Saturday, December 31, 2011

365: another years over..another rose parade ritual

It all begins with the CHALK! My sister lives close to the parade route and went out early Friday, Dec. 30th morning to mark our territory. There is a silent law that one must respect the chalk. Rarely, if ever, does anyone try to take a spot that has been pre-chalked. It's just not cool! When you're needing a space as large as we needed, this is just what you have to do!
Another ritual is fighting off the cops who tell you, "you can't save seats until 12:00 p.m. the day before the parade." Been there, done that! For some reason these officers are on a total power high but I do as I always do and say, "I'm just cruising the sidewalks, no harm in that is there?" I was out at our spot at 10:30 a.m. Saturday {mind you the parade isn't till Monday}
Another essential: zip ties and wire cutters.
The parade people think they're being smart or something by zip-tieing all the porta potties shut until 12:00 p.m. the day before the parade. Experience is a great teacher and I have been schooled on how to get around little things like this. It's a simple solution that gives me my own, personal porta potty for over 24 hours. This year I mixed it up a little and found pink zip ties! 
This year New Year's Day falls on a Sunday. The parade has a no Sunday policy so it won't be until Monday, January 2nd. It's a little bit of an anti-climatic New Year's Eve when you don't have the entire street celebrating with you. I was so grateful that Theresa drove down at 10:30 that night to hang out with me. At midnight, we had a party for 2 along Orange Grove Blvd. We had our poppers, our noise makers, and such. We had a terrible time getting our camera set up for a picture, but it is what it is! By about 12:10 a.m., we nestled in the warm car and waited out the night while watching our chalk! 

1 comment:

marie said...

Dyana you are awesome, I would never have the guts to cut of zip ties or be so blase to police. If I ever need someone shady I know who to call.