Rose Parade, part 3
Jan. 7th, 2007 11:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jainaAlllllmost there!
Monday-- the Rose Parade
We were up at 2 am, to be down in the lobby by 2:30 so we could be driven over to the parade trailers. Alexis (from LFL) drove the dressers and hair/makeup people over in her SUV, because they needed the big van for all the characters who were coming a bit later. We had to go through all these little checkpoints where Rose Parade staff would check our car's credentials and then wave us through. It was very, very dark and very, very cold when we got to the trailers. The only light was coming from the ginormous floodlights that were illuminating all the floats parked along the next street. They got the generators in the trailers going, so we could get the heat and lights on at least while we waited for the actors/characters/models to arrive. We didn't really try to do much costume prep, because we only had one costume trailer for all the Queens, Jedi, Ewoks, Chewie, C-3P0, and Second Vader, and all our breakfast food was in there too. And the Ewok costumes were laid out along the counter, and THEIR DEAD EYES WILL STEAL YOUR SOUL. We did set up a tarp and chairs outside as a sort of waiting area for once people were into costume.
The not-yet-costumed characters (except for Andrew, aka Second Vader, who was already in full rig) arrived shortly after we did, and the waiting game began. There was a lot of extra time built into the schedule in case of mishap or emergency; thankfully, nothing happened such that we needed that time, but it did mean we sat around a lot. Mostly we all hung out in one trailer or the other, trying to keep warm. We met the four guys playing the Ewoks, who were hysterical; Chris, whose C-3P0 costume is just astounding and who is also the sweetest guy you'd ever want to meet, and Andrew (Vader) and Mike (Chewie), also great people. We contemplated the horror of Darth Chewie and Ewok Vader, and the guys geeked out over Chewie's head while the girls geeked out over Padme's costumes. Eventually the makeup trailer started to call people over to get painted (Aalya first, of course), so we began prepping the costumes. Having the dress rehearsal the day before really helped here, because everyone had their own assigned costume and knew what parts went into it.
Once we hit about 7 am, things seemed to go much more quickly. Ashley needed to be in costume sooner than the other girls, since she was going to be interviewed by I don't even know who, so she was shipped out at 7:20, Tree holding her skirts behind her. (Tree and Ashley discovered then what every Padme costumer already knows-- no matter which dress you're wearing, you will *always* be called Leia by at least three people.) We kicked out the boys so the girls could get into costume, then the girls vacated the trailer so the boys could dress. Some final makeup touchups, since Suwanna and Nicole had accidentally slept on their Luminara and Aalya paint and Kelsey's and Alaire's white faces were cracking like crazy; a few adhesive heading pads taped under Nicole's costume, and we set off from the trailers at 7:45, some in golf carts and the rest walking, but it was a very short distance to our floats. That damn spiral staircase again, but the girls got up it fine and I managed not to trip over the Red Senate robe I was carrying. Alaire got settled in, she figured out how to arrange her dress so the belt connecting her to the support pole wouldn't show, and we got her over-robe on and straightened her headpiece. Then ACK! the float started moving, and I said "Er, this is going to stop, right?" and the parade guy below assured me that it would, and he was right, and I hopped off as soon as it did. But I got to ride the Naboo float! Whoo!
We stayed a few minutes to make sure our queens were fine, but we kept being shooed away by parade workers, and anyway the parade had already started and we needed to get to our seats to make sure we actually *saw* the SW Spectacular, so we waved goodbye and took off for our seats as fast as possible. It was slow going at points, with all the people, but when we got to the grandstand area there was space enough to run, which we did, because OMG! Parade! Going by us! We found our seats easily enough, and found there were two ladies already sitting there! They discovered that they were in the wrong seats-- we were row R, they were RR-- and so all was well, and we sat down and calmed down and watched all the bands and floats and horses going by. And then it was Spectacular time! We waved and screamed at everybody, and the Grambling band danced in front of us (we were right below the HGTV cameras, just before the turn), and we spotted Mary and took a picture, and the 501st looked SO impressive, and we hollered at our Queens, and then it was gone. One of the LFL people sitting with us said, "Wow. All those months of work, for those four minutes." But what a glorious four minutes it was.
Tree went down to get us coffee and donuts (or just donuts, for me) and we watched the rest of the parade, which really was a lot of fun. I loved seeing all the different bands. It made me miss high school marching band something fierce. We were all mightily cofused by Jetpack Guy, because we saw him for about half a second when the float turned the corner, he came out, and then ZOOM! shot out of our sight. Seeing it on TV later, it made a lot more sense. When the parade was over, we made like salmon swimming upstream and walked through the following crowd back to the trailers, to wait for our costumed characters to be returned from the parade finish. And wait. And wait. And wait some more. Traffic, unsurprisingly, was horrendous, and the vans were inching their way back to us. We turned on the TV in our trailer just in time to catch the Spectacular on the first parade rerun, and hear Bob Eubanks' oh-so-delightful commentary. Lots of yelling in the trailer, but not nearly as much as I'm sure there was in the lobby of the Sheraton when the 501st saw it. Joanie's husband joined us, and I *completely* didn't connect him with being Darth_Manos! Felt like an idiot when I got home, got back online, and saw his posts. He was just hilarious, lots of fun to talk to, great guy.
Finally, finally, everyone arrived back at the trailers. Alexis' SUV came first, with a few people including poor Kelsey, who'd had to go to the first aid tent because of all the engine fumes she inhaled! Ugh! Then the van arrived with everyone else, and we got them out of costume as quickly as possible, since they'd been in for five or so hours at this point. The girls had gotten their headpieces off themselves, though, thank goodness. And that was it-- time to pack everything back up, check it off against the list, and make sure everyone had their own belongings with them. Just as we were finishing and ready to pack everything into Laela's van, it was announced that the van back to the Sheraton was leaving *right then,* so we had to quickly say our goodbyes and thank yous (which were many!) and go back to the hotel, so we could check out before our 2 pm deadline. Alex and Tree pretty much left right away, but Debby and I stuck around for a bit. We said goodbye to Ashley and Alaire, and Kelsey and Matt, and talked for a bit with Chris, Andrew, and Mike. And I got to meet Joslynn (GentleBant) and her wonderful family and even hold her unbelievably adorable baby daughter. But I was fading fast and we still had a two-hour drive ahead of us, so we packed up and headed out. And had Carl's Jr. Mmm, food. And I got home and slept for, um. A long time.
It was truly an amazing weekend; definitely not something I'll ever forget. Huge, huge thanks are due to Mary for making it possible for myself, Debby, and Tree to be a part of it. Giant thanks also to Laela and Joanie for welcoming us as part of their team and being so understanding of my costume-geekiness, and for generally being awesome people. Finally, more giant thanks to Alaire, Ashley, and Kelsey for being so fantastic and easy to work with, for being gorgeous Queens, and for being Star Wars fans! And to everyone who was in the parade, everyone who worked behind the scenes at the parade, everyone who decorated the floats, everyone who supported our parade participants in whatever way they could-- you all ROCK!
So ends the Rose Parade saga!
Pictures from friends:
Mike and Allison's
Kay Dee's
Carolyn's
Rachel's
Monday-- the Rose Parade
We were up at 2 am, to be down in the lobby by 2:30 so we could be driven over to the parade trailers. Alexis (from LFL) drove the dressers and hair/makeup people over in her SUV, because they needed the big van for all the characters who were coming a bit later. We had to go through all these little checkpoints where Rose Parade staff would check our car's credentials and then wave us through. It was very, very dark and very, very cold when we got to the trailers. The only light was coming from the ginormous floodlights that were illuminating all the floats parked along the next street. They got the generators in the trailers going, so we could get the heat and lights on at least while we waited for the actors/characters/models to arrive. We didn't really try to do much costume prep, because we only had one costume trailer for all the Queens, Jedi, Ewoks, Chewie, C-3P0, and Second Vader, and all our breakfast food was in there too. And the Ewok costumes were laid out along the counter, and THEIR DEAD EYES WILL STEAL YOUR SOUL. We did set up a tarp and chairs outside as a sort of waiting area for once people were into costume.
The not-yet-costumed characters (except for Andrew, aka Second Vader, who was already in full rig) arrived shortly after we did, and the waiting game began. There was a lot of extra time built into the schedule in case of mishap or emergency; thankfully, nothing happened such that we needed that time, but it did mean we sat around a lot. Mostly we all hung out in one trailer or the other, trying to keep warm. We met the four guys playing the Ewoks, who were hysterical; Chris, whose C-3P0 costume is just astounding and who is also the sweetest guy you'd ever want to meet, and Andrew (Vader) and Mike (Chewie), also great people. We contemplated the horror of Darth Chewie and Ewok Vader, and the guys geeked out over Chewie's head while the girls geeked out over Padme's costumes. Eventually the makeup trailer started to call people over to get painted (Aalya first, of course), so we began prepping the costumes. Having the dress rehearsal the day before really helped here, because everyone had their own assigned costume and knew what parts went into it.
Once we hit about 7 am, things seemed to go much more quickly. Ashley needed to be in costume sooner than the other girls, since she was going to be interviewed by I don't even know who, so she was shipped out at 7:20, Tree holding her skirts behind her. (Tree and Ashley discovered then what every Padme costumer already knows-- no matter which dress you're wearing, you will *always* be called Leia by at least three people.) We kicked out the boys so the girls could get into costume, then the girls vacated the trailer so the boys could dress. Some final makeup touchups, since Suwanna and Nicole had accidentally slept on their Luminara and Aalya paint and Kelsey's and Alaire's white faces were cracking like crazy; a few adhesive heading pads taped under Nicole's costume, and we set off from the trailers at 7:45, some in golf carts and the rest walking, but it was a very short distance to our floats. That damn spiral staircase again, but the girls got up it fine and I managed not to trip over the Red Senate robe I was carrying. Alaire got settled in, she figured out how to arrange her dress so the belt connecting her to the support pole wouldn't show, and we got her over-robe on and straightened her headpiece. Then ACK! the float started moving, and I said "Er, this is going to stop, right?" and the parade guy below assured me that it would, and he was right, and I hopped off as soon as it did. But I got to ride the Naboo float! Whoo!
We stayed a few minutes to make sure our queens were fine, but we kept being shooed away by parade workers, and anyway the parade had already started and we needed to get to our seats to make sure we actually *saw* the SW Spectacular, so we waved goodbye and took off for our seats as fast as possible. It was slow going at points, with all the people, but when we got to the grandstand area there was space enough to run, which we did, because OMG! Parade! Going by us! We found our seats easily enough, and found there were two ladies already sitting there! They discovered that they were in the wrong seats-- we were row R, they were RR-- and so all was well, and we sat down and calmed down and watched all the bands and floats and horses going by. And then it was Spectacular time! We waved and screamed at everybody, and the Grambling band danced in front of us (we were right below the HGTV cameras, just before the turn), and we spotted Mary and took a picture, and the 501st looked SO impressive, and we hollered at our Queens, and then it was gone. One of the LFL people sitting with us said, "Wow. All those months of work, for those four minutes." But what a glorious four minutes it was.
Tree went down to get us coffee and donuts (or just donuts, for me) and we watched the rest of the parade, which really was a lot of fun. I loved seeing all the different bands. It made me miss high school marching band something fierce. We were all mightily cofused by Jetpack Guy, because we saw him for about half a second when the float turned the corner, he came out, and then ZOOM! shot out of our sight. Seeing it on TV later, it made a lot more sense. When the parade was over, we made like salmon swimming upstream and walked through the following crowd back to the trailers, to wait for our costumed characters to be returned from the parade finish. And wait. And wait. And wait some more. Traffic, unsurprisingly, was horrendous, and the vans were inching their way back to us. We turned on the TV in our trailer just in time to catch the Spectacular on the first parade rerun, and hear Bob Eubanks' oh-so-delightful commentary. Lots of yelling in the trailer, but not nearly as much as I'm sure there was in the lobby of the Sheraton when the 501st saw it. Joanie's husband joined us, and I *completely* didn't connect him with being Darth_Manos! Felt like an idiot when I got home, got back online, and saw his posts. He was just hilarious, lots of fun to talk to, great guy.
Finally, finally, everyone arrived back at the trailers. Alexis' SUV came first, with a few people including poor Kelsey, who'd had to go to the first aid tent because of all the engine fumes she inhaled! Ugh! Then the van arrived with everyone else, and we got them out of costume as quickly as possible, since they'd been in for five or so hours at this point. The girls had gotten their headpieces off themselves, though, thank goodness. And that was it-- time to pack everything back up, check it off against the list, and make sure everyone had their own belongings with them. Just as we were finishing and ready to pack everything into Laela's van, it was announced that the van back to the Sheraton was leaving *right then,* so we had to quickly say our goodbyes and thank yous (which were many!) and go back to the hotel, so we could check out before our 2 pm deadline. Alex and Tree pretty much left right away, but Debby and I stuck around for a bit. We said goodbye to Ashley and Alaire, and Kelsey and Matt, and talked for a bit with Chris, Andrew, and Mike. And I got to meet Joslynn (GentleBant) and her wonderful family and even hold her unbelievably adorable baby daughter. But I was fading fast and we still had a two-hour drive ahead of us, so we packed up and headed out. And had Carl's Jr. Mmm, food. And I got home and slept for, um. A long time.
It was truly an amazing weekend; definitely not something I'll ever forget. Huge, huge thanks are due to Mary for making it possible for myself, Debby, and Tree to be a part of it. Giant thanks also to Laela and Joanie for welcoming us as part of their team and being so understanding of my costume-geekiness, and for generally being awesome people. Finally, more giant thanks to Alaire, Ashley, and Kelsey for being so fantastic and easy to work with, for being gorgeous Queens, and for being Star Wars fans! And to everyone who was in the parade, everyone who worked behind the scenes at the parade, everyone who decorated the floats, everyone who supported our parade participants in whatever way they could-- you all ROCK!
So ends the Rose Parade saga!
Pictures from friends:
Mike and Allison's
Kay Dee's
Carolyn's
Rachel's
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Date: 2007-01-15 05:18 am (UTC)