Why yes, we’re having a parade today! Today’s rolled in honor of the New Orlean’s Saints, and this town was seriously excited. Schools closed early, shops and businesses shut down, and people gathered. Now, I wisely took my bicycle, aware that there’d be nowhere to put a car and long, long streetcar waits, plus, of course, that’s just how I travel. But there were so many people out there, I had to go through Mid-City to end up on the same side of Canal as the friends I didn’t manage to find in the crowds. I snapped this picture at Canal and Burgundy before starting my slow push to the front. Four hours after this picture was taken I was almost at the rail, snapping blurry pictures of the Lombardi Trophy. Fantastic. But also, if I’m being totally honest, kinda awful. The parade was slow-moving and the route too short, meaning we were all pushing against each other. Throw in police officers on horses and a car trying to part the crowd and some freezing temps, and we were getting seriously antsy. I heard a woman behind me mutter, “I don’t feel special, this doesn’t feel special.” She and her friend had both come back home from Houston and Atlanta just to watch the Super Bowl and to go to this parade. But we agreed that we felt oh so special on Sunday. And that’s the difference between a spontaneous eruption of joy and a planned parade. Fortunately, I find incredible pleasures in both. On to the next one!