An alarm clock is just a clock if you don’t set it. I learned that the hard way early Fat Tuesday morning.

The night before heading out to the New Orleans Arena to ride in Zulu, I rode on Orpheus. It was my first time and it showed: I had too few beads, didn’t get enough sleep the night before and got to the convention center just in time for the parade. It was an amazing experience, as I’ve been looking up at floats for my entire life, so the hiccups didn’t slow me down.

Judging by my experience riding in Zulu, though, I didn’t learn much. Instead of having too few beads, I only had 12 beads and three sacks of coconuts. I was working on an hour and a half of sleep because I got home from the Bacchus Ball around 3 a.m., and I (thought) I had to be at the New Orleans Arena for Zulu just two hours later. I would have slept through that deadline if it weren’t for my dog slobbering all over my face on the couch. So at 5:45 a.m. I bolted out my door to try and make the beginning, which was set for 45 minutes from then, and get onto the float.

Fortunately, after running for what felt like a mile after parking, I was able to make it in time and the Zulu krewe was more than obliged to get me situated.

When I showed up everyone was already set and ready to go, complete with blackface makeup and afro-wigs, the traditional garb for the krewe. I had to have one of the members fix my makeup since I showed up so late:

The crowds were huge to start. It’s a unique route that goes south on Jackson Avenue instead of north on Napoleon Avenue, like a lot of other superkrewes do.

Then we arrived at St. Charles Avenue with Rex, the other huge parade on Fat Tuesday, hot on our tail. We’d head all the way down to Canal Street, much like last night at Orpheus, but this time we’d go further north to Broad Street.

Along the way we passed by the WWL-TV stand at Gallier Hall where, from left, photographer Paul Corcoran, meteorologist Carl Arrendondo and anchor Angela Hill were watching the parade.

Even though I had no beads at this point, I was loaded up with coconuts. Here’s my mother after I tossed three of them at her:

After reaching Canal, we were met by an insane amount of parade-goers until the very end.

I’ve been in two parades in the last 24 hours. I rode for 15 hours of it and slept for a little under two. It was, to say the least, not a way of easing into the experience. But after hovering over tens of thousands of voracious screamers and having them all stare the coconut in my hand down, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Sure felt good for once to look down, not up, during Mardi Gras.