Sometimes, I forget that it’s been 5 1/2 years since we left Louisiana.

Sometimes, I forget my roots … because Alabama is so very different from Louisiana. It seems strange because we only have one state between us (ugh … Mississippi … you depress me). You’d think, since it’s the South, it would all be the same.

It’s not.

Today is Fat Tuesday. Want to know how I remembered? Last night on Nick Jr. there was a special episode of Fresh Beat Band where they traveled through the bayou to play music in the Mardi Gras parade.

Now THAT, my friends, is sad.

It’s business as usual here in Alabama, while everyone has off from school and work just two states away. They are catching beads, eating God-knows-what-out-of-a-pot, and drinking, drinking, drinking. I think I miss the revelry of my hometown. I’m just an average partier, but I love the laid-back, “live and let live” attitude that we left behind.

Most days I love it here in my new hometown, but sometimes, like today, I feel a touch depressed that we ever left.

Laissez les bon temps roulet!