Chinese Lunar New Year Parade 2018

Maybe because I post about a majority of the things that I do, but I often get asked, "how do you do so much?" I'm generally at a loss on how to answer this because I don't have any secrets besides doing what I like and often doing those things alone—but here's a fact that might not be too evident if you only know me through this blog or Instagram: sometimes I just don't want to do anything at all.

The most recent example of hermit mood came on Sunday, when I had planned to go to the Chinese Lunar New Year Parade. I had been hyped about this parade for literally years—the last time we went was in 2014, and every year since I've wanted to go but never made it for reasons I've since forgotten.

This year I was determined to go and put it on my calendar months in advance. I was closely monitoring the weather and knew Sunday looked rainy, but I hoped it would clear in time for the parade. After obsessively checking the radar every few minutes on Sunday morning, I texted my mom "it looks crappy out, we probably shouldn't go," but she didn't get my text and showed up at my door anyway (not a big deal, she lives upstairs). After a few more minutes of me listing reasons why we shouldn't go, I finally rallied and decided to put on my waterproof hiking shoes and hope for the best.

We missed the beginning of the parade, but we were able to catch most of it and the rain mostly held off. After the parade, we had soup dumplings at Joe's Shanghai, almond cookie ice cream at the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory and walked around Chinatown marveling at the parade aftermath, having mini-heart attacks every time someone pulled a party popper.

The Chinese Lunar New Year parade is such a joyful event, with tons of confetti, lion, fan and umbrella dances, music and colorful costumes. It's more chill than the Thanksgiving Day Parade, less corporate than the Pride Parade and just as joyous as the Mermaid Parade. My only complaint is that I didn't see nearly as many dogs as I would've thought appropriate to welcome the Year of the Dog.

"Don't tell me not to live
Just sit and putter
Life's candy and the sun's
A ball of butter
Don't bring around a cloud
To rain on my parade
Don't tell me not to fly
I've simply got to..."