Day 14 of the 30/30/30 challenge - walk in a costume parade.
So, I had "walk in a parade" originally on my list and had the date plan, costumes semi-arranged, and excitement in check, when I realized "SHIT! I have walked in a parade before!"
Join me for a flashback - the year was 1990, the event was the Estacada Timber Festival - an annual small town festival that was amazing fun! My sister, Heather, is six years older than me - though many have confused us for twins in the past (because she is so youthful and I have always had an old soul) - it was the summer before her sophomore year of high school and she was a member of the Estacada Rangerette, the high school dance team. She and her fellow team mate enlisted the help of their baby sisters - enter myself - to hold the team banner while they marched in the parade.
I loved being a dance team sister, later when I was in HS I never had the desire to join the team and be my sister's legacy but I loved watching her practice and going to competitions. Her dedication to her sport along with being an outstanding student is something more of today's youth should be striving for. Looking back I wish I had followed more in her footsteps. They marched in the parade doing drill team routines to the song that to this day, a long and at times trying 21 years later STILL haunts my dreams. The mere mention of the song name brings a cringe to everyone involved in that Timberfest Parade. That's right - I am talking about Billy Idol's Mony Mony. Just typing it out makes my ears threaten to bleed!
I got off lucky not having to actually dance to it, but being at every practice and most football games for the half time shows, and all during that long parade trudge was far too much for any 9 year old to have to bare! So needless to say that parade has been filed alongside a few other repressed memories, only to rear its ugly mony mony head again now.
Fun side bar to this flashback - A year later I was in the 5th grade my sister and a few of her fellow Rangerettes choreographed a dance routine for me and four of my elementary friends for our school talent show. The song was "Who wrote the book of love" complete with matching costumes of white tees, blue shorts with white polka-dots, and pink suspenders with sequence. We won first place! To this day, I still love that song!
Fast forward 21 years and here we are, May 2011. Well shit, Mony Mony ruines my life again! I thought to myself. Worry not, the problem was averted. This particular parade I had signed us up to walk in was a costume parade, which I have never done. McMinnville's 12th annual UFO Festival Parade. We went last year to watch and thought it was going to be small and silly but it turned out to be a huge spectacle that brought thousands of people from all around to watch the craziness that ensued within the parade route.
The day started off like any other. I woke early and let the dog out to pee. Then I hoisted her up onto the table and sprayed her with colored hair spray, orange on her body with a pinkish/purple head and tail. She was a great sport and really looked adorable. Before you get all uppity, if its not to toxic for our kids than my dog will be just fine. Also, I don’t like her so there is that. And finally, I gave her a nice blow dry and comb through to make it so she wasn't uncomfortable with spiky hair-sprayed hair. Also, she got more attention at the parade than probably any person there!
I had spent all week preparing for the parade, getting the stroller turned into an aluminum spaceship, collecting odd things to go along with an alien them. In the end we did a pretty good job. Ana and Doc looked amazing, Doc in his tinfoil Hans Solo statue suit and Ana in her alien princess gear should have won first place hands down. My costume was okay, very comfortable and really not that crazy; fun hair and makeup with some tinfoil and duct tape – a girl’s best friend.
We had a great time, mingling with other parade goers before our number was called to join the route. However there was a very unfortunate and painful downside to the day’s events. Just moments before we were supposed to start walking I bent down wrong and something went terribly wrong inside my back. I pinched something or tore something because the pain that followed was intense. I powered through the parade route and the joy of the event took my mind of the pain until we were done, then it took all I had not to collapse. After going to lunch with Shawna & Jaime and their families we went home where I got into bed and stayed there for the next four days trying to recover.
We are for sure doing this parade again next year! Next year though, we hope to have more people and much better costumes!!! Anyone want to join!?
Because we were in the parade this year I didn't get a lot of pictures of the other floats so mixed in are a few shots from last year to give the full affect of the fun that is the UFO Festival!
2 comments:
that silver guy is soooooooooooooo good looking
Yes he is!
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