So on Monday morning, Lundi Gras local time, we got dropped off at the rental place by one of the parents on the way to work, we're expecting to grab a car, run back to the house and grab our gear, and be on the road to NOLA. Instead, I was expected to have an excellent credit rating by the car rental place (this has never been an issue before, is this a Louisiana thing?). Well, I don't pass that. Neither does the fella. Nor do J & H who were currently approved for a rather large mortgage. We couldn't get a car! We find that there is another rental car business across a four lane highway so we head over there. Same issue. WTH? We then start scouring the local agencies and manage to call a Ford dealership who will rent to us and were also nice enough to not only pick us up from our current location, but they also allowed us to get the birth certificate faxed *whew* We are running a bit late, but get on the road with no other problems and breathing sighs of relief that disaster had been averted. Yes, of course I spoke too soon... how did you guess?
So we grab some to-go food on the way and are happily driving towards NOLA and are nearly to the top of a tall bridge going over one of the bayous when an accident involving a flatbed toting tractor trailer happens literally just a few cars ahead of us. Yes, really. No one is hurt luckily, everyone was able to stop and I'm not sure what happened, but it ended up jackknifed back on itself and blocking the lanes and add to that, the bridge was narrower than usual due to construction on both sides of it which had the emergency lanes blocked so there was no going around any of it. I explained to the construction workers and police on scene that I was trying to get to my wedding that afternoon in NOLA and I don't know how, but eventually they got that truck moved enough to let us through!
Yes, really.
I was on the phone with the reverend up there, because it became painfully obvious that we probably weren't going to make our initial 1p.m. wedding time. Luckily since it was to be outdoors in a public area, we didn't have to contend with a venue, but we still had to get our marriage license and do it with a faxed copy of Eli's birth certificate which was an added consideration. Using J's smart phone, we had already decided to go by the Algiers courthouse, taking the ferry over once we got to NOLA. We got eventually made our way to a parking area to get on the ferry, but literally could not find a place to park and were stuck in a traffic snarl. In speaking to the reverend again, it turned out that the Algiers Courthouse was closed that day as other clients had tried the same thing and had to go elsewhere when they found it closed. So across the river we went to the Gretna Courthouse we drove! There it was a hurry up and wait situation, the same office that did marriage licenses was also responsible for a slew of other things so we took a number and waited for an hour. Once our number came up, our license was granted and we called the reverend to tell him we were ready. He suggested we just go to City Park since he was already going to be there doing another ceremony and we agreed. So our 1p.m. French Quarter wedding ended up a 4p.m City Park wedding!
So back across the river to City Park we headed, made decent time, even. Found the cafe and we ducked into the restrooms to change into our finery as planned. Met the reverend on a pretty concrete bridge and against the odds stacked against us that week, Eli and I finally tied the knot *whew* The smiles on our faces are smiles of relief that we actually did it!
Laughter, because otherwise tears.
That's what it's about!
So we thought it was all over once the wedding happened. Again, I thought wrong LOL So the cafe closed before we finished up and got all the photos among the live oaks so Heather and I had no place to change. The cleaners refused to let us in, we pleaded with them pitifully, but no dice. Here it is we rolled with it... I found a privacy fenced in area behind the cafe where they put misc. restaurant stuff and the gate wasn't locked so we ducked in there to shuck dresses and get into our jeans and such for parade viewing. During this short but necessary process, one of the cleaners came out and saw us so we just said "well, you wouldn't let us in!" She went back in, but once we left the area, she came back out and locked the gate on us. Good thing we didn't forget anything!
After that, believe it or not, it was smooth sailing, we found a parking spot easily in the FQ a few blocks from the parade route and started our fun trek over there and got a nice spot on the rail for the Krewe of Proteus and Krewe of Orpheus. Seriously, it was a grand time, and even after all the crap that rained down on us, we look back upon it now and laugh and say that we wouldn't have had it any other way :)
St. Louis Cathedral
Krewe of Proteus float
Two of the best partners in crime a gal could ask for- Heather and Jared
A look at Bourbon Street
So maybe now you understand why my contest photo means "Crazy Lucky" to me... it's an embodiment of what it's about- the sheer luck it takes to find someone right for you, and sometimes even to get and keep them. In that, my life is sometimes crazy lucky in the oddest of ways. It is in my husband and kids, in my horses and other pets, in my crazy friends who I sometimes take on adventures and who support me when I need it. You all know who you are, and you're awesome!
So, as I said in my first post that I'm not a lucky person. I'm really not, this isn't a "woe is me" post, it's just the truth in my life as I've learned to live with it. I've learned to (mostly) just cope with it. Sometimes I have my meltdown and get it over with and go on with it.
So when I say that I want to be "crazy lucky" for once in my life, I mean that I want things to go right with me for once. Just please, please, please let me get what I want this time (que up The Smiths, props if you love 'em). So my husband, Eli, and I were against the odds even meeting up in the first place for many reasons. And we beat a lot of odds in staying together for nine years, we even broke up once but within six months were back in each other's arms and married nine months after.
Now that wedding photo of ours deserves some explaining, I think. Those grins on our faces? I swear to you that it was mostly sheer relief that we finally pulled it off! We already had plans to go to Mardi Gras in 2011 with two of our best friends, Heather and Jared. Jared's parents live in Houma, LA and we were gonna go down with them and air mattress surf to have a cheap and fun dream Mardi Gras vacation. And Eli decided to finally ask me to marry him and we decided we'd to it quick and dirty down in NOLA during Mardi Gras... Cause that's how ya do it, right? I was finally gonna get to go to Mardi Gras and get married during it to boot! Seemed easy enough, I found a reverend who did weddings like I wanted which was going to be in the French Quarter, and on the day we wanted which was Lundi Gras (Fat Monday, the day before Fat Tuesday) and it turned out that Jared's mom is an amazing seamstress/costumer and she agreed to make most of mine and Eli's clothing as we wanted a quasi-pirate theme. She got our measurements and started work while I spent the time at home setting everything up and buying a particular bodice I wanted from a seamstress online and she had no problem with my time frame.
Well, the bodice didn't arrive in time so it had to be sent to Houma to await us. At least it showed up on time for that. Our flight, OTOH... we flew out at 6 a.m. and were supposed to land in LA at about noon. Instead on one of our legs, we were routed from Houston to College Station for fog. We sat at College Station for a couple of hours before we finally got to go on to Houston, where of course the airline had no idea what to do with us all! We got stuck sitting in Houston for about six hours on standby, bored out of our skulls. Eventually they put us on a plane bound for Louisiana and we arrived at about 9:30p.m. Meanwhile Jared and Heather and dad had been waiting around for us since, oh NOON, since J & H were scheduled to come in about the same time as us, but from a different state. But we rejoiced that we were finally there, though we'd lost half a day of fun.
Bored in Houston selfie
The next morning, we got up to hang out until it was time for our first parades in Houma and we had a blast despite some rain. Ate great food, got alcohol from the drive up daquiri places, enjoyed the nice weather, etc.
The hubby-to-be
Houma night parades with my bestie!
After a couple of days of that, on Friday we went downtown to pick up the marriage license and find that Eli hadn't brought his birth certificate, but some other form that wouldn't work. Now a judge could have by-passed that issue, but the only one on duty refused to be seen due to it being a long holiday weekend. Mardi Gras for us up north is just a blip on the radar for most folks, but down there, it's serious bizness. Apparently all Eli ever had was this unusable certificate and his mother didn't have it, either, so all we could do was work with his Aunt in his birth city to go to the hospital and get a certified copy to fax to us. Eli busted his butt with his Aunt's help and they got the darn certificate, but it wasn't gonna get faxed to us until Lundi Gras, yes, the day we are getting married! Also, the small town courthouse was going to be closed on Lundi Gras, so no getting our license there. We also needed to leave fairly early that day to get a rental car to drive to New Orleans which was about an hour and a half away. At this point, I'm ready to take the hints the Universe is shoving down my throat and give up on getting married anytime soon, but I reserved the rental car and hoped for the best.
As of this morning, I took over FIRST PLACE!!! I've got some simply amazing friends and family who are SHARING it all over and we got it up there. There is one gal who is rallying and almost into second place and I expect that the second place entry will be hitting back with something big soon. There are less than 100 votes separating us all.
If nothing else, this contest made me realize that I'm CRAZY LUCKY to have such an amazing group of people who have my back and make me feel loved and give me hope that I can actually maybe make this dream come true. Win or lose, I've got that :)
I'm also winning for just one day! Wow! Me winning at something! It's a great feeling LOL
I'm gonna be honest with you... I'm not the luckiest person in the world. I rarely have that kind of luck that others just seem to radiate. I have to work hard for everything I've got, I've never had stuff handed to me. Sometimes I wonder if it's just because I was never one of those cute girls who garner attention or if I just have some bad karma attached to me for something I did in another life. I feel like I'm a good person so I wonder how that could be?
Anyways, I try to just roll with the punches, what else can I do? When all the household cars break down at once or my dog requires stitches because my other dog played too hard and nearly tore his jugular or the typical "when it rains, it pours" feeling really hits from all the crap that seems to fall at once, I just put on some music from my favorite band and let it all wash away. My favorite band? Oh, I'm glad you asked! That would be Better Than Ezra, maybe you've heard of them... or maybe you haven't. But you've heard them, I guarantee it, even if you don't remember it. Hailing from New Orleans, they came out in 1993 with a hit called "Good" from their album "Deluxe," and on their next album, "Friction, Baby," it was "Desperately Wanting." In 2001, we were treated to the album "Closer" and the single "Extra Ordinary," though "Closer" goes down as one of my favorite albums of all time.
In 2005, we got another radio single in "Juicy" which sounds like something entirely not BTE LOL But it's a fun song and it made me sit up and take notice at a band that I honestly hadn't paid attention to for awhile. We also got a new incarnation of "A Lifetime" getting airtime, even though it was formerly released on "Closer." I went back at that point and made up for lost time by buying up every album I'd missed and in that, I somehow joined that group of hardcore BTE fans called Ezralites.
I was finally caught up for the brand new release of the album "Paper Empire" which featured the single "Absolutely Still" which is an amazing song. I also happen to love "Just One Day," in which I find I resonate with the message on that one so very much, but I bet most of us would. Oh heck, I like most every song on that album quite a bit, "I Just Knew" is an amazing romantic song which I know many fans have used at their weddings. I would have had I had a normal wedding ;)
I've chatted on the forum a bit, I've driven hours to shows, I watch all of their crazy blog videos and have all their music videos favorited on YouTube. I seem to be wearing either BTE t-shirts or the BTE sweatshirt my fella bought for me at a show in Nashville in almost every photo taken of me in the last nine years. I have stickered my car and truck, I have a framed art poster, I haunt eBay for old CD singles, I pre-purchase all their new releases, even the vinyl this last time around even though I don't have a turntable, I know darn near every lyric to every song they've ever done, and I think I have a problem...
What do I love about Better Than Ezra? Well, for starters, they are an honestly good band, talented across the board. While they have not garnered the fame of some artists, it's not for lack of trying. These guys have been out there busting their asses touring and making music that anyone can love and sing to for over 20 years. They've had some change ups- a suicide by the first lead guitarist, the first drummer headed out. The second drummer ended up doing double duty as drummer for both BTE and a little band called Sugarland and made the choice to drum for Sugarland full time when it came down to crunch time. But through it all, Better Than Ezra keeps bringing us the music that makes my heart sing.
Live BTE shows are nothing short of extraordinary. Kevin, Tom, Michael, and Jim really know how to throw down a party on the stage. You get more than just the same songs being sung as in a studio, you get impressions and segues and covers and cowbell. You get people asked to come up on stage, I've even seen hula hooping bar waitresses! It's to the point that I buy the NOLA Jazz Fest recordings so I can get the live show experience at home LOL
BTE is so much more than their own band, lead Kevin Griffin has co-written a ton of songs which you've probably also heard and had no idea he was behind them. He's written with Howie Day, Blondie, Sugarland (ever heard a little ditty called "Stuck Like Glue?"), etc, etc, etc. and currently resides near Nashville to be close to that action. The band is also responsible for several charity events and organizations to help underprivileged kids in New Orleans.
Well, anyways, to get the whole point of this little blog, it's to win a contest that Better Than Ezra is putting on to celebrate their new studio album, "All Together Now." The first single is entitled "Crazy Lucky" hence my blog name. I'll let Kevin tell you a little about the contest:
Now tell me that ain't worth trying to win??? Holy cow, I think I was one of the first to send in my photo, of course it was my favorite wedding photo with husband, Eli. We went down to New Orleans in 2011 during Mardi Gras and were married in NOLA's City Park and then went out for parades Orpheus and Proteus (with me in that BTE hoodie again!). It was an amazing time, but of course just getting there had Murphy's Law in overdrive LOL But we got there, it happened, and even before BTE wrote their latest single, "Crazy Lucky," I've always thought that Eli and I finding each other was against the odds... I really don't know how we did it, but we did and in that, found ourselves in each other. As for the rest, my whole unlucky self? Well, I wanna change that, I want to be lucky and work hard to win this contest and I hope I've garnered a bit more attention for it here.
If you like my blog and my little bit of BTE history, you can head over to Facebook and LIKE my photo at this link: #BTECrazyLucky
I'm standing in the top ten, but the top two currently have over 300 and over 400 votes so I really need all the help I can get! If you vote for me and need some help on a contest of yours, please put your contest link in the comments and I'll head over there and return the favor!
Thanks to everyone and go enjoy some good music now that you know what you're missing!
I'll also mention, should I actually get this meet and greet and
everything that goes along with it, I PROMISE you all that I will blog
about it. There will be photos and videos and anything that they let me
get away with!
