Thursday night was the Muses parade. It’s an all-woman Krewe with a wickedly sarcastic sense of humor evidenced in their float themes. Muses is also fun because they have great "throws," like make-up and Barbie dolls dressed like little Muse members in lavender chiffon tunics and high-heeled earrings.

Mardi Gras parades provide tons of free stuff and most of it is crap, plastic beads, wooden spears, aluminum doubloons. It seems like only children could covet such cheap inanities. Many people don’t understand the whole bead catching thing and I myself have been though every stage of comprehension.

When I was little it was fantastic to catch anything at all. As I got older I only wanted the prized “pearl” beads or the fake flowers they used to hand down from the floats. In my late teens I was too cool to try to catch anything at all. When I first moved back to New Orleans four years ago, I thought the spectacle of a bunch of grown-ups screaming and hollering for plastic junk was ridiculous.

But now I understand. Mardi Gras is about living in the moment. The moment of a float passing—the crush of people surrounding you all in the same gesture of supplication, hands in the air, screaming, smiling, jumping up and down—is a delicious moment of pure anticipation.

First you see the large brightly covered float approaching and position yourself strategically as far away from the crowd or as close to the float as possible. Make sure your hands are free. As the float gets closer the hum of the tractor pulling it gets louder. Then it’s right in front of you, brightly painted with flashing lights. You have to throw yourself into the moment and try harder than anyone else to acquire the treasure raining down from above. Strangers are sharing their wealth. My competitive impulses are surging, I will scream louder and jump higher than anyone because I this year I decided I have to have a DOLL.

After the float passes it’s time to reconnoiter and compare your booty with everyone else. Trade one pair of beads for a doubloon or give the stuff you don’t want to a cute little girl on her dad’s shoulders. One pink stuffed money, tons of beads, high-heeled shoe bracelet, whistles in the shape of basketballs, pedicure kit later I head back to my friend's house. No doll, but now I’ve got something to look forward to next year.