Chinese New Year

I decided to head down to Chinatown for the Lunar New Year. It definately was not my first Chinese New Year spent in Chinatown (I have made it to the celebrations in Chicago, London, and LA before) but this year was the first time that I got to stand at the head of the parade and witness first hand the massive amounts of firecrackers that were being let off to celebrate the start of the parade. Somehow, by sheer dumb luck, I got front row seats for this fiasco. As I watch pyrotechnicians and LAFD workers set up a stand with over 100,000 firecrackers attached, it never really occured to me how loud the whole thing was going to be. I only thought of how cool it would be to see it...so I stopped, stood, and watched. Two groups of men prepared themselves for the dragon dance, news photographers got their cameras ready, and suddenly the firecrackers ignited and HOLY COW WAS IT LOUD!!! I got hit by a bunch of random firecrackers, but barely even noticed because of the sheer chaos of the moment. It was awesome! The dragons danced, smoke was everywhere, babies cried, and I thought, "what an awesome way to celebrate the new year."

Happy Year of the Dog everyone.