I joined the Seattle Art Car group for this fun neighborhood weeknight parade. I arrived for check-in at 5pm (one hour before the scheduled start of the parade) and chatted with some people in nearby floats. I enjoyed a brief brush with local royalty when a mother noticed the Barbie Dream Hearse and called over her daughter and two other winners of the Marysville Strawberry Festival Royalty Scholarship Pageant. These charming, outgoing young ladies told me a little about the pageant while their parents took pictures of them with my car.

In front of our set of off-beat vehicles was a marching band with some flag twirlers. They had come all the way from Calgary, Alberta to strut their stuff. Of course, when I spoke with the band director, I let on that I thought they were from some local school named Calgary. Wrong! These guys were the real deal.

And of course, there were pirates. Y’ar, many pirates.

Lead by Leah’s Day of the Dead car and followed Kelly’s fashion accessories car, our small but sturdy brigade crept by a surprisingly huge crowd. My waving-arm was ready to fall off, if my head didn’t first. I had been up since 5am, so I was dead (ha!) tired by the time the parade started at 7:30. I took to heart the fact that if I fell asleep at the wheel, I’d only be going about 3 mph so everyone would have ample time to get out of my way.

Since I’ve been asked the questions, “Who’s back there!? Any dead bodies?” at least a million times and fatigue makes me a little loopy, I’ve now started gleefully replying, “Amy Winehouse!”

Too soon?

Barbie was made especially for events like this. I had so much fun driving this party to 80′s Night at the Noc Noc!

When I was invited to participate in the Seattle Pride Parade, I was elated. Not only would it get some eyes on my hearse, but it also gave me the opportunity to show my support for other folks who do things a little differently. There was so much goodwill and compassion in the air (along with glitter and bubbles), I couldn’t stop smiling from the take-out to the break-down.

I arrived at my designated spot around 9am and wandered around looking at stuff for the next three hours. For those in the parade, it lasted about an hour, but with eight blocks’ worth of floats (give or take), I’m told for spectators it lasted four. As I walked up and down Fourth Avenue, it started to look like half of Seattle was going to be in that parade. Who is going to watch the parade if everyone’s already in it?

The other half, it turns out.

Massive groups of people lined the entire route, and the party at Seattle Center afterward was giant. I yikkity yakked with some friends next to the car before and after the parade outside the party, and was amazed by how many more people stopped by to talk, many of which I had met in the last year or so. It was awesome to be able to reconnect with some of my more far-flung hearse people and some other great people I’ve worked with along the way.

I may not be a supa-star yet, but here’s me trying:

I drove with the Gothic Pride procession, which included goths, zombies, and a giant batmobile:

I met interesting people who gave my car a hug:

And best of all, I ate gay cupcakes (and somehow refrained from giving tutorials):

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