Parade Dreams

When Julian and I arrived in Utah late last summer, one of the first things we did was attend the local town festival parade. It was awesome and just how parades should be, in my opinion. I shouted and cheered for every single entrant ("go cymbals!" in the marching band) and we happily collected every flier and handout and scored a ton of taffy we later counted and threw away because, gross. I don't know if i've ruined Julian or made him the glorious human being he is today because recently we attended another nearby small town parade and I even said he could have some candy from his stash but instead he said "NO! we have to count it!" Because that's more important, having a LOT of a thing. Not just consuming it. He did count it and put it away in his drawers, and we will trash it in a few days.
 
But I had a realization at this recent parade. First i admired all the floats, remembering how i've always thought floats were sort of mystical and strange. And then i began to dream up what kind of float I might make, that I would be totally ok devoting an entire summer to the making of a float. The Summer of the Float, it would be, and time well spent. And then i watched the other paraders and thought, c'mon, would it have killed you to add some balloons? Some wavy ribbons? Something glittery? Anything? And THEN, then I realized that I should like to for real BE in a parade. I realized that I have parade dreams! And were I to be in a parade then i would just deck myself out with balloons and all manner of cheeriment, solely to amuse the watchers, and myself. And i would probably be on my scooter, for nothing makes me happier than that, so should it with them. 

And also, it would feel good to just have everyone looking and waving at me for a while. You know? And maybe cheer for me? If i throw candy at them?  I was in the Highland Fling parade two times as a youth, and I enjoyed it.  And now i think I'm ready to revisit that. I don't have a cause, other than to be happy and to give happy.

This year i often scooted to school to pick up Julian and we'd ride home together. I thought how it might make a nice memory for him-- "I don't remember much about kindergarten, except riding on a beauty of an Amish scooter with my mom,"  he'll say to his friends. And now i wonder if being in a parade might not stand out in his memory. I know it'd stand out in mine.  So I've decided. We're doing it. Me and Julian, on my scooter. (yay!) Come and watch us? It's on Saturday and starts at 10:00.