Let's give it up for the 30th annual Halloween parade...and all the people with windows above it who might have actually seen it.
As far as I can remember, Ive never really been to a "big" parade. Well, I know I haven't been to one like this. Just hometown parades and the parade the runs thru Disney Land. Now I appreciate those hometown parades more than ever. They boy and I haven't had much of a halloween in the last few years because we're usually working or something. (by the way, this was our third halloween together....caaaarrraazy) So we decided to see what all the hype of the NYC Halloween parade was since neither of us had ever seen it. Of course I couldn't get him to dress up for the adventure but I myself dressed as a man...ooo, how original. I did look like a skinny girlish replica of the boy though so it was really funny when I made him hold my hand.
So we got to 6th ave and 15th (I think?) around 6:50pm, the parade starting at 7 way down on Spring. Regardless of all the people saying we wouldn't get up front that late..okay, that one guy said that...we did. We pressed ourselves up against a police barricade and waited for the action to start. And waited....and more people filled in...and we waited some more....more people...more waiting...etc. Finally, after an hour and a half of being pushed around by the cops as they adjusted the barricades every 10 minutes, it seemed like the parade just might be getting closer. And with the nearing of the parade, the people poured in even more. I started to wonder how far back the crowd went and why? I mean, if you weren't atleast 4 people back, could you even see anything?
The boy's arm started to shake and I realized his belly was pressing into my back so I attempted to turn around to see what the commotion was. Apparently he was pinned between me and the masses and someguy had his unmentionables pressing against the boys backside. *sigh* well let's just try and enjoy the parade...
But wait! What are those cops doing?? Like right out of an episode of cops, a large group of "the man" started running full speed towards our section of the crowd...then they proceded to hop on top of a car and yell "Get out of the way!" and dive into the crowd. People started shouting "What happened???" like the officers would stop and tell them the story on the way. The boy and I agreed that it was all just a big show and the cops just wanted to jump over a car into the crowd. I mean, who wouldn't.
So the parade...
Wait. What? What's going on over there....people pushing and shouting. OUt of the crowd pops this little old lady screaming and pushing and basically just spazzing out. The cop starts to push her back into the crowd while she's saying "I just want to get home!!". Okay, now normally I would have been sympathetic but being that she was person number 2,436 who just happened to live across the street, I was annoyed for all the people around her that she was pushing around. This old lady had some spunk. People around us stopped watching the parade...again...and started muttering things like "Damn, that old lady is whack yo!"
So the parade...
Yeah, we did get to see some of it. And what we did see was a lot of fun and they obviously put a lot of work into it. Did I mention they pretty much killed the pre parade mood when a band of people dressed in pink shirts and megaphones started yelling at us about giving them money...and saying that the parade was right behind them? They failed to mention that right behind them meant 45 minutes behind. So yeah, we watched the large hand puppets move across teh sea of people, saw a ton of random people just walking in their costumes and well...that was pretty much it folks.
When we did get tired of watching all these people in costumes, most of which didn't even try or were just trying to get a free walk up 6th ave, we weren't able to leave because of the pressing crowd behind us. The boy and I devised failing plan after failing plan deciding to wait out the pushing. Finally he said "I think I can make it!" and yelled "Go GO Go!"...and so we did.
Let's just say, we made it out alive and prompltly hopped on the Q train bound for home.
On the way home we were sitting in the little two seater seat and the boy had his legs up on the pole in the middle of the car. Something people do all the time when the car is next to empty. Suddenly this younger guy walks up and says "Man, I just got arrested for that shit." We were intrigued..."What shit?" we inquired. "Putting my legs up and falling asleep on my way to work at 5am." We shared looks of disgust and said "No way dude, you serious?" Apparently this poor guy was arrrested and had to spend 3 days in jail for getting a little rest before work on an empty subway car and had to pay $350. 100 bucks per seat he took up and 50 for court fees. He then shared with us the ways of jail. "The only way you can call out is if you got a calling card man so you call your wife collect or whatever and get her to buy a card. Then you find somone with an earring cause they don't let you have pens and you scrape it into a paper cup." Then he showed us his paper cup...and his court papers. He said every time he saw someone with their feet up he was going to warn them before the man got to them.
This, my friends, really really ticked me off. I know there's no way a cop would harass me for resting on the train and Im sure this poor guy was just picked on by a bored cop. I mean, 3 freakin days locked up for that????? RIDICULOUS.
I have the longest weekend coming up. Im already tired. Im screwed.
As far as I can remember, Ive never really been to a "big" parade. Well, I know I haven't been to one like this. Just hometown parades and the parade the runs thru Disney Land. Now I appreciate those hometown parades more than ever. They boy and I haven't had much of a halloween in the last few years because we're usually working or something. (by the way, this was our third halloween together....caaaarrraazy) So we decided to see what all the hype of the NYC Halloween parade was since neither of us had ever seen it. Of course I couldn't get him to dress up for the adventure but I myself dressed as a man...ooo, how original. I did look like a skinny girlish replica of the boy though so it was really funny when I made him hold my hand.
So we got to 6th ave and 15th (I think?) around 6:50pm, the parade starting at 7 way down on Spring. Regardless of all the people saying we wouldn't get up front that late..okay, that one guy said that...we did. We pressed ourselves up against a police barricade and waited for the action to start. And waited....and more people filled in...and we waited some more....more people...more waiting...etc. Finally, after an hour and a half of being pushed around by the cops as they adjusted the barricades every 10 minutes, it seemed like the parade just might be getting closer. And with the nearing of the parade, the people poured in even more. I started to wonder how far back the crowd went and why? I mean, if you weren't atleast 4 people back, could you even see anything?
The boy's arm started to shake and I realized his belly was pressing into my back so I attempted to turn around to see what the commotion was. Apparently he was pinned between me and the masses and someguy had his unmentionables pressing against the boys backside. *sigh* well let's just try and enjoy the parade...
But wait! What are those cops doing?? Like right out of an episode of cops, a large group of "the man" started running full speed towards our section of the crowd...then they proceded to hop on top of a car and yell "Get out of the way!" and dive into the crowd. People started shouting "What happened???" like the officers would stop and tell them the story on the way. The boy and I agreed that it was all just a big show and the cops just wanted to jump over a car into the crowd. I mean, who wouldn't.
So the parade...
Wait. What? What's going on over there....people pushing and shouting. OUt of the crowd pops this little old lady screaming and pushing and basically just spazzing out. The cop starts to push her back into the crowd while she's saying "I just want to get home!!". Okay, now normally I would have been sympathetic but being that she was person number 2,436 who just happened to live across the street, I was annoyed for all the people around her that she was pushing around. This old lady had some spunk. People around us stopped watching the parade...again...and started muttering things like "Damn, that old lady is whack yo!"
So the parade...
Yeah, we did get to see some of it. And what we did see was a lot of fun and they obviously put a lot of work into it. Did I mention they pretty much killed the pre parade mood when a band of people dressed in pink shirts and megaphones started yelling at us about giving them money...and saying that the parade was right behind them? They failed to mention that right behind them meant 45 minutes behind. So yeah, we watched the large hand puppets move across teh sea of people, saw a ton of random people just walking in their costumes and well...that was pretty much it folks.
When we did get tired of watching all these people in costumes, most of which didn't even try or were just trying to get a free walk up 6th ave, we weren't able to leave because of the pressing crowd behind us. The boy and I devised failing plan after failing plan deciding to wait out the pushing. Finally he said "I think I can make it!" and yelled "Go GO Go!"...and so we did.
Let's just say, we made it out alive and prompltly hopped on the Q train bound for home.
On the way home we were sitting in the little two seater seat and the boy had his legs up on the pole in the middle of the car. Something people do all the time when the car is next to empty. Suddenly this younger guy walks up and says "Man, I just got arrested for that shit." We were intrigued..."What shit?" we inquired. "Putting my legs up and falling asleep on my way to work at 5am." We shared looks of disgust and said "No way dude, you serious?" Apparently this poor guy was arrrested and had to spend 3 days in jail for getting a little rest before work on an empty subway car and had to pay $350. 100 bucks per seat he took up and 50 for court fees. He then shared with us the ways of jail. "The only way you can call out is if you got a calling card man so you call your wife collect or whatever and get her to buy a card. Then you find somone with an earring cause they don't let you have pens and you scrape it into a paper cup." Then he showed us his paper cup...and his court papers. He said every time he saw someone with their feet up he was going to warn them before the man got to them.
This, my friends, really really ticked me off. I know there's no way a cop would harass me for resting on the train and Im sure this poor guy was just picked on by a bored cop. I mean, 3 freakin days locked up for that????? RIDICULOUS.
I have the longest weekend coming up. Im already tired. Im screwed.
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