Weird and Wonderful: Small Town in the City

Once a year our lovely little corner of the big city struts its strange with a local parade in which absolutely anyone can take part, doing, well, almost anything.  Floats range from the elaborate to the merely erratic, but invariably each contributes to a marvelous sense of fine fellows well met that pervades the day. 

Children ride by on flower festooned bicycles or joystick controlled turtle sandboxes ingeniously motorized by tinkering parents.  A dog walks past, completely at ease in dragon wings of a blue nearly as bright as his eyes.  Sexy, cane twirling clowns share love messages in day glow paints while blasting Lady Gaga from a boombox. 

People meander along the boulevard, seamlessly shifting between spectator and participant as ocean breezes blow through the oaks.  One fiercely fabulous Mad Max-ian couple pauses for a tender moment after conquering the boulevard on their Viking horned hog. Amidst the friendly chaos, I marvel at how we've managed to stumble into a bit of small town here in the mountains of one of the world's larger cities.

If you, too, like your small town with a good dose of quirk, the fine rom coms of Molly Harper, Alice Clayton, Penny Reid and Jennifer Crusie are a safe bet. I'll link to a few of my favorites, and would love to hear about any of yours in the comments. I don't suppose any of them feature a charmingly offbeat family of feather bedecked, motorcycle riding, new age Vikings, do they?