Mid-to-late February is seldom my favorite time of the year. In North Carolina, it tends to be a dreary, wet, grey time, suitable for hunkering down and doing little, but it doesn’t really lend itself to that – we’re not in holiday time. Instead, this is a work-work-work time of year which makes respites all the more welcome.
And nothing is a respite like Mardi Gras!
Technically, Carnival season is intended to be the ramp-up to the solemn, reflective season of Lent. (A season I actually quite enjoy as it leads me to do some structured pondering.) And I never attended the riotous bacchanal in N’Awlins, a city that can be sheer crazy on any random Tuesday. Growing up, it was “Shrove Tuesday” and was the province of church pancake suppers. (Not incidentally, today is also National Pancake Day. Don’t believe me? Check out IHOP’s short stack deal!) The idea was to use up all the “fat” (butter, in that case, along with yummy syrup) in the house before the season of austerity begins with Ash Wednesday.
I was able to purchase a “king cake” from a local bakery to eat and share. I plan to spend part of today drinking bitter coffee and eating some decadent pastry in memory of powdered-sugar beignets at the Cafe du Monde. My effort for The 100 Day Project will be Mardi Gras themed. And yes – all that decadence ends at midnight with the coming of Ash Wednesday.
It just seems like the right thing to do. Oh, I have my to-do list and I’ve been busy as a bee lately. Quite frankly, it’s been exhausting and yesterday’s winter thunderstorm (really? thunder and 35 degrees? That’s just – nuts, although it’s better than the snow and ice that so many folks across the country are dealing with just now) was the “icing” on the cake. (Sugar frosting icing, not slippery bridges icing, you understand.) Today is sunny and cold, a welcome break between two bookends of bad weather, so I intend to grab the gold ring of respite on this late-winter carousel. And carousel rides are more fun with friends. Lizzo knows that, along with being wise in other areas.
Join me, won’t you?
Seek joy, Divas!
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