My Super Sweet Sunny Afternoon

I had the best of intentions to go to the museum yesterday, again. But, I was walking over to the museum through the park, and it was just too sunny out. So, I decided to lounge on a park bench and spend the afternoon reading my book and people watching.

Others apparently had a similar idea. There was this one woman, though, who wandered into the park with a HUGE, super-sized, two-weeks-in-Europe, suitcase. I was kind of curious what she had in the suitcase. A picnic? A puppet show? Illegal drugs to sell? After about ten minutes, she pulled a radio out of the case. I waited. Fifteen minutes later, about five or six people showed up. Suitcase Woman pulled some sparkly hats out of the case, distributed them to the group, and then started teaching everyone a choreographed dance routine.

My first thought was that this was some sort of practice for a South American episode of My Super Sweet Sixteen. But, the dance lacked the precocious raunchiness that characterizes most SS16 dances. Also, instead of singling out one person, humiliating her for no apparent reason except maybe that she's prettier than the birthday girl, and then telling her that she can no longer be a VIP at the party, these people all seemed to be getting along.

The group stopped dancing, and then they put on garbage bags, also from the Super Sweet Suitcase. Interestingly, they not only put the garbage bags on top, but also over their legs, as if they were signing up for the sack race at their dad's annual company picnic. After that, they walked -- or hopped -- over to me and asked me to take a picture. Which I did. (And then snuck one on my own camera.)

Then, about five or six other people walked over and joined the group. The new people asked me to film a video of the Super Sweet Garbage Bag Dance Troupe, using their digital camera. I was expecting someone to do something exciting -- like the dance, but with the trashbags on. No one actually did anything, however. After about twenty seconds of filming a bunch of people standing around, they said thanks and took back their camera. And, even more strange, the people that asked me to film it just stood next to me. I mean -- why bother asking a stranger to film something if you aren't going to be in the film? Maybe they just wanted to direct. (Seriously -- who doesn't these days?)