We were lucky enough to be invited to ride along on Finn's buddy Logan's grandfather's super cool antique fire engine in the Balboa Island parade last Sunday. It was a special year for the annual parade, as Newport Beach, the city in which Balboa Island is located, is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. As such, the parade route--all two adorable little tree-lined blocks of it--was jammed full of excited parade gazers, each and every one of them looking directly at and into the soul of Finnegan. 
Or at least that's what his expression seemed to convey after about a minute of being center stage on the bustling parade route.
After registering the sea of people looking exactly his way--With their eyes! Making eye contact! Every one of them!--as he rode atop the fire engine, our shy and publicly introverted little
fellow turned his back to the throngs of revelers and just stared at the floor with a ghostly pallor on his face. I suspected he was crashing face first into an existential snarl at that precise moment, questioning why so many people were looking at him, and then entertaining the off chance that this might mean he actually exists and then, if so, how the universe could continue to function in the face of such an overhwelming fact.
Although he never breathed a word about what was troubling him and didn't accept the lap seat I offered him as a comfort
from his apparent angst, his mood soon passed and he somehow mustered up the wherewithal to turn around and face the crowd again. This time with a half smile. You know, just in case someone was looking.
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