shade - spt

the past several years now i've gotten up early, really really, early, thrown on a hat and driven down town to sit in the dark for a few hours to save our family a spot on the "shady" side of the street for the annual pioneer day parade. in the past i've taken a book because it's kind of a lonely three or four hours waiting until it's "legal" to actually save a spot (there's definitely something wrong with the system, but whatever). this seems like an extreme thing to do just for a shady spot, but since all the spaces are full by 4:30am or so, i must not be the only one who doesn't like sitting in the blaring sun.

this year began what i hope is a long tradition of girlfriends saving spots in the wee hours of the morning. kristy and i met a 3:30 AM to save our spots together and she made the whole experience managable, and FUN. we drank crystal light energy drinks to stay awake, listened to ABBA on her ipod, chatted about everything, froze somewhere around 5am and counted down the minutes to when the local einstein's bagels opened up so we could get some food! (mental note: next year bring snacks!) breakfast was so yummy, if you've never had a breakfast bagel from einstein's you definitely should. i was cold enough that it seemed like a good excuse to get a tall steamed milk with vanilla - one of my favorite treats - once it's cooled off slightly, ouch!later on after 7am came and went and our spot was secure, we still stood around chatting for another twenty minutes, apparently four hours isn't enough time to talk about everything you want to talk about. i love kristy, she makes everything fun with her happy attitude and funny stories, we always have plenty to laugh about! i hope we are saving spots every year for a long time. and it was worth it! we had great seats that ended up being in the shade about half the time! so what extreme measures would you go to enjoy the shade?