Dry Decorations for the 2010 Rose Parade

I helped decorate the 2010 rose parade float for the City of Anaheim at the Rose Pavillion on Saturday, December 19, 2009.  For that day and the previous weeks, they were working on the dry decorations.  The flowers will have to wait until after Christmas, when I will be unable to go help.  In the morning and early afternoon, I was cutting straw flower petals, which we had to sort into different colors.  They will go into blenders, and become liquid to be painted on the floats.

For the last two hours, I was working on the sign that would be placed on the flost.  It was not easy gluing onion seeds onto the wood and metal.  They either kept falling off or getting stuck onto my hands and fingers.

For once, I got to see the behind-the-scenes of the Tournament of Roses Parade floats in real life.  The drive back from Pasadena to my apartment was torture.  Traffic was terrible despite it being the weekend, and there were quite a few accidents.

The floats are beautiful, but every year, I feel they spend too much time and money on them.  I think all that could have gone to some more important things than flowers.  They could probably celebrate the new year and decorate the floats in cheaper ways, such as with just wood, cardboard, and paint.  The floats would still look beautiful that way.