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november 3, 2001.I'm in the middle or perhaps I'm at the end of a strange stretch of days, days when I run from meeting to meeting with the certain knowledge that none of what I'm doing will get me money or course credit. The volunteer chute, I suppose I could call it. Every once in awhile I have to remind myself that I'm having fun, damn it, that I wouldn't trade this for anything. Except that I have moments when I would trade it for something, and those are usually the moments when I'm trudging up the hill or trying to get out of bed or hearing about another thing I need to attend. Those are the moments when I'd trade all the good somethings for a little stretch of quiet nothing. But be that as it may. This weekend the university hosted a Maritime conference for educators, run by my former English methods prof & my former art prof. They contacted me a few weeks ago with the idea that I would help them to make this a conference where the participants created reflective artifacts of various kinds: writing, art, music, etc. In particular, they wanted a repeat performance of the free-for-all poetry exercise as it could be an ice-breaker for participants. Then Flower wrote a play & asked me to be in it, so I was looking forward to wearing my bodysuit in front of a crowd. And there was also a drum circle scheduled for lunch today, which I gradually assumed responsibility for recording electronically. In between all of this I had appointments to babysit at the church, to create preliminary artworks, and to set up the church webpage. Somewhere in there I was expected to work 12 hours too, and of course we had SMILE this morning. It's the kind of atmosphere I don't thrive in particularly well, because I have to haul vast amounts of stuff from place to place without benefit of a motor vehicle. There is also little sleep budgeted. And like I said before, there were times when I was so fed up with walking back & forth from cascading appointments that I had to remind myself to enjoy the fact that I chose all of it. Anyway, everything worked out quite well. The webpage is several steps from existing as an account as of today but that should change this week. All of the poetry creation went well and I very much enjoyed today's drum circle (maybe because there was a yummy free lunch!) The only problem is that I didn't get any work-work done, so I'll be up to my ass in web conversions tomorrow instead of concentrating on homework. But you know, whatever. At least I got to bang on a drum today. I've been feeling pretty uncreative lately, so every little bit helps.
Last night we went out to the annual Ed. Hallowe'en house crawl. You may remember that last year I got loaded & slid down a muddy slope on my ass in fishnets & the Dress. This year I acquitted myself much better, but maybe that was because I was wearing pants (I came in my unused Joan Jett costume) and we went home early to make sure that we could attend SMILE this morning. I did indeed get drunk, which paradoxically both increased my enjoyment of my peers & made me miss my rocket gang at home something terrible. Highlight: seeing Alpha in a sexy black dress, pale face, fake blood & temporary black hair - just like me, but with cleavage! - and then biting her on the neck as the night got late because I felt a compulsion I haven't felt since I was a teenager. Highlight #2: Petra getting smashed on purloined beer, sitting in the Boy's lap & shooting everyone with her toy gun. Highlight #3: everyone making a big deal about the PVC pants. Highlight #4: drunken confidences that, when recalled in the sober light of morning, forced me to make up a rule - you do not talk about House Crawl outside of House Crawl. (Rule 2, you do not talk about House Crawl outside of House Crawl!) The Anti-Stephen wore the same hobo costume as last year. I'm beginning to think it's not a costume, which brings me to an interesting point in my story. When I was dressing as Joan Jett, the Boy made the observation that it wasn't much of a costume, as I wear most of that gear to the clubs.
I always have that problem. I suppose the crux of the issue is that I fell in love with my Grade 11 Hallowe'en costume, and soon I wanted to dress like that cute vampire all the time. As Patty and Selma say, "this outfit started out as a Hallowe'en costume, but it soon worked its way into our regular rotation." It's so true.
this time 4 years ago: one i keep trying to answer, knowing there is no answer |
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This is the perpetual dilemna of the drama queen, that all actual costumes have to reside in the details. For instance, I wore my white sneakers with the PVC, something that made my blood run cold but was absolutely necessary for the 80's feel. And I wore a kerchief around my neck & red lipstick. But it's hard to point that out as evidence of original costume.
