Ruminations on Rose Festival

Day One: Thursday started early, as I had to finish packing, catch the Tech Trolley to the MARTA station, MARTA to the airport, check-in, and make it through security. Once there, though, I had a good hour or so to bum around the airport. I always give myself more time than even conceivably necessary, mainly because I like airports so darn much. (Unfortunately, when flying American out of Hartsfield-Jackson one gets stuck in Terminal T, which is a den of crumminess as far as the terminal world goes. Oh, well.) I fell asleep on the flight, which is a big deal since I have immeasurable trouble sleeping on planes/trains/buses/cars/etc. Then the male flight attendant woke me up to ask if I wanted anything to drink. And, for some reason, the fact that he was a male flight attendant made it even more obnoxious. Don't ask me why. (For the curious, I got a Dr. Pepper since I was up anyway.) My first sight after setting foot in Texas was a man in a cowboy hat. It's good to be home. My first stop after setting foot in Texas was Whataburger. It's great to be home. I only had a couple of hours to regroup after driving in from Dallas before we headed up to the Cowan Center for four hours of rehearsal.

Day Two: Friday also started early, as we had to be up at Cowan at 7 for more coronation rehearsals. For those who don't know, Coronation is a lavish presentation of each girl and her custom designed dress, complete with lights, staging, and live music, hence the many rehearsals. After a few hours worth, we were given about fifteen minutes to dress and load the bus for the Ladies' Luncheon, where we stayed for about twenty minutes before bussing back to Cowan in order to dress, prep, and primp for the matinee coronation. Now, during every single rehearsal I had not had any problems or costume malfunctions. During the matinee performance, as I ended my turn about the stage and ascended the first flight of stairs, I suddenly found myself unable to move. I pulled a little bit, couldn't budge. Kevin (my escort) gave me wild eyes and said, "What's wrong?". I replied, "I'm stuck!". So he hopped down a couple steps and yanked my cape/train off of the nail it had snagged on and we continued up the stairs without any further hitch. I barely made it offstage before busting up laughing. After the finale, the matinee was over and we had some time to kill before getting ready for the evening performance. Alex and I searched for somewhere, anywhere, to get comfortable, and we settled on a carpeted ramp. Unfortunately, due to our headpieces and updos, it was near impossible to actually get comfortable. We did the best we could, though. The evening coronation went swimmingly, no nails to speak of, and afterwards we again had about fifteen minutes to get dressed for the Past Presidents cocktail party. They had chicken fingers and mashed potatoes.

Day Three: Following trend, Saturday started early. We had to be up at Cowan at 7 again to dress for the Rose Parade and Queen's Tea. The parade was a lot of fun. My float was sponsored by a liquor distribution company. Awesome, right? Thankfully, I have the Princess Diaries movies (One and Two) memorized, so I know the ins and outs of parade participation.We had some down time after the parade to lunch and chill before getting dressed once again for the Queen's Tea. This is where we all parked it under mushroom looking tents in the Rose Garden and little girls came up to talk to us while their grandmothers took pictures. I felt like a real princess. I even got to hold someone's baby. And thus concludes my time in my glitzy blue costume and headdress. It was sort of sad, but by now the sequins around the armholes had started jabbing my armpits, so it was also sort of happy to disrobe for the last time. Mostly sad, though, because it indicated my time as a princess was running short. The last Rose Festival activity of the weekend was the Rose Ball that night, and I got to get my hair did up with my tiara for the event. Then, before we knew it, it was time to get to Harvey Hall for, you guessed it, more rehearsals, but this time for the presentation of the court. We scooted to our dressing room after rehearsing and all donned our poufy white dresses. Now, I had been wearing heels quite a bit this weekend, and my dogs were barking. Since my dress went all the way to the floor and didn't even show my feet as I walked, what was stopping me from wearing comfortable shoes? Nothing. So, instead of putting on pretty white heels or uncomfortable white flats, I laced up my Jordans from my middle school basketball glory days. I didn't wear them to flaunt or even as a joke, I just really wanted some comfortable shoes that I wouldn't worry about teetering over in. I personally think that they made my presentation all the more confident. After walking down the runway, it was ball time. Kevin and I hit the bar hard - the dessert bar, that is. Pazookie and cakeballs?!?! How could we stay away? And of course we cut a few rugs.

Sunday was recovery day (read, El Charro day), and Monday was write thousands of thank you notes and run various errands and Don Juans day. Plus, Monday evening held a Footloose mommy-daughter date with two awesome ging's. On Tuesday, Gran Jan and I drove to DFW and I set off into the wild blue yonder, back towards quizzes, tests, class, and other reminders that I am no longer living in a fairytale. But it'd totally be ok if everyone still wanted to treat me like I was...