We left off at the tamale truck after a long, craziness-filled walk in search of sustenance. Once we had our food in hand we took a different route back to our spot in hopes of avoiding the traffic we encountered earlier. It turned out to be a good idea since we ran into an "official" photographer who took our photo with the fan crowd and City Hall in the background. (www.sfgiants.com/fanphotos gallery 66 if you want to check it out)
By the time we got back, the crowd was densely packed and watching Comcast Sportsnet on the jumbotron.
Goodies were thrown out to the waiting mob. JR caught us some Giants towels, much to the chagrin of the smaller man behind him who looked about ready to fight for those towels. He got a few in the end, so all was well.
People squeezed in tightly but still happy and excited. Until...
...Glitter Sweater Girl showed up.
Glitter Sweater Girl and her two friends pushed through the crowd asking people to just let them pass through. The guys standing around us specifically asked them if they just needed to get through, and they very clearly responded that, yes, they were just passing through...and then they stopped. Right in front of a little girl, completely blocking her view of anything. At first everyone around around us was just grumbling quietly about how rude it was to push yourself through the crowd to the front telling everyone that you're just passing through. Even worse that this was done at 11am when everyone else had been there hours earlier. The grumbling got louder, with more intent of being overheard by the offenders. Empowered by the angry rumbling growing behind him, Mustache Man in the top right corner of the picture below (father of the blocked little girl) confronted Glitter Sweater Girl and her friends about how rude they were being for stopping there. Drama ensued.
Glitter Sweater Girl turned up the attitude yelling that she was already there so get over it. Orange Headband Lady (mother of blocked little girl) pointed out that she had chosen to stop right in front of her little girl. Of course, Attitude Problem Glitter Sweater Girl didn't care. That completely set the crowd off. Loud boos and crazy insults were yelled out through the crowd. Beanie Guy on the left started leading the crowd in a loud chant of "Party Poopers!" In response, Glitter Sweater Girl turned up the attitude even higher. The insults got worse. Glitter Sweater Girl's friends begged her to move to get away from the anger. No luck. People around even started calling her a Dodger fan--the worst insult possible in a crowd celebrating the World Champion Giants. Normally, I would feel bad for someone being insulted and boo'd this badly (I even feel bad when opposing teams/players are boo'd in sporting events. Unless, they're the Dodgers, of course. :-P). However, you can't push your way through a crowd that's been standing for hours, stop and block the view of a child without any guilt or remorse. So wrong. It was slightly sad that the crowd was insulting her (only slightly because she was dishing it out to the crowd as well), but even I really wanted her to move. Scoot over and block an adult, maybe. Don't stand your ground in front of a child.
The ruckus finally caught the attention of security and patrolling police who came over to investigate what the fuss was about. The crowd immediately pointed out the perpetrator, who tried to deny any fault. Yeah, like the crowd would allow that. They only got louder. Glitter Sweater Girl finally moved when security threatened to remove her from the event. Victory for the mob.
For the records: Attitude Problem Glitter Sweater Girl straight on.
On a less angry note, I caught a shot of another random guy's hat and the dome. I think I have a thing for Giants hats on well-placed strangers.
What a lucky day to be a City Hall employee. The balconies of City Hall were packed with employees watching the action. Check out the outfit of the guy in the middle: Giants jersey with a tie. Awesome.
Finally, the parade started. The mob cheered while watching the parade on the jumbotron. Yes, we had come all this way to basically watch the parade on TV. Wanna know something even more sad? I didn't get to watch.
See the haze in the air? Again, not sunshine. The smoke was so heavy that it made me dizzy. I couldn't stand without the world going dim, so I sat down on the damp grass where the air was cleaner. I popped up now and again because I really wanted to see the parade, but the smoke got me every. time. I was really sad to miss so much, but I'm all too familiar with the chaos someone fainting causes. I really didn't want to be dragged away from the action by an EMT. Yes, the main reason I didn't want to faint was because I didn't want to miss the Giants World Series celebrations!
Then the parade ended and the activity at City Hall began.
To be continued...
Next up: The final ceremony, and Aubrey Huff's hidden talent.
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