Just call me Joan

I’m having a not-so-good day today, so here’s something to cheer both me and youse guys up. Hopefully. Okay, two. TWO things to cheer us up. Thing One: Yesterday I worked at Stone for the first time since the fires started. The air was supposedly much clearer, but I’m not so sure now...but that's not the good part. At any rate, when I was on my break I read a very uplifting story in the local paper; something very welcome after over 12 days of bad news. An older woman from Fallbrook had lived in her house there for several decades and over the years became close friends with her next-door neighbor. Sometime in the last few years, the neighbor man came down with cancer and was gravely ill for a long time. He died a short time ago, and willed his house to the neighbor lady. She received the deed to his house four days before the fires started. The fires ravaged their neighborhood, burning her house to the ground, but you guessed it, leaving his standing. She now has a place to live, thanks to her friend. If that’s not wonderful I don’t know what is.

Here’s Fun Thing Number Two: Halloween!! I dressed up at work yesterday, and also went to my friends’ Halloween party. Those of you who know me well know how much I love to dress up, and I think I did a swell job this year. I would like you all to know that I sewed my own faux chain mail tunic for this. The whole thing. By myself. Without a pattern. Without anybody who knew what they were doing to help me. It was a monumental pain in the rear much of the time, and I’m sure somebody who knows how to sew could have made the whole thing from start to finish in under an hour. I won’t even tell you how long it took me...I spent about twenty minutes alone just staring at the sleeves and trying to figure out how to attach them....but suffice it to say that for a person who’s only ever sewed one other article of clothing in her entire life, I think I did swimmingly. It even looks like chain mail from a distance! I made it out of black knit fabric with an overlay of wide silver mesh. Here is the end result of all my hard labor:
Oh, and I really did cut my hair all off. I will spare no expense for the authenticity of my costumes. Joan of Arc did not have long hair, you know. Well, nor did she get burned at the stake in her armor (she didn't wear chain mail either), but how else would anybody know who I was? I also had a long piece of wood tied behind me, but it's not so obvious in the photos that it's attached. My stake only went down a few inches below the small of my back; I had to be able to sit down at work. While I was able to sit, having a long piece of wood tied to my back sure kept my posture amazingly and uncomfortably straight. Another unforeseen problem: Barbara had to untie it so I could use the bathroom. Consequently I drank much less water than I should have the remainder of the day so that she wouldn’t have to keep untying and tying me up again. Not that she was complaining...

Here are just a few of the guests at Natalie and Brenna's party from last night--Jen and I made her beyootiful flower costume all by hand. Foam mattress shapes covered by fabric. Neato, eh?
Being the good folk that they are, Natalie and Brenna know that Halloween is the best holiday of the year, and they treat it accordingly. They decorate the bejeezus out of their house and throw an eerily-lit party with disgusting looking food to eat. The main fare this year was a pan of baked stuffed intestines. They looked oh-so-realistic; mmmmmmm, tasty! Here is their bathroom, remade into a torture chamber where four unfortunate stuffed animals met a grisly fate (note the re-named toiletry items: kleenexes as gagging cloths, and the hand lotion was chain lubricant...). Make sure you take a closer look so you can see the poor kitty in the mirror hanging from the shower curtain rod.