Day 88: "Festival of Fruit Loops"

For a number of years now, I have observed with some degree of bewilderment and also fascination as friends and associates of mine here in Utah have traveled down to Spanish Fork in March for the annual "Festival of Colors," which is hosted by the hare krishnas who have a temple there. The main goal of attending this event, apparently, is to get "culturally enriched" by getting yourself covered in powder and dust that comes in many bright colors, taking pictures of it, and then posting them on Facebook. According to some skeptics I know, these colors are rumored to be carcinogenic.

Then, about the time of last year's event, a thought occurred to me: Could I accomplish basically the same effect by buying a box of Fruit Loops (similar in color as they are to the assorted powders and dust), mashing them into a fine powder, and then dumping the box's contents over my head?

The thought occurred to me again over the weekend when I saw more pictures from this year's festival, and so, earlier today, with some free time on my hands, I decided to put my theory to a test.

First, of course, I had to buy the box of Fruit Loops. It was $3.85 plus tax. Then, I had to have a couple of bowls, because Fruit Loops are just too good to waste a whole box on something like my project.

After enjoying a tasty breakfast, I got down to business, first by running over the box multiple times with my car.

I then found an unexpected ally in my mother, who observed what I was in the process of doing and who offered to assist me by then mashing up the bag some more with a rolling pin.

My next step was to mash up the rest of the bag's ingredients into a powder by using a hammer.

I was then finally ready to start dumping the powder onto my own head.

Behold, my new Facebook profile picture. I think it rivals many of the ones taken at the actual "Festival of Colors":

Conclusions: The powder turned out to be a mostly yellow concoction, but for the most part, I believe I was able to duplicate the "Festival of Colors" experience. I saved a lot of time and money (again, just $3.85 plus tax) that I would have otherwise spent on gas driving down to Spanish Fork and back. The powder was a bit tough to shampoo out of my scalp, but those are the breaks, I guess, when you're breaking new ground, as I feel I just did.