It's A Dead Man's Party!

What fun thing did I do in SoCal today?

I hit the Day of the Dead celebration at Rose Hills Memorial Park!

That's me in front in the MisNopales Elvis t-shirt ;

before going I had a lefty white lady moment of

I don't want to be culturally insensitive and/or look like I'm trying too hard!

So I ditched my sugar skull skirt and went with MisNopales,

which ended up being just right.

Just as promised, there were altars there...

...including this one in a cool car!

There was a sugar skull as big as I am!

Okay, it wasn't actually made of sugar.

But wouldn't it have been awesome if it was?

The non-profit Donate Life/ Done Vida had a big presence at the celebration.

 I thought this was cool not only because the message about organ donation

dovetailed nicely with the whole theme of Day of the Dead,

but also because my own Pa is alive and kicking today because he is an heart donor recipient.

This is the Jardin (Garden) of Donors, which had photos and quotes from donors, bless 'em.

I also saw Catrinas...

... which both the Sweet Man and I copped a pose nearby.

There were food trucks; 

when riding the shuttle to the location,

a woman and I shared a nice moment when she caught sight of them and gasped,

"Oh, look!  Food trucks!"  And I replied with "Yay!  Food trucks!"  

Then we both laughed with glee,

because who doesn't love greasy/sweet/spicy food from a food truck?

Sadly, these are not my tacos.  We tried to get sweet potato fries with toppings,

and they ran out of the toppings right as we finally got to the front of the line!  Boo!

But, hurrah!

 Craft booths!

I love me some good craft booths.

I bought a new green skully flower for my hair.

Now, what's that in my hand?

Why, the best thing of all!

Lalo Alcaraz, who does the comic strip La Cucaracha,

was selling signed prints!

Woo!  I was so freakin' excited!

I love Charlie Brown,

I love Day of the Dead,

so it's like he made these 

just 

for

MEEEEEE!!!

There was also dancing and singing performances,

but the Sweet Man and I headed out to do some personal Day of the Dead business:

visit my grandparents.

They're both buried there, but since it's over an hour from my house to Rose Hills,

the last time I was there was when Grandpa was buried in 1993.

A big part of Day of the Dead

is cleaning and decorating the gravestones of friends and family,

and I came prepared.

Props to the Sweet Man for helping me find the gravestones;

although I had the area and number, it was still a scavenger hunt.

He had the good idea of using his smartphone to type in nearby names on gravestones,

so we were able to triangulate how close we were.

The gravestones weren't in too bad of shape,

but I clipped the grass around them, wiped them off with a soapy cloth...

... and put some flowers on them from my garden.

Then the Sweet Man and I enjoyed some flan we'd bought from a food truck (yay!)

 as a little picnic.

Picnics in the cemetery are actually part of the Day of the Dead celebration,

and this particular dessert had a nice tie-in to my grandma:

she died when I was just eight, so I don't have a lot of memories of her.

But!

One memory that I do have is of her giving me a spoonful of sweetened condensed milk

when she was baking with it.

And what's the very first ingredient of the flan we enjoyed on this fine, sunny day?

Sweetened condensed milk!

It was like a little hello from Grandma.