I LOVE New Year's Day! A new beginning, right?! Oh, I know it's really the old me, trying to feel like, today, somehow, there's a better chance of a brand new "start", of some kind, that I can embrace as significant--leaving the bad old, undisciplined parts of me behind. It really is just another date on the calendar, no different than yesterday, when I was stuffing handfuls of M&M Peanuts in my face. But I still love the thought of it. A fresh, shiny new year. I didn't eat quite so many M&Ms today, and won't eat any, tomorrow, most likely ('cause I ate 'em all up, for one thing). And there IS still some Cherry Garcia in the freezer, so I'm not going to conquer my sugar habit, this week.
One of my favorite parts of New Year's Day, is watching the Rose Parade. I watched it twice, today. On our new, big, HD screen! Yes! Wow! So cool! Most years, I have watched KTLA's commercial-free coverage with glee, Bob Eubanks notwithstanding. How is it possible to see everything when there are commercial interuptions?! Unlike a football game, a parade can't just stop and wait until the Geiko ads are finished! Sheesh! Here, in our new place, however, I wasn't sure where else to find that kind of continuous broadcast, except on HGTV, where they have, I don't know, just the wrong camera/booth placement on the route (it's on Orange Grove, for heaven's sake!), and the wrong commentary. Of course, KTLA treated Stephanie Edwards so abominably two years ago, banishing her to a pathetic bleacher seat in the rain with an umbrella and soaked program book, that I nearly boycotted 2007. Nearly. I'm still carrying a grudge, but ... So, I'm a loyalty lightweight. Anyway, this year, with my chai eggnog latte, nearby (and the rest of the M&Ms), I watched most of The Parade on HGTV before, Tom, my hero, found the KTLA broadcast buried in the satellite listings on some station with 4 digits starting with "9". So, I watched it, again. Ahh.
Why do I love the parade? Who doesn't (well, Tom, for one, I guess)? It's totally incredible! It's gorgeous! The Mother of All Parades! Plus the fact that, I, along with, no doubt, most other Southern California residents, was, at one time, a volunteer float decorator. A magical, warm-fuzzy-memory of a time, for me. Many organizations, including churches (like you don't know this, already), can raise money for their groups by providing bodies to apply flowers, seeds and leaves to the surfaces of the amazing float structures. It takes an army of folks to cover the complexities of 50-odd floats in three days. The float-building companies hire flower professionals to handle the stemmed arrangements (for good reason!), but just about anyone can slather glue and place the appropriate natural elements on the colored paper mache. It's like giant paint-by-number. Anyway, the process happens in huge, freezing warehouses, around the clock, and you get just covered in super-sticky flower glue. Totally fun! We used to drink hot Dr. Pepper with a slice of lemon to keep warm. Then, when our last shift was up, we'd take our sleeping bags and find a place on Colorado Blvd., and wait for the Parade to start, while drunks staggered by and threw up on us. Of course went nuts when our float came by (our baby!), though there were those who would just sleep through the whole thing, crashed on the sidewalk or up against a building.
So, here we are, again, this time in 2008. It really is a beginning of sorts. And a festive one, at that, for me, anyway. I will eat more M&M Peanuts, this year, but I'll try to eat them more slowly. That's about all I can promise. I am greatly looking forward to this, year, though. It's only like an idea of a year, so far, but I'll try to decorate it the best I can.
