homecoming: a parade

tonight, after the neighborhood dinner we've been planning for and having meetings about all week which served 40 people delicious soup in elsewhere's imaginary family restaurant, fancy bistro, and elementary school cafeteria; after the unexpected sing-a-long which sprung up in the kitchen by non-elsewherians and which puzzled and confused us all because it was so normally weird; after the game of CITY and a possum-busting theme song played with the only three chords i know; after the dance party; we went on a parade walk.

blanket, dan, ernesto, and lineberry and i made a parade down elm street. blanket played his cassette-player-boom-box hooked up to a tetris gameboy which was our soundtrack, and the rest of us pulled small wooden elsewhere dogs on strings, each of which squeaked a little when they rolled. we wore our CITY costumes, and paraded through the crowds of people out on the town for friday night, waiting in line for the clubs downtown. i felt especially beautiful in a yellow elsewhere dress which draped just right and had long pleats to the floor which made for especially regal parade walking.

it didn't matter that the dress didn't really fit or that i had just met these people four days ago, or that my desk isn't set up or my bed isn't quite right, or that i'm missing so many of my closest elsewhere family members, or that the parade itself was entirely stupid. i'm home.