Sunday, November 1, 2009

All Saints Day

We went out to the Halloween parade on Halsted last night. I had some off-kilter moments but it was mostly a lovely evening and we were surrounded by some very vibrant, creative costumes. Kathy and I were zombies from the 50's - her, a greaser; me, a bobbysoxer. There were Oompa Loompas, Wild Things and Mad Hatters. Also, several Jon and Kates. I spent some time with my library friends and then went with Kathy to watch the judging of the costumes, where a Red Queen won for best drag costume and two girls in a roller coaster won for best "couple" costume. Somewhere in there, I started to feel like I was on the periphery, a wallflower. It's a common feeling for me, feeling like an outsider - it comes and goes, especially in crowds. Trying not to think about it, I focused on the people around me - the costumes - and what we'd be doing afterward. I pushed those feelings away.

We left after the costume contest, had dinner in Andersonville at T's and then went to a newer, low-key gay bar called Cattle Call. We had a Blue Moon, watched some very strange dance music videos (Bryan Adams?!) and encountered Peter Pan and his runaway Shadow. Cattle Call reminded me a lot of The Rainbow Cactus in Virginia Beach - only, without the regularly scheduled drag show. At 11:30, we walked about a mile to Pressure Billiards to attend the midnight kick-off write-in of National Novel Writing Month. It was nice even though I started my word count on paper, by hand. The group seemed friendly, was rather sizable (why can't I get half this many to a writing group?!) and we got some free stickers! Kathy won the Word Sprint for those writing by hand. And the barista commented on our costumes when we ordered coffee, asking if we'd like any brains with that?

Later today, we're going to see Where The Wild Things Are in Skokie. I need to type up, add to and do a word count on everything I have written of my NANOWRIMO piece so far. Already I am starting to think how this extra writing - blogs, reviews, journal entries, etc. - has no bearing on my word count! 1700 words a day, at least. Must get busy!

Still, it should be an interesting November. And by the end, I hope to have another 50,000 words to my list of accomplishments.