SOC: Carnaval can be ANNOYING

Carnaval season has arrived in Rio de Janeiro. While this used to be a fun event, I feel that it is a little out of control. Yesterday, 2 weeks or so before the actual start of Carnaval, there were 21 blocos (street parties). 21! And with the use of social media such as Facebook and Twitter, these blocos are not the small-ish neighborhood parties they used to be.

We are talking full on parties. Traffic stopped, loud music, government installed port-o-potties. It starts the calendar checking phase. During the weekends (and Thursdays and Fridays) I will be checking the Globo bloco calender. I will be checking where and when blocos are happening so that the boys and I don't end up getting stuck somewhere in the city. 

This kind of thing used to be fun. Mr Rant and I would randomly run into a bloco while out and join in. That or, since we were normally on foot or mass transit, work our way around it. Now with two kids in car seats waiting in a hot car, it sucks. Not only that, it's quite freaky to get stuck on foot in a bloco while trying to walk home from the grocery store. You don't understand, these blocos stop time wherever they are happening. 

And while I know it is all in good fun, it's sometimes too much. When living on Rua das Laranjeiras we had blocos every weekend preceding Carnaval and every day during Carnaval. 

Thankfully Mr. Rant will be returning from his snowboarding trip before the real festivities begin and we will be able to escape to the countryside. Until then, I will be spending these husbandless weekends first checking to make sure we can get out of the house and back without having to samba our way home.

This was my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…
Set a timer and write for 5 minutes.Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post.Link up your post .Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.