Cleopatra’s Cowboy feathers Marc Antony’s Indians with Burning Man
Nazy and I got back from our quick trip to Bellingham to see Darius, Christiane and the lovely Leandra just in time for a behemoth Halloween celebration. We were invited to two costume parties and planned to help Santa Barbara’s grandest sons go trick or treating.
It was a little bit tricky finding costumes in Switzerland. In fact, for our 2010 costume (at right), I simply used my normal business pants.
“You didn’t have the hair at home.” Nazy interrupts.
“I’ve never had hair at home,” I agree. “I had to rent that.”
Halloween attire is much easier in Santa Barbara: we just book a trip through Melika and Tom’s costume closet. Note: ‘Closet’ is, perhaps, not the best descriptive noun for the cavernous area in Melika’s house that is devoted to costumes. To get a better mental image — think about the Vertical Assembly Building at Cape Canaveral — or the Flight and Hanger Deck of a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier which, by the way, is more than 4 acres.
One time since we moved, we tried to do things on our own — choosing to be bananas. While the costumes were hits, Nazy and (espcially) me had difficulty picking up dessert nibbles. It’s hard to be nimble when wearing those mittens.
This year we decided to be Antony and Cleopatra. (I was Antony.) Nazy, the queen of hats, handled the massive headdress with grace and aplomb. She wore the wig with self-assured poise. She looked great. I, on the other hand, found it tricky to drive while wearing a surgical gown. Because my crown of olive leaves couldn’t match the glittery piazza of Cleopatra, I’ve resized ‘my photo’ to match the comparative comments we received on our costumes. (And, I resolved to add more glam and glitter for the next party.)
For the next party, two days later, we decided to go as ‘Cowboy and Indian’. I borrowed Tom’s buckskin jacket and authentic western shirt. I wore my Lucchese boats. It would, I knew, be hard to top - especially since Nazy was going as a squaw.
“A squaw, Dan?” Nazy inquired.
“My squaw? My dear.”
“Bad choice of words, Dan. I’m going as your chief.”
“We were hits,” I noted as we drove home.
“There was a big choice, Dan.”
“I know. I’m glad that you didn’t pick something from their burning man collection.”
“Burning man?”
“Yes. I would have looked somewhat too, eh, exotic.” I replied. “I would have looked a bit like I was wearing my underwear,” I thought.
“Do you really think anyone would notice, Dan?”
The following night, Nazy and I helped take Tiger and Arrow on a trick-or-treat outing.
“Melika wore one of the Burning Man costumes,” I thought when we met them. “Those boots wouldn’t work for me.”
Right after trick-or-treating, I had to leave: I was driving to Los Angeles because I had an early morning flight from LAX to New York the following day. The traffic was light and my hotel was reasonably priced, very convenient, super modern and actually comfortable.
Note: I exclude the shower from the ‘comfortable’ portion of my review. My early shower clearly took place before their turned on the boiler. It took 9.25 minutes for the shower water to heat up to lukewarm. I’m not sure how long it would have taken to get to ‘hot’. I believe that it was being piped in from the Maura Loa volcano in Hawaii.
My flight to New York was on-time. And, the only empty seat — a middle seat — was right next to me. However, a United Airlines cabin service manager was seated in the window seat and she climbed over me to converse with the cabin crew at least 10 times during the flight. As we were landing, she apologized:
“I’m sorry that I kept bothering you,” she said. “I normally get an aisle seat, but I couldn’t find one this time.”
“That’s because I got it first,” I replied.
“I’d like to give you 10,000 miles for troubling you.” She continued.
“Thank you,” I said. “This wasn’t trouble,” I thought. “Taking three days to get home from Geneva was trouble. And it would have taken 500,000 miles to make it up to me of that debacle.”
My meetings in New York were happy and productive. The weather was beautiful (essentially identical to the Santa Barbara “weather” that Nazy was enjoying). My hotel was well-located and the room, while typical for New York, was comfy .. except for the shower. Unlike the facility in Los Angeles, it was impossible to trick this shower into delivering any water a a temperature between frigid and scalding. I was burned even when I set the hot water faucet to ‘draught’ and the cold water faucet to ‘Niagara’. If I reduced the hot water faucet a single nanometer, the shower instantly switched to deliver arctic ice cubes. The sink was a little, a very little, better.
Although my hotel was problem-free, my sleep was less than sound. On the first day, I fell asleep instantly (at 10:30 PM.) I woke at 2:35 and couldn’t get back to sleep at all. On the second day, I fell asleep at 11:00PM and slept soundly — until 4:13. Then I tossed and turned until the alarm went off at 7:30. I pressed snooze and fell asleep immediately. I slept for a solid 8 minutes when the alarm woke me again. I pressed snooze and fell asleep. This happened several more times.
“Perhaps,” I thought, “I should have set the alarm for 2:30AM in the first place. I clearly could have used the snooze button as a sleep aid.”
The business meetings were pleasant and productive. I even had time to see a Broadway show. On Melika’s recommendation I chose ‘Kinky Boots’.) It was a Tony award-winning show that still featured the Tony award cast.
My flight home was also smooth, on-time and uneventful. Rush hour traffic had cleared and my drive home was fast and uninterrupted. Regular readers will, I realize, find it difficult to believe that this trip was error-free. Nothing went wrong. I don’t believe that this has ever happened to me before.
We’re looking forward to seeing Darius, Christiane and the lovely Leandra here in Santa Barbara for Thanksgiving. And, of course, we continue to enjoy the Southern California family, offspring and grandchildren.
It was a little bit tricky finding costumes in Switzerland. In fact, for our 2010 costume (at right), I simply used my normal business pants.
“You didn’t have the hair at home.” Nazy interrupts.
“I’ve never had hair at home,” I agree. “I had to rent that.”
Halloween attire is much easier in Santa Barbara: we just book a trip through Melika and Tom’s costume closet. Note: ‘Closet’ is, perhaps, not the best descriptive noun for the cavernous area in Melika’s house that is devoted to costumes. To get a better mental image — think about the Vertical Assembly Building at Cape Canaveral — or the Flight and Hanger Deck of a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier which, by the way, is more than 4 acres.
One time since we moved, we tried to do things on our own — choosing to be bananas. While the costumes were hits, Nazy and (espcially) me had difficulty picking up dessert nibbles. It’s hard to be nimble when wearing those mittens.
This year we decided to be Antony and Cleopatra. (I was Antony.) Nazy, the queen of hats, handled the massive headdress with grace and aplomb. She wore the wig with self-assured poise. She looked great. I, on the other hand, found it tricky to drive while wearing a surgical gown. Because my crown of olive leaves couldn’t match the glittery piazza of Cleopatra, I’ve resized ‘my photo’ to match the comparative comments we received on our costumes. (And, I resolved to add more glam and glitter for the next party.)
For the next party, two days later, we decided to go as ‘Cowboy and Indian’. I borrowed Tom’s buckskin jacket and authentic western shirt. I wore my Lucchese boats. It would, I knew, be hard to top - especially since Nazy was going as a squaw.
“A squaw, Dan?” Nazy inquired.
“My squaw? My dear.”
“Bad choice of words, Dan. I’m going as your chief.”
“In that case we don’t need costumes.” I thought. “Yes dear,” I said.
As you can see from the photo, Nazy continued her dominance — especially in the hat (in this case, ‘headdress&rsquo
arena.
“We were hits,” I noted as we drove home.
“There was a big choice, Dan.”
“I know. I’m glad that you didn’t pick something from their burning man collection.”
“Burning man?”
“Yes. I would have looked somewhat too, eh, exotic.” I replied. “I would have looked a bit like I was wearing my underwear,” I thought.
“Do you really think anyone would notice, Dan?”
The following night, Nazy and I helped take Tiger and Arrow on a trick-or-treat outing.
“Melika wore one of the Burning Man costumes,” I thought when we met them. “Those boots wouldn’t work for me.”
Right after trick-or-treating, I had to leave: I was driving to Los Angeles because I had an early morning flight from LAX to New York the following day. The traffic was light and my hotel was reasonably priced, very convenient, super modern and actually comfortable.
Note: I exclude the shower from the ‘comfortable’ portion of my review. My early shower clearly took place before their turned on the boiler. It took 9.25 minutes for the shower water to heat up to lukewarm. I’m not sure how long it would have taken to get to ‘hot’. I believe that it was being piped in from the Maura Loa volcano in Hawaii.
My flight to New York was on-time. And, the only empty seat — a middle seat — was right next to me. However, a United Airlines cabin service manager was seated in the window seat and she climbed over me to converse with the cabin crew at least 10 times during the flight. As we were landing, she apologized:
“I’m sorry that I kept bothering you,” she said. “I normally get an aisle seat, but I couldn’t find one this time.”
“That’s because I got it first,” I replied.
“I’d like to give you 10,000 miles for troubling you.” She continued.
“Thank you,” I said. “This wasn’t trouble,” I thought. “Taking three days to get home from Geneva was trouble. And it would have taken 500,000 miles to make it up to me of that debacle.”
My meetings in New York were happy and productive. The weather was beautiful (essentially identical to the Santa Barbara “weather” that Nazy was enjoying). My hotel was well-located and the room, while typical for New York, was comfy .. except for the shower. Unlike the facility in Los Angeles, it was impossible to trick this shower into delivering any water a a temperature between frigid and scalding. I was burned even when I set the hot water faucet to ‘draught’ and the cold water faucet to ‘Niagara’. If I reduced the hot water faucet a single nanometer, the shower instantly switched to deliver arctic ice cubes. The sink was a little, a very little, better.
Although my hotel was problem-free, my sleep was less than sound. On the first day, I fell asleep instantly (at 10:30 PM.) I woke at 2:35 and couldn’t get back to sleep at all. On the second day, I fell asleep at 11:00PM and slept soundly — until 4:13. Then I tossed and turned until the alarm went off at 7:30. I pressed snooze and fell asleep immediately. I slept for a solid 8 minutes when the alarm woke me again. I pressed snooze and fell asleep. This happened several more times.
“Perhaps,” I thought, “I should have set the alarm for 2:30AM in the first place. I clearly could have used the snooze button as a sleep aid.”
The business meetings were pleasant and productive. I even had time to see a Broadway show. On Melika’s recommendation I chose ‘Kinky Boots’.) It was a Tony award-winning show that still featured the Tony award cast.
My flight home was also smooth, on-time and uneventful. Rush hour traffic had cleared and my drive home was fast and uninterrupted. Regular readers will, I realize, find it difficult to believe that this trip was error-free. Nothing went wrong. I don’t believe that this has ever happened to me before.
We’re looking forward to seeing Darius, Christiane and the lovely Leandra here in Santa Barbara for Thanksgiving. And, of course, we continue to enjoy the Southern California family, offspring and grandchildren.
For last week's letter, please click here.
Cleo-Nazy
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