It’s the evening of the Sunday before Memorial Day, or what I like to call My Favorite Day of the Year. Today, Ingrid and I danced in the San Francisco Carnaval Parade!
Just Friday (!) we FINALLY received the shipment from Brazil, for those of us who had purchased a made-to-order costume. The costumes were late because they were held up in customs. Anyway we got them at the last possible minute and I loved my costume from the first moment I laid eyes on it. I’ve been dancing this parade for 5 or 6 years now, and I’ve always made my own costume along with the other dancers. But my new group, Samba Mundial, offers the option of ordering from Brazil, and I just felt like I deserved it : ) so I went ahead and splurged!
Ingrid loved my costume too, and this meant another trip to Joann Fabrics to modify hers to look a little more like mine. We added the veil like mine has (which I actually wish mine didn’t have) and fancied up the crown a bit with some sparkly stuff, then added the beautiful wired ribbons that I curled over my fingers so it would look like mermaid hair. It was stressful doing this at the last minute but very worth it in the end. Ingrid’s costume looked unique and lovely with her little braids. All the other little girls on the float were dressed like mermaids. You can see some of them in the pictures Andrew took. They are super adorable, even the ones that were scowling the whole time.
Last year, Ingrid wasn’t fully committed to being in the parade and I had to talk it up to her quite a bit. She did dress up in the costume I made her and walked with Andrew for part of the parade, even waved to a few people. This year, she seemed much more interested and so I decided once she told me that she wanted to do it, that I wouldn’t continue to offer her an out like I did last year. We set our minds that she was going to do it. Fortunately, my new group has their stuff together and so they had a float for the kids, complete with a full-sized mermaid (my dance teacher Sandy) and even a giant seahorse! Ingrid didn’t have to walk, just to endure the hot sun and two and a half hours of doing the same thing. She seemed fine, then suddenly just as we were lining up with only two groups ahead of us, she told me she wanted to go back to the car! She didn’t want to be in the parade anymore! Furthermore, she wanted to be with me! Which I could not do, since I was assigned a spot in the dancers’ block ahead of the float. I took Ingrid to a quieter spot in the shade and she cried for a few minutes while I sat next to her with my arm around her (it was hard to hold her with my costume). After about ten minutes, she seemed to feel better and I asked her if she would go on the float if daddy would too, and she could sit on his lap. She said OK. Five minutes later, she was on the float without daddy and doing OK. The next time I saw her two and a half hours later, she told me that she had a fun time and she’d made a new friend named Ceci. Andrew told me that she danced a bunch and waved to people. My teacher Sandy said they’d voted Ingrid best dancer on the float! That’s my girl : ) She’s already talking about next year!
As for me, I enjoyed myself immensely. I have to admit this year was less about the dancing and more about the fancy costume. I posed for so many photos with so many people it was ridiculous. Ingrid and I couldn’t take ten steps without someone asking us if they could take our photo. It’s a little out of my comfort zone to pose for strangers, but then so was my costume! I do wish my costume was less bulky and I could have moved more easily. There were some dance steps I just couldn’t do without tripping over my arm decorations. Next year I’ll know better what to look for.
Thanks to my wonderful hubby we have many, many photos of this Carnaval.
