If you are one of the 30% of Americans who said they feel loneliness at least once a week per American Psychiatric Association poll results released this week, a trip to New Orleans for Mardi Gras could be just the thing to bring love into your life.
That’s what happened to a couple featured last October on the Humans of New York Instagram page. As of this week, the post had more than 200,000 likes.
“Picture it, okay? Mardi Gras. New Orleans. Bourbon Street. I’m on college break with my three best childhood friends,” said an unnamed woman quoted by the page. “Zak is there with his parents. He’s got his mom and dad with him. So it’s two different vibes, but somehow we all end up on the balcony of the same bar. Everyone’s got beads in their hands. We’re all yelling to see boobs. Well, I’m yelling to see boobs.”
Humans Of New York’s post didn’t clarify what year the couple met. If it was 2019, their beads might have been part of 266,000 pounds of beads recycled in the city, per WalletHub. Each year, over 25 million pounds of beads are thrown in the city during Mardi Gras, said the personal finance website.
Major parades for the 2024 Mardi Gras season began this weekend (WWL has a schedule here) so revelers covered in those beads can be seen on balconies throughout the city, like the girl from the post described.
“Zak had a perfect mustache,” she continued. “He used to grow it much longer and curl it with wax. And I normally don’t approach people, I’m not that person. But his whole family seemed cute. They didn’t seem like normal New Orleans vacation people. So I was like: ‘Can I take a picture with you?’ Then we ended up adding each other on Snapchat, because that was the thing back then. And we agreed to meet up the next day after his family was done with their gator cruise and I was finished visiting the strip club.”
Amid all the hectic hustle and bustle that is New Orleans during Carnival season, they did manage to meet up.
That night we walked along the river until the sun came up. I remember doing handstands on the levees. Then at the end we kissed. It was just a kiss because I was leaving early the next morning, and honestly I thought that would be the end of it. I thought for sure I was never going to see this kid again.”
She was wrong.
“We kept talking, and two weeks later I’m taking his virginity in a Las Vegas hotel room,” she said. “There was something going on with his stomach that day. Right when we finished he went to the bathroom and started throwing up. I called my girlfriend and said: ‘I don’t think he likes me.’ But it’s been love ever since.”
People looking to start their own Mardi Gras love story should head down to the city before Fat Tuesday (Feb. 13).