No Act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted ~ Aesop

Kindness

I receive two acts of kindness on Friday, neither was expected. The first came as I was having a discussion in the hall with a faculty member one of my fellow deans showed up. She came bearing a gift, a small box of chocolates and a thank you card. She’s a great colleague who I really like working with and this just makes me like her even more. And while I think they were technically truffles, I felt like I was in my office eating bons bons.

Secondly, one of my staff members, a lovely older Vietnamese woman who works at night was working Friday night. As I did my walk-through she said to me, “stay right here.” She then walked away and returned a few minutes later with a bag, she smiled and said, “I remembered.” Looking in the bag I was so excited, it was a plate of banh beo, my favorite Vietnamese dish. This dish is really time consuming to make and as such, most restaurants don’t serve it. It’s actually been several years since I had any and it was wonderful. But what really touched me, was that she had remembered this from a conversation we had at least two years ago, such a kind act.

These small acts of kindness mean so much to us. It’s important to remember my friends, whenever you have a chance to do these, take the opportunity. The impact will almost always outpace effort.

Mardi Gras

I’m getting ready to head to my favorite city soon for Mardi Gras. I love New Orleans, I’ve traveled to many cities all over the world, but New Orleans was a place that felt like home from the first minute I set foot in that city. My mouth is already watering for that first bowl of gumbo at Coteri and I’m carefully planning my trip to Cochon for their Rabbit and Dumplings, my favorite dish at any restaurant anywhere. I’ve previously posted this guide to New Orleans giving some of my favorites in the city. But it’s not only about the food, it’s the music, the opportunities for photography, the weirdness of it all. And of course, Mardi Gras parades, I love them so much.

This past week in talking about heading to Mardi Gras, I was reminded of how little most people know about Mardi Gras itself, so tonight a quick primer. First off, Mardi Gras is not a day, most people seem to confuse the last day of Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) for Mardi Gras as if it’s a one day holiday. Mardi Gras is a season, it’s a season of festivities leading up to Lent. The reason Mardi Gras dates change every year is that Easter and the six weeks of Lent prior to Easter move around on the calendar. Fat Tuesday is the end of Mardi Gras and Ash Wednesday, the next day, kicks off Lent. Which is also why Mardi Gras ends at midnight on Fat Tuesday, and yes, they do clear Bourbon Street at Midnight.

The first parades of the Mardi Gras season this year were on January 6th, so you can see with Fat Tuesday being February 13th this year, Mardi Gras season lasts for over a month. And in New Orleans, the city does celebrate for the month. Here’s a little clip of what the parades look like, this is Endymion one of the biggest krewes that does a huge parade:

There are a lot of misconceptions about Mardi Gras. The biggest is that Bourbon Street is where Mardi Gras happens. And yes, Bourbon street for most of Mardi Gras season is effectively the equivalent of a large frat party. Yes, there are women flashing their breasts so people will throw them beads and drunken fools at every turn and I spend almost no time on Bourbon Street. Everyone who goes to Mardi Gras will have beads thrown to them, even on Bourbon Street without flashing anything, no one is in a hurry to see my breasts and I get tons. At any Mardi Gras parade you will catch more beads then you have ever imagined. At every parade, while giving most of the beads I catch away, I still end up with ten or fifteen pounds worth of beads. I send boxes of beads to three different people every year and I get all of those beads at my first parade. 

The parades are not the drunken debauchery of Bourbon Street, the parades come through the neighborhoods in the city. The parade route is full of families and little children and only a few walking parades even happen in the French Quarter. Sure, there are drunk people, mostly tourists wandering the parade route, but mostly it’s a G rated affair. The naughtiest thing are some of the themes of the floats that I’m guessing most of the time, aren’t even comprehensible to the kids, as they are typically political in nature.

I have met so many kind and wonderful people at parades, been invited to join families as they ate their dinners they bring, been invited to parties after the parades and made friends with other tourists. The parades are absolutely fantastic affairs.

Countdowns

The countdowns are on! As I’ve mentioned in the past I’ve already started celebrating my upcoming 60th birthday a little less than seven months away. Mardi Gras will be my second event of this celebration. The other is my retirement, while my official date looks to be Feb 18th, it looks like my last day physically working on campus will be Friday, January 31st next year, so this Wednesday marks the start of my last year of work here in California.