I had a 4 day celebration for Halloween this year. Here's the recap.
Jenny's Pumpkin Carving Party
Every year my friend and neighbor Jenny throws a pumpkin carving party. Not only does she throw a good party but it's a great opportunity to do the pumpkin mess in someone else's house. And Cheryl came up for the party which was awesome. Being the studious grad student that she is, I don't get to see enough of her. A wonderful kick-off to the weekend. And may I just say that Jenny makes the best clam dip ever?
Dracula on Pointe?
On Saturday night Shawn, Jenny, Megan, and I went to the Sacramento Ballet to see Dracula. My ballet teacher said this about Dracula when Jenny asked her if it was any good: "Everyone should see it once. [Pause] The beheading is a little disturbing though." Indeed. We started the night off at Michael Angelo's, a great little Italian restaurant near the theater. We were all dressed to nines in appropriate costumery for a viewing of Dracula. (Pictures to come - I promise.) I wore my new cloak over my new slinky black dress. The four of us must have been quite a sight as we sauntered to the theater with our capes billowing out behind us - we must have been because people kept staring.
The ballet was actually in three pieces. The first was Balanchine's "The Four Temperments." I don't mind confessing that I hate that piece. I've seen it twice now, once in San Francisco and once in Sacramento and I disliked it equally both times. I'm not much in for modern ballet anyway, but this one is particularly painful. Which is interesting because I've seen other pieces by Balanchine that I love. I saw "Serenade" in San Francisco with my mom once and by the end we were both crying, it was so beautiful. It's my favorite ballet piece I've seen in a theater to date.
The second piece was called "Illumations" and it was spectacular. By far, the best of the evening. I won't bother trying to describe it, except that when it was over Jenny and Megan and I all looked at eachother with very wide eyes. "Did you see those tour jetes?!?" If you ever get the chance, see it.
So Dracula... Could have been great. Here's the thing. They did the whole Bram Stoker story of Dracula in a very short piece. There were a lot of scene changes in a very short span of time that made it very choppy and the dancers spent more time conveying the story than dancing. That being said, the dancer who played Dracula was awesome. There was a great sequence of turns and leaps towards the end where Jonathan Harker is chasing Dracula to his castle and these two guys were flying; you would swear they were not bound by the same rules of gravity as the rest of us. It's very cool when you get see male ballet dancers really dance and not just lift the girls around.
Ship Ahoy!
Sunday, the Halloween preparations began in earnest. We spent hours building a pirate ship in Jenny's driveway for the trick or treaters. We banged old pallets together to make the walls of the ship and hoisted a mast and of course a pirate flag. We christened her "The Jenny's Folly" and she was ready for boarding when we came home from work on Monday.
Halloween was a blast. A lot of the kids were impressed. A lot more of the parents were impressed. We carried on and goofed around in true pirate style. We made a big deal of princesses (God save the Queen!), fairies (Tinker Bell Ahoy!), and of course little pirates (Make way! Brethren bucaneers a-boardin'!). There were jigs and duels and bad accents all around. My friends are rad.
This event, I do have pictures of. Check out my photos section for all the pirate fun.
Real Life
So Halloween was fun but it's nice to get back to a calm, normal life again. At least it would be, if I wasn't nervous about <a href="http://www.yolocrow.com>The Yolo Crow</a> reading tonight, and everything I have to do this weekend, and my co-worker's harddrive vaporizing today, and...
What's a calm, normal life again?