The local actor's union, ACTRA, had the opportunity to enter for the first time and I'd gotten an email a few days ago to volunteer. This wouldn't be the first parade I'd been in, but it was the first non-gay parade I'd been in since moving back to Winnipeg.

I layered up on 3 tops and sweats, leotards and pants and set out on the bus downtown. Most of the members were there already, while the owner of the loft where we met up at was at a funeral still, so her 2 Scottish Terriers were constantly on the look-out for her. We got our costumes once the loft owner (her loft looked cool, I was envious) and I was to dress as a local from 1860, meanwhile I had my dreadlocks that were so not even 1960. To contradict the era, I had fibreoptic flashlights to twirl while marching down the street. My outfit was in referece to a TV show called, "Murdoch Mysteries" that just finished shooting weeks ago: I didn't get called to audition for that or even do background for it! Yes, in Winnipeg weather, they want us to walk several blocks and grin like we so enjoyed the weather. Being shuttled down to the main site, we got to hang out and have soup and a bun, then off to see our float: it was pulled by a semi attached while lugging a police car near the back end. The idea was there'd be a make-up woman working on 2 girls, 2 tango dancers representing "Shall We Dance?" from when J.Lo and Richard Gere were here shooting that movie, and the cop car was just cool, accompanied by a soundtrack for every section of the float. I walk along side of it, turning on a battery pack in back of me for the lights on my dress that was also layered. Once we marched down the street and kept moving, the cold didn't bother us at all. One little boy, who got to be a union member before him mom, wore a Spiderman outfit: he stole the show. He was zipping around on his little scooter and everyone recognised him immediately. "Hey Spidey!", or "Hey Spiderman!" was the most common outcry in our direction, meanwhile nobody could figure out who the rest of us were.