Oy!
    24 hours ago I was on a bus to Wells, Maine for their 350th birthday parade. Because one of the members of the honor guard didn’t have the common courtesy to tell anyone whether or not she was going to be there, I was asked to bring my colorguard flags. About an hour before the parade, the bus had to leave to get to the end of the parade, and the person still hadn’t shown up so I ended up fighting with a new leather cup (I almost miss the days of the metal cup lined flag holsters) and the corps flag (which is the size of the flags I used to work with as a kid).
    About half an hour later Little Miss Rude finally shows up, bitching about being given the wrong directions. Now, I can relate to the wrong directions issue, but she has a cell phone! Would it have been so hard to call someone who came on the bus? Anyhow, she insisted on carrying the American flag and the woman who was originally going to carry it asked for the corps flag (she usually carries it so I had no problems with it). I was hoping to get a sabre, now that I had nothing, but they pulled someone out of the horn line to carry it, and I ended up borrowing someone’s Danny Boy flag, which turned out to be not too bad since I got to take off the cup, as the Danny Boy flag is shorter than the other flags in the honor guard.
    They (the corps bigwigs) told us the parade was only going to be a little over a mile. Yeah right! After an estimated 3 mile, nearly non-stop, march in the hot sun we arrived at the viewing area. We presented to Papa Lutz, who apparently had to be driven to the end because of his health, then presented to the viewing stand before heading around the corner to the official end. I feel bad for the person who was standing next to Little Miss Rude because she was bitching practically all through the parade. Apparently she was upset because during her disappearing act (she was supposed to use the bathroom and returned 20 minutes later) we moved. Hell, the parade had started! She should be thankful we didn’t leave her ass behind!
    Anyhow, after the parade we went to the Lobster Barn for dinner, courtesy of the corps. We had a great time. I heard stories about the original 27th Lancers, the 2-7 Alumni (the original name of the Light Brigade), and plans for the future. I also got to watch a grown man play with his food. I suppose it didn’t help that I said “hi” to his lobster before he proceeded to chow down on it. *laughs*
    The bus ride home was relatively peaceful–relative meaning there were three members who generally get chatty when they’ve been drinking. I was so tired I fell asleep and woke up an hour later. We pulled into the Revere Muni Lot about 6:30pm, where I waited for Glenn for half an hour to show up. Luckily I had company.
    Right now I’m quite sore. The parade was quite a workout, and holding a flag in one position for pretty much the entire parade while trying to concentrate on keeping in line with the rest of the honor guard (and trying not to bounce) tends to tense you up. So right now I’m sure it’s going to be painful getting dressed. If only I could find the heating pad!

Oh! I just have to share this, even if it’s totally unrelated to the initial post: I woke up this morning, around 4;30 to the sound of paper being shredded by tiny teeth. My first thought was “Oh shit! We’ve got another mouse!” I got out of bed and turned on the light to find Jarret’s hamster by my feet. Usually small critters run from bigger ones, so I found it amusing when she didn’t run away, and instead went back to chewing up Ben’s homework (I keep telling him not to leave it around!). What I thought was even more humorous was Amber T. Pusscat sauntering over, looking at the hamster, then looking at me as if to say “Oh, by the way, the hamster’s loose.”

Babs