halloween weekend

long beach dog parade 07
Originally uploaded by bluepupae.

who would have thought that a dog parade would leave a person exhausted? i am knackered. mike & i went down to 2nd street today to find hair dye, the third place i have tried, incidentally, and have been unsuccessful. apparently, bright temporary vegetable dyes are not as readily available as i remember.

the dog parade called to us, so we stayed to watch and enjoy the creativity of costumes. i wish we could have dressed our cats up as dogs and brought them to the parade. there was no way that would happen without consequence. the parade is the closest we will get to "participating" in halloween. although i was invited to a party on sat, mike and i sadly did not have the energy to muster up costumes, and rather than be lame, we stayed in and had another relaxing evening being productive. i guess that could be considered lame as well, but don't underestimate the satisfaction of spending your evening doing laundry and soldering leds.

halloween is one of my favorite holidays, and my friends and i usually went all out. dressing up on that holiday proved insufficient, so my roommate and i often threw theme parties in college. i would advise against covering yourself with oil-based silver paint, even if it adds greatly to a 70's star trek alien seductress costume for an outer space themed party.

sometimes, i feel old and settled, which is fine. my life of quietude, which contrasts so greatly with the extreme ups and downs and insanity of my 20's, revels at filling as much time as possible with "working" on art projects. if i'm lucky, it's meditative, but sometimes, it is repetitive and mundane. i'm not sure if enjoyment quite describes the feeling that i have when i'm zoning out sewing thousands of square after square of paper or soldering as many leds. a force seems to propel me. and i'm not sure if it's the ending that i'm after. though there is some satisfaction, i often feel empty and in need of filling it up with something else. i have managed to take all the energy and mental instability and idiosyncracies of my youth and am pouring it into the various projects du jour.

i laughed to myself when my friend, who i tried to convince to give knitting another try responded that it was too repetitive. true, when you think about it, it can be. however, it is great if you are obsessive compulsive and exhibit symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.