Chuck E. Cheese and Mardi Gras Beads

This weekend we had two big parties. There was a time that would make for a great weekend. Not so much with the constant partying now that I am old. Put two parties in the SAME DAY and you might as well plug me in to the caffiene IV because I need some kind of chemical fuel. Caffiene? My drug of choice.

The first, and most important, party was Drew's 5th birthday party. He decided that he wanted it at Chuck E. Cheese's (damn you, you giant singing mouse). So, we invaded. At noon. On a Saturday. With about 17 of Drew's friends.

It was pandemonium in the best possible way.


I don't believe I have ever witnessed such a spectacle. Kids? Everywhere. Volume? Ear splitting. The basic principle behind the place is to fill it with video games and lots of children. Then you crack them out on soft drinks and pizza. Add in animatronic Chuck and friends singing weird songs at full volume and you have the basics.

It. Is. Insanity.

Times a hundred.

But we lived. There was one moment at the end where my life flashed before my eyes. Drew was trying to turn in all his tickets for cheap prizes out of the display case and for one brief second I thought we were going to be taken out by an 8-year old with a crazed look in his eye, but we escaped relatively unscathed. The only obvious victim? My sanity. But, it was already the weak one of the herd so I'm not surprised that the band of screaming kids took it down.

That night we had a Mardi Gras party to go to. We go to the same party every year and it is always a lot of fun. I get all decked out in some crazy outfit and lots of beads. You know...as an aside...you have to give props to the guy who managed to convince millions of women that they absolutely HAVE. TO. HAVE. cheap, plastic strings of beads. MUST. HAVE. THEM. Oh...and then? Convinced them that flashing their boobs to random men is a perfectly reasonable sales price. That guy? Needs to come and do marketing for my company. Seriously.

Anyway, this year I painted on a Mardi Gras mask. It actually turned out really cool.

See?


Now it is Sunday night and I am getting ready to go to bed. Between the two parties yesterday and the new puppy keeping me from sleeping through the night for the last week I am pretty much a bag o'crap today. I don't remember being this tired in a really, really long time.