Even in my exhausted haze I’m amazed that it’s going to take days (days!) to recover from yesterday’s photoshoot. You see, the Friday prep work didn’t go as smoothly as planned. Leaving home 15 minutes late turned into a 2 hour delay and a possible $350 ticket for running a red light at a photo-enforced intersection with the shortest yellow I have ever encountered in my life! It’s possibly illegally short, in fact, but if I want to fight it I have to drive all the way back up for court. Gee, thanks guys. Nice money-making scam. All because I got caught in the weekend “let’s all flee the city early at the same friggin’ time” traffic. Have I mentioned the part about hating LA? HATE IT. With massive hating. Most of the people I know who live there hate it, too. Do you know why they stay? Momentum. It’s too much effort (and cost) to move. No one has the time to escape because they’re too busy just trying to get to their appointments on time.

So, yeah, the massage – while still fantastic – didn’t help as much as it otherwise would have because I just couldn’t get over how long it took my rear end to unflatten. It’s not like you can pull over and stretch in 15 mph traffic where lane changes are only accomplished if you’re willing to risk getting hit as you shove your nose between two bumpers. (The last 45 minutes of the trip averaged 2 miles an hour. HAAAATE.) But I digress. Thanks must be given to my sister who was still available even after the exceeding lateness and, in addition to the wonderful massage, fed and sheltered me for the night on short notice. Thanks, sis! Further relaxation was achieved with a lap cat and a little Napoleon Dynamite, after which I expected to be awakened by an alarm clock some 8 hours later. Riiiight.

Thanks to a quick morning routine, I arrived at the costumer’s house only 30 minutes late. This woman has amazing skills. The first outfit she created – a complicated pattern originally built for an amazon – fit me like a glove on the first fitting with nothing other than tape measurements to go on. We were both hoping for the same miracle for outfit two. Yeah… not so much. Due to the shortness of time, we ended up having to chop and safety pin to get through the photoshoot. Ignoring that and in spite of the nightmare the fabric was to sew in the first place, it’s a beautiful outfit and I can’t wait until it’s done.

Then there was the make-up application phase. It took about 3 hours. Three hours of poofing and lining and brushing and gluing and breathing of powdered glitter – in contact lenses that haven’t been worn in ages. It was worth it. Thanks to our amazing makeup artist, we looked hot. Like sexy clowns. No seriously, we were hot.

The hardest part turned out to be the shoot itself. Six hungry women and a photographer in close proximity under hot lights for three hours. As the smallest of the bunch, I undoubtedly would have been the first devoured were it not for all the makeup I was under to ruin the taste. Well, that and I’m just too boney. Luckily, the photographer had a great sense of humor which helped to keep us all relaxed, friendly and distracted. We’re a friendly bunch anyway, but the reinforcement helped what with all the scootching over 2 inches, angling more this way, tilting your head more that way, bringing the arm in closer, squatting just a little lower, now don’t move… and smile! It would have been easier on my thighs if I hadn’t insisted on playing the part of Super Bendy Girl (just go back and forth a few times – gack!) but, again, it was worth it. His motion photography is amazing. I can’t wait to see the photos.

It was closing in on midnight by the time I finally got home, washed my face forty times, put most of my gear away and crawled under the covers.

I’m so glad I don’t have to be chipper at work today. Whomever says modelling is easy is going to get a kick in the shins. Tomorrow, when I can lift my legs again.

Several projects have been completed since my last post including a post-christmas knitted scarf, three matching pillow covers, a very jingly coin bra, a make-up training session in which I learned to look like a sparkly ‘ho (stage make-up) and updates to seven web sites. I’ll try to get pictures taken this week sometime to add to the new handicrafts section.

This having brought my list of things to do down to a countable number, I proceeded to find new projects to start. While continuing my quest for a good knit beret pattern for my step-mom, I stumbled onto the perfect long stocking cap for myself. A silly hat with a telescoping tassle? Gimme! When I finally found a good beret pattern (reversible, no less!), I knew I was in business. At least, I thought I was until I got to my local craft store and realized just how pathetic their knitting needle selection is.

The more you knit, the more different sizes and types of needles you end up needing. Naturally, the two 29″ size 8 circular needles I already had (purchased for the failed Hallowig experiment) were the wrong size. Actually, they were the wrong size even when I bought them, which is probably why my first hat is still sitting half-finished in the yarn drawer. However, it was the only needle size available at the craft store and I didn’t know any better. For the record, that needle is generally used for much larger projects, like sweaters.

As I searched in vain for any other knitting tools I could use to make do (without buying the uber master kit), I instead found every size and color of crochet hook under the sun. Still, it didn’t hit me until my girlfriend (apparently the only other knitter in town) wandered over and pointed out the obvious. Most people around here crochet. It’s easier.

Bah. Hookers.

Thank god for the internet.

Get-togethers at our house have become a big production ever since we got our cat. No less than four of our closest friends are allergic to him, so it’s a testament to our friendship that they have been willing to come over anyway. We always kept a stash of Claritin (and a dropper style anti-histamine for people who can’t do pills) on hand which helped, but it hasn’t been a perfect solution.

Two weeks ago, I found a fantastic deal on a pair of Ionic-Breeze Quadras. Once I got them home, I set one up in the living room and forgot about it. Before everyone came over yesterday, I made sure to vacuum the house and clean the Quadra filter (which actually wasn’t all that dirty). That probably would have been enough to counter most normal allergies, but our friends aren’t normal; they’re over-achievers. So, I set up the second one in the opposite corner of the living room a few hours before they showed up. It worked like a charm. Several of them still doubled up with the anti-histemines, but the usual residual stuffiness and sniffling were completely absent.

It was like a miracle.

I love not having to choose between our friends’ comfort and our cat. That’s one less thing to stress about. Woot!