Turning Amish.

Tonight Art City hosted a fashion show and dance jam for kids in the West End community. I left the shop early to zip down just in time for the fashion show. Kids paraded down a catwalk lined by haunted rainbow trees with obvious pride, the art stars hogged the mic, it smelled sweaty, the floor was sticky from spilled apple juice and popcorn crumbs, and it was brilliant.

I went dressed as an Amish matriarch thanks to Josh's mom, who kindly sent costumes all the way from Amish country in Ohio. A couple of days ago while volunteering for Art City for the first time, in between all the chaos of sewing costumes and a 20x20 bizarre quilt for the body of a giant paper mâche witch head, we test drove our His and Hers costumes at the neighborhood grocery store. I have to hand it to the Amish, it is really hard to be stoic while trying to decide between the tuna or the salmon for a pretend husband's lunch in a grocery aisle. Any how, the outfits were well received by the general public and they were tonight as well. A 45 year old mermaid approached me at one point during the fashion show and said, "You know, there is an Amish man in the crowd tonight; it could be a good match". Sadly it could have been but our unique attire was a premeditated deal and not fate. Someday my Amish prince will come.

I hiked up my demure navy dress with the subtle rose overlay and danced my face off with a million neighborhood kids to the likes of Usher, Avril, Gwen, Beyonce, Hot Chip, Peter Bjorn and John, Snoop and Rhianna to say the least. 'Twas a nice evening and my first enjoyable Halloween in a long while.

From the sounds of things, tomorrow I might attend a Blood Bath party at the Boozecan (same place where the art show was). Apparently, everyone has to wear white and at some point in the evening someone will throw 5 gallon pails of fake blood over the entire crowd when we are too busy dancing to notice. Sounds like one for the books.

Happy Halloween. Good things are happening. November looks clear.

Margaret.

Below are some haggard photos of myself as an Amish matriarch in my room shortly after arriving home, post dance jam. Can you say Hildebrand or what? My simple face rocked that bonnet so hard, a few people had no idea I was even in costume. I went to Cafe 22 in costume to show Rabbi my handiwork and her, Shira and Meech took one glance and passed it off as avant-garde. What does that say about my usual gear then? Oh dear.Also, this morning I found a bunch of photos on the internet taken by Aaron from last night. Grandma, I sewed that giant witch's quilt/dress, no biggie. Enjoy. Apparently I sure did. I need to learn to dance properly.