All I really need to know I learned…at the Art Car Parade

I've been slow to post about the Art Car Parade, not for the reason I usually don't post (laziness, pure and simple), but because this week is Refuge week. Again. We're doing the whole show again out at the Miller Outdoor Theatre. The New Oregonian is already busy at her summer job (where it just snowed!), so I get to play at directing for the week. Rehearsals and emails and paperwork for Refuge plus actor auditions for a project next season equal no time for blogging. And, FYI, if you try to post a comment pressuring me to blog more, your comment will be summarily rejected. Only I get to be bossy on this blog. Start your own. I'm pretty sure littlemsbossydoesntblogenough.blogspot.com is available.

The parade was incredible. And awesome. And excruciatingly hot. But not as hot as last year, and better than last year because the opera had a car this year, and she was bee-yoo-tiful!



Here's what I learned from the day:

• The SPF in facial moisturizer is not enough when you're sweating your face off. Unless you're entering some kind of Rudolph look-alike contest, that is, in which case it's the perfect amount. Apparently.


• If you take a car and paint a couple things on it haphazardly and drive it in the Art Car Parade, Houstonians will still cheer for you as if you were driving an actual Art Car. I'm so happy I live in a town that applauds half-a**ed creativity.


• Bad moods can be cured with frozen lemonade. I've tested this theory twice since Saturday, and it has held true so far.


• Houston ants bite. I can prove it.



• I'm not very good at it, but sometimes saying "no" is definitely the right choice (maybe I need to practice more). The Valkyries who rollerskated with the opera car looked incredible (incredibly hardcore, that is), but I didn't wish I was one of them, not even for a moment. I was happy to be on the sidelines with my camera and my CameraMan. Especially while we were drinking frozen lemonade.


• I could do a lot worse than to have Houston as my adopted hometown. Quirky, creative, and utterly unique, Houston and Houstonians are starting to feel like home to me.


• Sometimes hard work and ingenuity actually pay off. 600+ hours of labor, a brilliant design, a baritone singing his face off, and the gorgeous ladies of stage management as skating Valkyries—OF COURSE our car won 1st place!!!