Surprise Parade

I had started a post about a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day that I had last week but something funny happened. I kind of forgot most of the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad stuff that had happened. Almost everything. The big ticket item, pun intended, was the fat speeding ticket I got for zipping down Beacon Ave/Holgate St. I was speeding. Guilty.

BUT.

It is a very steep hill. Very. During the first big snow storm this winter older kids were using it to snowboard down which I think was d-u-m-b. I would envision them hitting the sidewalk and flipping up and over the guardrail and landing on top of a car on I-5 below.

The rest of the bad stuff really wasn't that bad. It probably seemed worse because I was nabbed in a speed trap. Which, by the way, if you are going to give me a ticket, give me a ticket for speeding on 35th Ave or on the West Seattle Bridge. But a hill? I have slowed down a lot over the years but hills are hard to go slow down - I hate riding the brakes.

Today on the other hand was a great day. The morning was trying as usual. I'm super tired in the a.m. because that is me. It is rare that I jump out of bed all perky, ready to tackle the day. It doesn't help that even if/when Gavin is sleeping through the night I'm waking up at 4:30 all ready for the day. Of course I'm up then I get hungry then I eat then I wake up a little more... then at 7:00 I pass out ready for 8 hours of solid sleep. Fortunately Ryan will watch Gavin and I can sleep until he needs to catch his bus. Then I have a cup of coffee so I can stand up and not plow Gavin over in a zombie like trance. But when Gavin's nap time comes I'm awake because I had coffee to get me through the morning.

But I digress. This morning. Per usual I wanted to lie on the couch and watch Gavin play contentedly with his toys as he was when I entered the living room as Ryan headed out the door. No go. Gavin sees me and drops his toy and says, "Boo," as he heads for the basket of books. I flop on the couch, pull a blanket over me and hoist Gavin and his book up. I hold he book over my face so I can yawn and keep my eyes closed as I recite book after book. After a bit I wake up a little and liven up my storytelling.

This may not sound that trying but reading the same books all day, every day, over and over and over again will drive you nuts. We go to the library and pick out new board books but those are all memorized by the end of the day because we read them so many times. I will say that my favorite thing about reading books with Gavin is him sitting in my lap - or rather how he sits in my lap.

He brings his 'boo' to me and after handing it to me (if I don't take it when he hands it to me he will often grab my hand and turn it palm side up and shove the book in it) he turns around and scoots back a few steps and with a loud grunt sits on the floor or in my lap. If I pick him up and set him down in my lap he stands up halfway, scoots forward and plops down again with the lovely grunt.

Oh, boy. Back to this morning. It was time for a new selection of books from the library but we've picked through our neighborhood library and they are all old and boring now so I hopped on-line to see which bus we would need o take to get to the mammoth downtown library. 20 or 30 minutes later I had my answer but by that time I didn't want to take the bus and wait in the drizzle for a stinky bus. Besides, it was Saturday - there would be plenty of street parking.

Or so I thought. As we passed the tip of Pioneer Square I realized there wasn't going to be plenty of parking when I spied a marching band assembling their gear in the park. Then there was the other group of people wearing an awful lot of green. And there was someone carrying lots of cotton candy. Ah! It was the St. Patrick's Day Parade.

Parking was scarce but I did manage to score a spot kitty corner to the library - I had enough change for a 40 minute trip which seemed like just the right amount of time to chase a toddler around the library and it might even provide a few minutes to visit Chocolati on the 3rd floor (how many libraries have a coffee shop)? So cool.

We picked out new board books and lots of music CDs. Well, I picked out all of the books save one. Gavin was only interested in The Wheels on the Bus - with its clever wheels that actually go 'round and 'round so you can move it around like a car. I've already hidden the book a few times and rolled it under the couch once - there are only so many times you can sing "The Wheels on the Bus" consecutively.

Ryan joined us for lunch at Blue Water Taco grill - my first Blue Water Taco dining experience. It smelled terrific inside but I was a little disappointed in my fish taco because the employee dumped regular beans on before I could ask for black beans. I still prefer Taco del Mar fish tacos - I'm not brave enough to try the taco wagon on Rainier for an authentic taste - one of these days.

The parade started just as we sat down to eat so we got a front row seat of the festivities - until the young dudes who were eating inside took their tacos outside and parked themselves in front our window. Just as we were finishing up I felt something painfully cold hit my legs - it took a second to register that I set my glass of ice water within Gavin's reach. We got a cold bath. I wanted to cry - Gavin did cry. Ryan took Gavin out to watch the parade while I cleaned up our soggy mess.

We were able to watch the rest of the parade even with our wet clothes. I just held Gavin's wet parts to me and he was perfectly content to watch the Seafair pirates and listen to their super loud canons. The clowns came up to him, girls gave him candy, tons of Irish Setters were paraded by us and the only person he waved to was some dude watching the parade to our right.
All in all it was a pretty rinky dink parade. Maybe it was because we were at the very beginning of the parade route and the crowds with all of the energy were down at Westlake Center. Maybe it was because of the January weather in the middle of freakin' March.

Even though it was a tiny parade I wish I had my camera with me so we could have taken a picture of Gavin with the Seafair Pirates and Keystone Kopps and clowns. I saved the stickers they gave him and will put them in a scrapbook that he can one day look at and think, "What am I going to do with 20 year old stickers?" but say, 'Gee, thanks, Mom."