JAN. 1, 2009

For one day the town of Pasadena turns into Mardi Gras. Granted I have never been to New Orleans for that festival but I imagine that it's a some what close analogy.

When I got to my apartment (which is very, very close to the parade route) at 8:30 p.m. on New Year's Eve there were already thousands of people along the parade route. It was like watching a football tailgate. People with grills, tents, air mattresses, etc. getting ready for the parade that wouldn't start for 12 hours. It, quite frankly, boggles my mind because it didn't seem like your parade viewing really improved because you slept on Colorado Blvd. overnight.

The next morning I awoke to what seemed to be organized chaos. People everywhere but everything was very peaceful and civil. I don't I have ever seen so many people at 6:30 a.m. By all estimation there were something around 550,000 people watching the parade along the 5.5 mile route.

As for the actual two hour parade, I was fairly impressed by what I saw. The idea of parade is something similar to fireworks for me. Once you have seen one "show" you have seen them all. Of course, this IS the Rose Bowl parade; very creative floats through out not to mention one VERY cool fly over by the stealth bomber.

After the parade I made my way to the Rose Bowl to see if I could purchase tickets for the game. I wasn't willing to go over $40. It would have been nice to get into the game but I'm not a fan of either team and, well, money spent on a game is like a week's worth of groceries for me (welcome to the current economy).

I was offered a ticket for $50 but wouldn't take it. Most tickets were going for something in the $70-$80 range but I'd rather watch the game from the comforts of my living room then pay that amount.

I tried up until game time (about a two hour effort) to find tickets before heading back to my apartment to watch the game. As the game unfolded, I'm VERY glad I didn't pay money to watch that game. By the way, face value is $150 for a ticket.

New Year's Day was a good start for me. It was enjoyable to watch the Rose Parade and at least try to see the football game. I have no regrets to the start of my year.