High Art, High Times, and Halloween

This past weekend was one of the more active weekends that I have had in a while. Friday, after work, I went to SCC to see Bionca in Smokey Joe’s Cafe again. (The first time, I really didn’t get to watch it too well since I was too busy taking pictures for the cast and crew. This time I really got to fully enjoy it. I went with Dana, JT, Sha’Vonne and Jay, but since my ticket was reserved at a different time, my seat was not with them. That really was not a problem, since its not exactly a social event anyway. I really enjoyed the show. Other than some technical troubles with microphones in the beginning, it really was an improvement over the first showing. The only mistake on the part of the performers that I (and unfortunately the entire theatre) caught was during Shimmy, the woman that was dancing accidentally had some panty hose stuck in her costume forming a sort of double tail. Many in the theater were laughing, but I just felt awful for the poor girl. I was hoping that the guy that was chasing her on stage (Ernie?) would have grabbed it, incorporating it into the act, but he never did. Luckily, once the number was over, she went off-stage.

Since there were other things going on this weekend, the cast decided to have the cast party on Friday night, so after the show was over, Bionca and I went. Bionca found out that it was supposed to be a costume party the previous evening, and didn’t tell me until Friday, but it really didn’t matter, since 3/4 of the people were not dressed up. It was really nice. They had a nice selection of food for everyone, and since they had just finished a performance, they were all hungry. They also had a good amount to drink, though apparently not enough, since Bionca and a woman whom I can not remember her name, went to the liquor store and were gone for quite some time. Since I am not a great fan of beer, and feeling a bit alienated, I hit the mixed drinks. I go to make myself a Jack and Coke (Cherry Coke that is), only to find after my first sip that it was Jim Beam instead. Now, I like whiskey and all, but to me the tastes didn’t really go together too well, but not being one to waste alcohol, I stuck with it, and after a while I wasn’t tasting it so much anyway (I usually make strong Jack and Cokes). Considering that I didn’t really know anyone there, I had a good time. Over the night, I got to know several of the people there, and make the rounds. Actually, even once Bionca got back, I interacted with her about as much as anyone else.

It has been a long time since I have been that drunk. Not really since college. We wound up staying there over night, since by the time that we were sobering up it was after 6 a.m. They had plenty of places to sleep, but unfortunately not enough blankets, and as a result I woke up pretty cold. Not that I hadn’t done that before. From there, we went back home and crashed out and slept some more. We couldn’t sleep too long since Bionca had to get ready for the next show, and I had to take here to the school and get my car. After driving home, I played some DDO, and got in a group with my guild-mates and went through the entire Vault of the Night quest chain, including a successful attack on the dragon. I still have yet to get anything from that run…

Yesterday (Sunday) I spent almost the entire day working on some Halloween decorations. We made tombstones with styofoam and spray paint. Since the spray paint melts the styofoam, if you mask off the right parts, you can make it look engraved and weathered. We also did something a bit different this year, and used stone flake paint, which is a great touch, since it not only looks a bit better than even using a combination of grey white, green and black, but it doesn’t really melt the styofoam near as much. I also spent a lot of time working on a particular one. It is a celtic cross design, and came out looking GREAT. Today, when I get home, we will finish them up, and start putting out the other decorations that we have. It should look really good. I guess it was worth the blister.

I will have to take pictures of it all.

[Edit: and here they are!]


I created the mask for the skull apearing in these tombstones by sketching a model of a skull, it came out pretty good I think.

These were late additions that dad made. They came out a bit fuzzy, but they still work I think.

This one took most of my time. I created the design in Adobe Illustrator, pasted it together, cut out the mask, and made this tombstone in 5 pieces.

Dad did these. I really like the middle one and the one on the left.