The youngest and I spent the afternoon and a good part of the evening shopping about a week ago.
We don’t do that often. We needed supplies.
It was two weeks until Connecticon. There was work to be done.
If I don’t get to run around like a goober dressed as a Browncoat toting weapons I’ll live. I’ll just wear an appropriately nerdy tee-shirt. Lord knows I have an ample supply to choose from.
The youngest will probably cry if her costume isn’t ready. She’s 12, it’s understandable.
If she was 16, constructing the costume would be her problem, but she’s 12 so it’s mine. Not that she’s not willing to help. She just doesn’t have the skill set to bring her character to life.
I guess that’s what moms are for.
We’ve been talking about what she wanted to dress as since last year. I wasn’t sure how I was going to do it until I started. I can research and think all I want but I figure out how to do things by figuring out how they don’t work and then I finally get to a viable idea.
Thankfully there are lots of images, ideas and tutorials on the interwebs. Can’t imagine how I would have done all of this without some guidance.
I’ve spent practically every free moment for the last two weeks working on one part of our costumes or another. Lilligant is done except for some quick tacking down with a needle and thread. Mine is done enough except for a coat of clear on my gun and a tee-shirt that needs a logo stenciled on it. And I need to change the buttons on my coat.
No biggie.
Just kinda in a crafting zone. Listening to a lot of music and watching movies that I haven’t seen in years. Scrounging from the fridge and freezer and puttering around from one task to another.
At a good point for this close to con. Haven’t really had the time to have fun with it before. I like this. It’s fun. Fun is good.
It’s the Fourth of July so I actually took the day off from work like a good American. I don’t get paid if I don’t work but I have a month to make it up somewhere.
Worked on cosplay crafting and even started rereading an old favorite when on break. Then I closed up the house and dug around for the traveling chair and walked around the block and into the field and sat down with the city to watch some fireworks.
In a field full of people and families I found a bit of empty space and planted my chair and sat back and watched the show. They were pretty good.
Once they were done I folded up my chair and headed back. Helped a lady over the guardrail when her companion abandoned her and hustled away once he was over the fence. She said thank you and I was happy to help. Just glad that I still can. That was enough human contact for the day.
Home in five minutes, surrounded by so many more people than are usually walking these streets. Ducked into the house and headed for a quick shower. Washed off another haircut and a day of sewing, ironing and painting.
Love taking a shower at the end of a summer day.
Sat down at my desk for a few and pulled back the curtain to watch the people going by and lo and behold fireworks start shooting off down the main street about a block away. They were amazing. And they even finished up with a bit of a finale which included strings of Ladyfingers on a chain link fence like I haven’t heard since my Fair Haven days as a disaffected youth.
It was a great show and made this an even better day than it already was.
Thank you unknown neighbors.
Now I’m just typing for a few and then I’m going to go do what I always try to do on this day. Watch the very fine young Mr. Smith save the planet with lots of gratuitous explosions and destruction.
What better way to celebrate the day?
The only thing that would have made it better would have been a steak with some sautéed baby bella mushrooms and caramelized shallots. A Nor’easter for cocktail hour and then a nice dark beer with dinner followed up with a cigar and a few fingers of whisky around a fire in the back.
Too bad the mulberries are falling making the backyard a hellhole of bugs both small and large, bitey and not.
And the steak, beer and cigar aren’t in the budget.
I’ve got the whiskey at least.
And lots of fireworks.
And the peace and quiet to enjoy them all.
Happy independence day indeed.
