The Costume Contest

Greetings. Here I am in my white(r) face fairy of the corpses costume. I had a black walking stick with long mourning color ribbons of moss green, pale purple, black and grey. Today I received a haircut which in this photo I have colored white for the evening jaunt to the Coffeehouse.

While a talented jazz duo played and sang I sat with a black caped wolfman and a heavily bearded frontiersman waiting for the costume contest to commence. Later we were joined by two lovely spirtes, one in lovely frothy pink and the other in a wonderful black costume with netted undergarments carrying a spinning spider wand she had made. After the jazz concert was over the musicians judged us and I won. Thank you all.

Sunday evening it's off to Springfield to attend a Rocky Horror Picture Show audience participation. At church on Sunday we will remember the dead of this year, those who have been cleaved from their shells on Earth to join God and await the glorious Resurrection and their new bodies to wear. 

Fiddling Away While Rome Burns

Drool. Drool. *weeping*. This beautiful 1941 Chevy is available for sale within a day's drive and for a mere 5k. . . This is the car that I someday want to own. There's nothing I love more in terms of autos, than the cars of the 40's. The color is perfect and the interior is in surpisingly good shape.

So I feel sort of, as the title not so subtley alludes, like a person who grasps for the temporal while the eternal struggle of pain and evil blazes around her. Earthquakes, wars, disease, and hurricanes. Oh dear God mercy!!

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In happier news we celebrated Luke's 19th last night at Outback SteakHouse and I gladly dined on their wheat free menu. This weekend Luke and I are putting on our first music workshop for the Foundation he works for. I'm presenting on the history that influenced the music of the 60's, 70's, and 80's. Luke and I will sing, teach them dances, and teach them songs from each decade.

Oh! And I keep cranking out the art on deviant art. Check it out. I've been customizing fashion dolls. Goodwill has them for 1.99 apiece and acrylic paint is in the .40 to .88 price range. Mom sent me a Jackson!! Hurrah! So I bought a new winter coat at the Goodwill, some winter shirts, and a couple of Barbie type dolls to re-paint and costume. Before moving to LA I gave away my winter coat and some of my winter clothing, so I'm restocking! 

Back to the Graveyard

"As you are now, once was I. And as I am now, you will be."

Jeremy is contemplating the shelved tombs at the big, romantic cemetery here in town.

Yesterday was John's 23rd and we spent the afternoon with him and his new digital camera with the dead. For hours we picked our way across the massive burial grounds. We must have walked around two miles all told. There was the creepy place called 'Baby Land' where someone had hung a child sized skeleton, along with other Halloween decorations on their baby's grave. Then we found Gov. Duncan's tomb and numerous impressive aged stones from men killed in the Civil War to people born in the 1700's and deceased in the 1820's, very soon after the town was formed. We also spent some time entranced by the mausoleum, a wonderful cool, echoing structure. Our chatter was filled with jokes about our own deaths, the Hollywood Forever cemetery (must go back soon), and all sorts of things. What a pleasant afternoon!! Go to John's art site to see more pics.

Later that night we celebrated with friends and they had cake and pizza for the b-day. Cheer! 

Mmmmm.

Well I can add these noodles to the list of ancient artifacts that I am willing to eat. After all these noodels are wheat free. See.

Living History

On Saturday evening after he was done performing at the coffeshop Luke exclaimed "The early 1800's village is having a candlelight tour!". This place is quite near us geographically and he offered to drive, but we despaired of going due to admission fees. When we got home a quick check on the internet proved the park was free!

So well past nightfall we traversed the country roads up to the village/park. It's an enclosed town from the 1830's to 1850's with many of the original buildings; most are rebuilt or refurbished. A crew of recreators is on hand at all times. We got there an hour to closing, at 8PM, and were shocked that cars were parked down to the highway. Visions of LA parking danced in my head as we saw cars parked up on medians and the grass. Happily we found a space and headed in.

Besides one small museum at the opening no electric lights were present and once you passed the gates to go in it was pitch dark with only tiny pinpoints in yellow glow here and there. Hundreds of people were walking around us but we could barely see them. Some had brought their own lanterns, but all we had was the DVD camcorder! We only visted a few of the many houses and other buildings there due to long lines to get in. A few of the recreators had pitched tents outside and there was even an army tent and a giant conestoga wagon. Inside of one building beautiful music was playing and it turned out to be a very talented woman playing a large, complicated dulcimer.

Back outside we looked up at the sky and were awestruck. Far enough away from regular civilization and electric lights we were in such total darkness that not only could we see the usual stars, but the starfields behind them that you usually only see in photos. Wow. I just cannot describe how beautiful that was... There were too many people trodding around for us to safely lay on the ground and stare at the heavens, though.

I cannot wait to attend this event again next year. Thanks God! Thanks Luke! Hurrah! 

Renaissance Faire

Here it is. We found our way back to my first ever Ren experience!! Thanks to the yardsale, gas money from my brother (who went) and gas money from Kristine and Phillip we were able to attend. Whew! No siphoning for us! Commandments are not meant to be broken. ;P

Sadly it was not as good as the year we went. Two years ago there were wonderful giant English lop rabbits at a petting zoo, an SCA rep, musicians, a medieval style food stand, actual sword fighting, mock sword fighting, and several awesome vendors.

This year there was a great group of Renaissance women musicians, mock battles with fake weapons, a soapmaker, a kick a** armoury, and a very wonderful calligrapher. The event was free, the other reason we were able to attend, but it was not as impressive. :(

Still I am so grateful that we got to go, as this was something we planned on with K&P back in Arizona. Actually we planned on going to five different faires in this region, but this was the only one within our means. 

Yard Sale

For the past month Jeremy and I have been arranging things here and there for a yard sale. We got most of the work done last week, but couldn't hold a sale that weekend because it was the steam show and we wouldn't have gotten good business.

So on Friday we took a whirlwind trip down to the Empire and got a last load of stuff including the world's most hideous 34 year old leather couch (a girlfriend's ex's) and a few other choice items. Since the sale was being held Saturday we got home too late to get everything done and go to bed on time. Things worked out well because we were able to help A&J by holding a yardsale on their behalf with our stuff.

All night we stayed up, sorting, and marking final prices. Had we sold even half of the stuff we would be far, far richer folks right now. :( We began setting up shop at 4 AM and so I stayed up for two days. Not that unusual for me.

Sociological Breakdown of Sale:
1. Approximately 150 people attended, 75% in the first few hours, and in the first few hours we averaged 4 people every five minutes.
2. 40% of attendees were alone, 10% of those alone were male. 40% came in pairs, again only about 10% were mixed in gender. 10% were in groups of three or more.
3. 80% of attendees were white and over 55.
4. 30% drove trucks, 40% vans or SUV's, and 30% cars
5. No one spent more than four minutes and the average was, in fact, one minute per person.
6. Only 35% of customers made a purchase.

Bottom Line. Most of those coming appeared to be extremely well off. We did sell the couch and delivered it and gave the fellow a parting gift of all the other furniture which wouldn't sell.

We made comparatively little, even a laughable or cryable amount, however, we were able to raise gas money for our share of the gas for the Ren Faire, and my brother came, contributing more to that too!

Blech.