A spooky party weekend

[dorchadas]

Could have used more sleep, but otherwise I don't have any complaints about my weekend.

Friday night I got home from work, scarfed down dinner, lit the Shabbat candles, changed, and then left immediately to go to Mishkan services at Anshe Emet. I walked into an already-almost-full room, took a seat near the back, and watched as they brought out more and more and more chairs and filled the room into toward the back. Slightly later, britshlez touched me on the shoulder when the rabbi was speaking and we found a pair of unoccupied chairs even further back. I was hoping we'd at least be able to stay through the Amidah, but one of the co-rabbis had recently gotten engaged (which was why the room was so full) and he gave a long speech. Just after the Shema, I said that I had to leave to go on to the LIVE performance, and britshlez wavered for a bit, but I lured her with the promise of live Foley from worldbshiny and she decided to join me.

For the first time I think ever, I sat on the right side of the room, just in front of where worldbshiny's table was set up, so I got to watch her much more clearly as she worked. She's talked about her choreography before, in terms of making sure she has clear access to all the tools she needs, but I had never had a clear view of the actual acting she does--the movements or the facial expressions that accompany some of her sound-making. I'm probably going to sit over there from now on so I can get an equally-good view of her performance and everyone else's.

I was a bit worried about what britshlez would think of the show, but she loved it--I could see her talking to some of the actors as we left and complimenting them on their performance. I invited her out to ice cream with worldbshiny and me, but she decided to go home instead, so worldbshiny and I walked over to Jeni's for delicious ice cream and to talk about our lives, and then I went home and went straight to bed.

Saturday I woke up, ate brunch, and that was basically all I had time for before it was time for board games at mutantur's place. This was the session to finish out game of House of Danger, a board game based on the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book of the same name, and we got the best ending where we remaining in the alien city to study alien technology and psychic arts for the rest of our lives. This was after fighting angry ghosts, mafia counterfeiters, superintelligent chimpanzees, and an invading alien armada, and making our way through the trap-and-enemy-infested mansion all the way to victory:

mutantur: " 'That’s the new prison. It's built on top of the ruins of the OLD prison. My great-great-grandfather was the warden.' "
fin.emery: "...which is built on top of a mental institution!"
Me: "...which is built on top of a haunted burial ground!"

What a beautiful game. I really hope they make more Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books into games.

We played a couple shorter games after that, including a short game of Betrayal Legacy, and then I ventured out into the stormy Chicago weather to take the train out to the suburbs to mabown's 16th annual Spooktacular! Even though I was wearing a short-sleeved shirt and no coat, my rage about the bullshit weather kept me warm. This is the first time I've been to Spooktacular, so I was surprised at how elaborate the direction and costuming was. The entire living room and basement ("Rave Yard") were decorated, there were fake spiderwebs hanging all over the place...and since mabown is 6'2" and I'm 6'5", the ceiling decorations were just a little too low for me to walk around without constantly ducking. But the candy was good, there were plentiful drinks, the company was lovely, and I stayed there until about 3 a.m., after which I took a Lyft back into the city and went to bed at 4:30 a.m.

Here's a picture of the decor, and also me in an impromptu "costume":

Seven. Days.

The next day I didn't wake up until almost 1, for possibly the first time since university when my sleep pattern was generally bed at dawn, rise at dusk. I ate lunch at 3, texted britshlez with the information about stephen_poon and abby_the_hairapist's Halloween party, and went over around dinner time. I didn't realize until after I was there with everyone else that this was the first time I'd ever been over there for a party, and it turned out that was because this was the first party they had ever thrown there. We kept saying that with their decor and their layout they had to host a murder mystery, and I hope they take our advice because I'd love to dress up fancy, eat food, and solve a crime.

I was one of the few people not in costume, though the host and hostess were just in fancy dress (I think?). pinandstutter, saintofsnark, and meowtima went as Gomez, Morticia, and Wednesday Addams respectively. britshlez took my suggestion and went as Boudicca. There were a few other fun costumes, but I couldn't name them all.

I should have followed meowtima's later suggestion and gone as a 地味ハロウィン (jimi harouin, "Subdued Halloween") costume. Like the example I saw of the "Guy who uses his smartphone too much and now needs to look up kanji whenever he's writing by hand," except that wouldn't be a costume because that's me in real life.

britshlez spent part of the party learning to juggle, and then at the end stephen_poon and suuuupaadave started playing music and sucked everyone into a geek music and Hamilton singalong. I resisted for a bit, but I showed up in time for Still Alive and Future Soon, so I went home happy.

Somehow I got to sleep at 1 a.m. even after waking up at 1 p.m. And then on Monday I went out to lunch for fuwafuwa pancakes with lisekatevans, past all the protestors because the Mad King was in town to give a speech, and the evening I did almost nothing, which is exactly what I needed to do. And tonight, lisekatevans and I are making dinner and watching Cowboy Bebop: Tengoku no Tobira to finish off the series. Then tomorrow I'm going to listen to a vinyl recording of the original War of the Worlds broadcast, and the day after that I'm going out of town. A bunch of people and I are renting a house in Galena for a long, lazy Halloween weekend.

Stay spooky!