Mermaid Parade

Today was an awesome day. As I've already explained, I'm in New York City with some friends for the Mermaid Parade on Coney Island. My merman costume is on the creepy/scary side. I think I pulled it off well. The press seems to agree since my photo wound up in multiple news websites, which is where these photos came from...

Pride

Today was pride. I grabbed my rainbow hat and earrings, my "Chubby guys cuddle better" shirt, and some buttons I like. Then I headed to the parade where I met with a few friends and we wandered about and danced and cheered and got ice cream.

Me in my pride gear.

A pin that says "Ask me about my pronoun!" in black with a rainbow background, a pin that says "he" in white with a dark blue background, and a pin that says "pansy pride" over a picture of a purple pansy. 

Casper, Koosh, me, and Merbabe at the parade.

Merbabe, me, and Casper under the rainbow balloon arch.

Me smiling under the rainbow balloon arch.

Happy Day!

Today started with dragging myself out of bed at 8am and it isn't over yet since I'm still at work. But so far my mother had a successful surgery, I got a 104 on a test in my CNA class (perfect score plus 4 points extra credit), and the film I helped out with last weekend had its official debut. So I'd say it was a pretty darn good day. Huzzah!

Starting announcements.

Blurry picture of me and Cupcake and our popcorn.

The voting sheet - our film is "The Humbled Hobo" by Black Chick Watching.

So. Busy.

I started my Certified Nursing Assistant course yesterday! And today I caught the cold from hell. Oh, the irony.

Cartoon of a boy sneezing.

In more exciting news The Humbled Hobo (aka the movie I worked on last weekend for the 48 Hour Film Project) is premiering Thursday evening! It's at 7pm at Somerville Theater in Davis Square and if you come to the premiere you can vote for us! Yay! 

I Made A Movie!

Today I helped to make a movie for the 48 Hour Film Project. Basically the idea behind the project is that filmmakers sign up and then everybody is given 48 hours in which to make their films. The resulting films are shown at a mini festival where the audience votes on their favorites. Additionally, there is a separate competition where winning entries are chosen by a panel of judges on artistic merit, technical merit, and adherence to the assignment. We're in it to win it but on a personal level I was just excited to have something new and interesting to do with myself on a random Saturday.

More about the project: Our team was led by Director Amber of Black Chick Watching. She's passionate about the representation of black women in all forms of media because, as Viola Davis said "You cannot win an Emmy for roles that are simply not there." Amber saw this film project as an opportunity to make a film centered on black women so we had an all-black cast and a crew consisting mainly of women of color. I was excited to meet so many interesting folks!

I can't act and have no experience making movies, but I'm crafty so I was head of craft services. That meant I took charge of random odds and ends like: finding some props and wardrobe items, food styling for the dinner party scene, driving lots of stuff to and from the location, providing a first aid kit, fetching medicine when two crew members fell ill, and keeping the cast fed and entertained while the filming happened. I met a bunch of neat people and had a nice time. I also got only four hours sleep because I worked the night before, which I kind of regretted after the fact. Oh well. C'est la vie.

Me, ready to film.

Makeup!

Action!

Filming.

Filming.

Food break.

Playing games in the break room downstairs.

Filming.

Filming.

Film equipment.

Dating

So I'm dating. Or rather, I'm trying to date. I found some decent photos of myself, went online, and wrote three profiles: one for Grindr, one for Scruff, and one for OK Cupid.

Logo for Ok Cupid.

Clearly I am aware that Grindr and Scruff are primarily hookup apps, but I do know that men sometimes manage to find partners on there so I figured it couldn't hurt to try. So far Grindr is full of conventionally attractive men looking for instant hookups and sending penis pictures to each other, Scruff is full of more bearish men (which is something I'm into) and some of them have responded to me with decent conversations but I haven't met anyone I've been really into yet, and Ok Cupid is mostly full of men on the nerdy side who I am not physically attracted to but who seem very compatible with me in terms of personality so maybe they'd make good friends?

I did go on one first date with someone who was introduced to me via a mutual friend. He was cute and he seemed like a nice guy, but then he ghosted me. Better luck next time?

Easter!

In honor of Easter, here's a fun youtube video that answers the question: how do monks who have taken a vow of silence sing the hallelujah chorus? (The "monks" are actually a group of high school students.)

Holy Thursday

In honor of Holy Thursday I'm posting a slam poem by Karen Grace called "Push: On Holy Thursday":

April Fools' Day Party!

April Fools cake with mashed potato frosting, cherry tomato garnishes, and vegan meatloaf interior.

Today Aquafabulous and I hosted an April Fools' Day Party at her house. The initial idea came from her daughter, who learned about desserts that look like savory foods and asked to have a party where we eat savory-looking desserts. Aquafabulous mentioned this to me, I suggested April Fools' Day as our date, and a party was born. Here's the invite text:

April Fools! This party is actually on April 2nd :)

Join Aquafabulous, Tony, and Daughter-of-Aquafabulous for a potluck feast of mysterious wonders. Bring your best "food impostors" to share - anything goes! Here are some examples:

* Desserts that look like savory food
* Savory foods that looks like desserts
* Vegan foods that look like meat, eggs, etc.
* Any food that looks like something it's not.

See how realistic you can get, and whether you can fool the other attendees.

Aquafabulous' daughter with fake burritos. Aka crepes filled with
crumbled brownies, chopped strawberries, and green-colored coconut. 

It turns out we're a pretty creative bunch! We had a small but friendly group of people there and while the adults gorged ourselves on tasty food and played cards, the kids ran around the backyard. Here are some more pictures of the food:

Vegan deviled eggs by Aquafabulous. 

Falafel cupcakes with hummus frosting and olives on top. 

Bruno with his fake bird in a nest made with seaweed, cherry tomatoes, and squash.

Savory sandwich cake with sour cream frosting and vegetable garnish.

Cake with a rainbow interior.

Another picture of the meatloaf cake with Aquafabulous showing it off.

Cupcake made fake hamburgers using brownies for burgers, cupcakes for buns, and frosting for condiments but I didn't get a photograph of them because the kids devoured them very quickly. The two of us teamed up to make candy sushi, but it was so tiresome to do that we didn't make much of it. The rice is rice krispie treats, the nori is fruit roll-ups, and the fillings are candy:

Cupcake's and my fake sushi.

I also made a savory cake with cornbread for the cake layers, vegetarian chili for the filling, and a hot sauce and honey cream cheese frosting. I decorated it with limes and cilantro:

My savory cake.

A slice of my savory cake so you can see the filling.

I realized I also don't have a photograph of the sweet sandwiches made of pound cake, frosting, and jam. Oh well.

Overall, I thought this was a great theme for an April Fool's party! I would happily do it again. It was really neat to see the creative ideas people had for their potluck dishes and I was pleased that we had a good balance of sweet and savory foods.

Wardrobe Revamp Recap

Well here we are over a year later and I never updated to talk about my new, revamped wardrobe of clothing. Now that I've finally moved and all the chaos has died down, I figure it's a perfect time to update you about that project. And just for fun, I've littered this post with photographs of some of my favorite outfits.

My new favorite picture of me with lipstick scarf and straw hat.

If you'll recall, I read Color Me Beautiful and got really excited about Seasonal Color Analysis. Here is my post explaining it. According to their system, I am a "light summer," which I explain here. Armed with my new system, I set out to conquer my wardrobe. I wanted to change it into something I would like, that was more suited to me. I started off with an inventory of my clothes (here). You can tell I've changed things up a LOT since then. 

Me in red shirt, dinosaur necklace, black and white pinstripe hat,
black suspenders, and white nail polish.

In lieu of a bunch of wardrobe photos, I'm going to give you a bunch of stats about my new and improved wardrobe, courtesy of the Stylebook app (which I review here). 

Me in a pink shirt, brown checkered vest, brown cap,
and pink floral necklace worn in the place of a cravat.

Number of Items in My Closet:
186

This number excludes socks and underwear because I didn't feel like putting them in the app. It does include all of my jewelry, a feather boa, some buttons, a fairy wand, my sparkly leg warmers, and other random things like that. I think the accessories are bumping up the number since I wouldn't have included them in an "items in my closet" count, but whatever.

Me in black shirt, black and white striped tie, black and white striped skirt,
black nail polish, and black combat boots..

Total Closet Value:
$1,712.24.

This is calculated using the purchase price and it doesn't factor in depreciation. I was very surprised by this because it seems like a LOT of money to have spent on clothes! That said, the money was not spent all at once. The oldest things in my wardrobe are my tan-colored Timberland work boots. They're the only leather I own and they actually pre-date me going veggie at age sixteen. I bought them to wear doing farm and construction work when I was fourteen and they were a bit big on me then so I had to double up on thick socks. They fit me perfectly now because my feet grew a bit so one pair of socks is sufficient. I wear them whenever I know I'll be stomping about in gross things. Given that I've had them for almost twenty years, I'd say they've paid for themselves many times over by now.

Me in a purple button up shirt, charcoal grey vest, floral tie,
charcoal grey nail polish, and fake diamond earrings.

Per Item Average:
$9.20

I got this by dividing the total closet value by the number of items in my closet. Under $10 seems like it's not too bad. I've got a few expensive things that may be skewing this number a bit, but overall it seems accurate.

Me in my flowered blue shirt, flowered pink tie, flowered kerchief,
and multicolored beaded necklace worn as a bracelet.

Most Expensive Item:
My fancy name brand sports coat that was originally $150 and that I got on clearance for $50.

Me in my fancy jacket, a pink shirt, and cross necklace.

Least Expensive Item:
My $1 gauzy white thrift store skirt. This category excludes presents since I didn't buy them.

Me in my thrift store skirt, black "The Godfather" t-shirt, combat boots, and fairy wand.

Most Common Colors:
My most common clothing colors in order: black, blue, and metallics (aka jewelry). Is anyone surprised? Because I'm not. I have been trying to brighten up my wardrobe but I look good in blue and I love black so they've turned into my color base.

Me in a blue shirt, blue vest, blue lipstick, blue nail polish,
fake diamond earrings, and multi strand silver necklace.

Most Worn:
My super comfy black vegan Saucony sneakers and my Alchemy Goods messenger bag made from recycled bike inner tubes.

Body shot of my jeans with the orange cuffs, teal sweater,
orange bracelet, orange nail polish, and my favorite sneakers.

Things To Replace:
I'm going to need to replace some things soon since I've lost weight. Mostly pants since so far t-shirts still work even with the weight loss. I do have a few t-shirts I want to replace because they're getting threadbare and I've already had to patch holes in the armpits of some of them. I also need a new umbrella because mine essentially got destroyed in the move. I'd also like a new fishnet shirt that's slightly bigger than the one I have since I accidentally shrunk my current one in the wash.

Me in my skeleton face mask, black shirt, black cap,
my dog tags for Jesus, and black nail polish.

Wants:
I want a charcoal grey suit jacket to match my vest and pants. I keep looking longingly at black Dr. Martens boots with flowers on them so if I can find vegan ones I plan to buy them. If I keep taking circus classes I'll need some sort of lycra/spandex pants since you're supposed to have the backs of your knees covered and my current strategy of shorts over long underwear is too hot. I'd like to get a couple of button up sweaters because I secretly want to be Mr. Rogers. I also want a pocket watch and a wrist watch so I can go places without my phone and still know the time. I could use a casual style belt since this weight loss has my pants falling down and I only have one belt. And obviously I'll wind up accumulating more random accessories as I go along since I've gotten into accessories now.

Me in an orange sweater, orange and grey multi strand necklace,
with orange nail polish.

That's it! New wardrobe update. I'll probably eventually post photos of my wardrobe but that won't happen right away because despite having unpacked and set up the common areas, I'm still unpacking and setting up my room and that's my first priority. Plus, I need to buy some correctly-sized pants before I start taking photos of everything.

Movies and Parties Galore!

This past week was ridiculous. I saw the movies "Get Out," "Beauty And the Beast" and "Hounds of Love" and I went to two different parties - my new neighbor's housewarming and Cupcake's best friend's St. Paddy's Day party that was not held on St. Paddy's Day. I also hung out at my friends' house and did trapeze in my circus class. Now I'm exhausted and glad I didn't make any plans until Thursday this week. And with that I will leave you with this photograph of Cupcake and the glittery silver labrador retriever statue we did not buy when we went to the home goods store:

Cupcake looking adorable in a rainbow dress and red cardigan.
They're sitting on the floor and petting a dog statue.

Busy Sunday

Today was busy. Church, kids' karate tournament, finishing up the living room and entryway, partner acrobatics in circus class, and the return of Cupcake from vacation! Here's a bunch of photos of the karate tournament. Plum was also at the tournament but she was having a bad day so she didn't want to be photographed.

Joy, Weirdra, and me.

Weirdra and Terzo.

Primo, Weirdra, and Secondo.

Me and Mini T.

Joy and Primo.

Secondo and Primo in their ready stance.

Secondo and Primo in fighting stances.

Gym filled with karate students.

Secondo fighting.

Primo demonstrating his forms.

Secondo won two third place trophies!

Primo won a first place trophy, a second place trophy, and a third place trophy.

Secondo and Primo and their karate teachers.

Mini T and Secondo's matching hair.