafers with no socks . . . sigh . . . Sonny Crockett)
• ALL. LACE. EVERYTHING. (Madonna and Cyndi Lauper . . . 'nuff said)
• Puffy Shirts for men made popular by Prince (the singer, not some stuffy royal)
• Keyboard Neckties (if you didn't have one of these . . . well . . . )
• L.A. Gear (I think I owned every style of sneaker by this designer . . . high tops)
• Headbands (all the Rock Stars wore them around their heads . . . likely to keep their BIG hair out of their eyes while they sang)
• OP Brand (the second most coveted polo shirts on the planet)
• Bucket Hats (I don't even want to talk about it)
• Sneakers with no laces (another really stupid idea 'cause it was hard to walk without your shoes falling off)
• Big Hair (man, we sometimes used an entire can of aerosol hairspray to make it stay poofed out . . . like really poofed out)
• Michael Jackson inspired anything (mostly kids just wore the red jacket and single glove)
• Mullets (embarrassing hairstyle for men AND women . . . "business up front, party in the back" . . . don't ask)
• Acid Wash Jeans (if you had brand new DARK jeans, you were out)
• CocaCola Clothing (the result of a sweet deal between CocaCola and Jordache . . . both brands went over the top)
• Members Only Jackets (I always wondered what club they were members of . . . it certainly wasn't a badass motorcycle club . . . way too tame for that . . . I didn't care much for those jackets either . . . probably because I was never cool enough to own one)
• Neon . . . Neon . . . Neon (day-glo fluorescent colors . . . you could see it a mile away)

Some of this stuff occasionally rears its ugly head . . . and it's not like I really HATE the fashions of the 80's . . . it's just some of it should be banned! Not the Miami Vice clothes though . . . those could come back!

  "Life is too short to wear boring clothes!" ~ Unknown

Breathing is Hard on Sundays

26 Febuary 2017

I had lunch with you and your mom today . . . we went to a place called Pot Belly. It's actually owned by some people I know at church, and they were donating 25% of their net proceeds from the day to The Prom of the Stars.

Your Great Grammy went to the Prom with me . . . she loved it! I'll have some photos next weekend since it's being held on Saturday, and we'll talk about that then. The one she attended with me was also the last one Jim Cole went to. He was probably one of my most favorite people in the world . . . married to Doris . . . their story was an adorable one!

After your Great Grammy passed away, we asked for donations to the Prom rather than flowers, and enough money came in to sponsor an entire table this year! She would have loved that.

Prom dresses . . . hanging up at church . . . waiting for the ladies to arrive for fitting

That Da Vinci Guy

25 February 2017

I do hope you grow up to love art. Okay, maybe you don't have to LOVE art, but surely you'll grow up with an appreciation for it!

Leonardo Da Vinci was one of our greatest . . . his most well known painting? Why, The Mona Lisa, of course:

To quote "the best known, the most written about, the most sung about, the most parodied work of art in the world!"

His most recognized sketch: The Vitruvian Man . . . Da Vinci's vision of the "ideally proportioned man."

Oh yeah . . .  he's also the guy who painted The Last Supper!!

And to think . . . he was born to a peasant woman . . . his father a wealthy legal notary . . . out of wedlock . . . had 12 . . . TWELVE . . . half-siblings! The youngest sibling was born when he was 40 years old. He lived with his mother for the first 5 years, and then went to live with his father where he began his real education. Incredible what you learn when you start Googling something!

"You are bigger than your circumstances or your life situation." ~ Les Brown 

Performance Reviews: Self-Evaluations

24 February 2017

What a subject, huh? Interestingly this is what I had to do today . . . I had to "toot my own horn" so to speak!

At some point you'll have a job . . . hopefully a really good one . . . a job for which you will be evaluated from year to year. There are a number of reasons these are done . . . the biggest one being to establish whether or not you're actually doing a good job!

In my case, yeah, the higher-ups want to make sure I'm meeting or exceeding goals, but if I were to score really low on it, I would not be eligible for the yearly "across the board" raises that come sporadically! Oh, I make sure I meet or exceed their expectations since "merit" raises are VERY rare!

In the 7 years I've been here, never once have I been required to self-evaluate . . . it's not as easy as it sounds! For every 5 (the goals are rated 1-5) I marked, I had to write a summary of the ways in which I have chosen to give myself such a high rating. Yeah, little ego comes into play . . . it sounds like bragging, but the reality is, if you're good at your job, there's no reason you shouldn't be able to state some reasons why!

Stick with facts though . . . list some things you actually put into play! Did you create a new program that benefits everyone around you? Did you find a more efficient way to communicate with customers? Did you surpass company expectations in sales goals?

My only REAL objection to doing this: I didn't know ahead of time that it was going to happen . . . if I had, I would have kept a running list of all of the things I've done for the last year!

My advice to you: When you find that dream job . . . or really any job where someone will do a yearly evaluation . . . use some method to keep track of every single accomplishment!! I'm not kidding!! You might have to do this at some point in your life.

 

Leonardo Da Vinci was a brilliant, accomplished man  . . . an inventor, painter, sculptor, architect, scientist, mathematician, writer, cartographer, botanist . . . the list gets rather lenghty . . . "Universal Genius" they call him . . . the original "Renaissance Man" . . . had a lot of things to say about getting things done:

“It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.”

Just an FYI: Da Vinci was born in 1452 and has been credited with the inspiration for inventions like the helicopter, parachute, and tank . . . things built loooooong after he died!