I cannot stop talking or thinking about the latest little thing I’m doing, which is so amazingly awesome that I hesitate to even mention it where people can see it because it may make you fall down on the floor in awe. I’m going to be dancing next weekend. As a zombie. In a rendition of the Thriller video. With a circus. See? So exciting.
I randomly read about the opportunity to do so in The Stranger a couple of weeks ago, and, as I’m sure any regular reader of this journal would be, was immediately seized not only by a deep nostalgia for the old pre-freak Michael Jackson and his red leather jacket, circa 1983, but also a profound desire to enact that nostalgia through the medium of zombie dance. An email or two later and it was time for the first rehearsal yesterday afternoon.
Now, you have to realize, none of us are professional dancers or anything. It’s just all random people who want to be zombies. This became abundantly clear when it came time to learn the choreography, which was taught by a beautiful circus member with Betty Page bangs and a big rhinestone belt that said “PINKY,” with whom I fell promptly and deeply in girlcrush. She was a very good teacher and very much in touch with her inner Michael Jackson…the only difficulty was that she didn’t count the moves so it was hard to know when to go from Crazy Legs to step-together-claphead-swivel-head-step-up-shoulder-head, because everyone was just going whenever. I don’t know if our dance will approach the crisp timing of the video, but whatever. It is so great that people have randomly decided to put this in as part of the show and that other people have randomly decided to participate. So great. Sometimes I really love Seattle.
After all the dancing I was feeling pretty sassy and funkified after an hour or so of dancing, so I thought I’d better make haste to perhaps the polar opposite of functions, just to throw a little juxtaposition into my Saturday night. I am referring, of course, to a stamping party out in the suburbs. My old boss had invited me to come to a card-making party thing at the Close To My Heart ™ consultant’s house, far far away in Bothell. I was still dancing around in the car and repeating the choreography to myself (“And slide two three four clap two three four head two three four!”) as I navigated the streets with no street lights on them, and I was still all giddy from it when I arrived. There were a couple people closer to my age there but it was mostly a gathering of forty-ish moms. “You guys!” I yelled when I walked in. “I’m going to be in Thriller! As a zombie!” No one cared.
I sat down and listened to the stamping consultant talk about the various stamps and designs and everything, most of which was way over my head. A lot of the people there are super into scrapbooking and making cards and stuff so they were all talking shop with one another while I nodded dumbly and repeating mindlessly in my brain “You try to scream…but terror takes the sound before you make it” over and over. They discussed embellishments and acrylics and pigments for a while, and after messing around with scraps of paper I had a streak of creativity:
On the inside is it says “So Hard.” I can think of a lot of people for whom this would be appropriate. Missy Elliot, for one. I’d sort of like to send her a card.
This one got a little smudgy but I still like it. On the inside it says “You Rule.” I ought to have made fourteen or fifteen of these to send to all my friends who rule.
And this, I think is my crowning glory. On the inside it says “You Is Fine.” It turns out making cards is really fun, once you eschew all the cutesy stuff. Who doesn’t want to get a card telling her that she is fine? No one, that’s who doesn’t want that.
So I was in a pretty good mood when I came home, and got into an even better one when I drove up to the house and saw all the pumpkins J and friends had been carving while I was shaking my thang and making awesome paper goods. There was not only our new table and chairs in the living room when I walked in but many friendly and good looking pumpkin carvers, all of whom were eager to see my funky fresh dance moves and check out my card efforts. There was a move to go to karaoke but we nixed it in favor of sitting in front of the fireplace and drinking spicy apple cider and playing Psychic Librarian.
This is a new game of my own invention. Here’s how you play it: have two thirds of your books out in the front living room of your house, and several people sitting around the fireplace with glasses of wine in their hands. Have one of them go “Have you really read all those books?” Nod affirmatively, mentioning that you would, in fact, like to read many more books than those that are ensconced on your shelves. Then someone has to say “Hey, pick me out a book! Based on what you know about me.” In my own personal rendition of this game I didn’t know any of the other players super well, although well enough to dance in front of them in the living room. You may wish to play with people you know quite well indeed, which only ups the stakes. Anyway, you have to find a book you think each person will like, and then find the book on the bookshelf, and then hand it over to the person with a short encomium about why it is the book they are secretly wanting to read. If you play this game correctly, the party will end with everyone sitting in silence, reading their books. Don’t forget to make them sign out their books in a little notebook before they leave. It is a good game and I recommend it highly.
After such an exciting Saturday I’ve had a lovely day today as well. I slept late and ate breakfast at our new dining room table, which makes me feel like a real grown up because now I have the option of not eating every meal on the couch. I had a walk around the lake with the beautiful
Mrs. Roboto, who is so badass that she shows up for her walk in high heels, and then has the nerve not only to assert blithely that “they’re really comfortable!” but also not have to cut her feet off from the pain when she’s done. We had hot chocolate at the chocolate cafe near my house…they have a whole hot chocolate menu there and it is wonderful. I had a raspberry. The barista had very stripey punk rock hair and told us all about her ambitions for law school and said “We need more people on our side in the courts!” to which Mrs. Roboto and I yelled a hearty AMEN SISTER!
I’ve spent the rest of the evening shopping for my zombie costume, Halloween candy, and a little space heater for my refrigerator of a bedroom, practicing my dance moves, and eating a delicious dinner from Snappy Dragon. I’ve got a couple of episodes of AbFab to watch and my orange and pink hat to work on, and then it will be the close of a very satisfying weekend.