What I'm Doing For Halloween...

Saving the world.

The Ghost of Gertrude Tredwell

As mentioned earlier, last night I went on a ghost tour at the Merchant's House Museum in the East Village, called "Manhattan's most haunted" by Time Magazine.

It was pretty interesting, especially because I had a ghostly encounter of my own.

Seriously.

While in the first room of the tour (the room where Gertrude Tredwell, the house's most famous and active ghost, was born; also, the room where she died), something touched me on the side of the head. It wasn't a light cobweb or a small insect or anything very faint, I felt my hairs move apart and something poked me.

I knew it wasn't Sarah, since she was standing in front of me, so I turned around. Now I highly doubt it was the usherette or one of the few guests standing there, and since this wasn't one of those ghost tours where people dress up in costumes and scare you, I'm willing to believe it was Gertrude.

Later on in the tour, they mentioned how last year, during a chorale concert in the house, one singer felt himself get poked in the ribs three times. And this coincided with several guests witnessing an elderly woman arrive, sit in one of the old chairs, and watch the concert.

So maybe Gertrude likes to poke people, I dunno.

True story, but weird.

Ugh, Parties.

A lot of stuff I've said Yes to recently has been pretty easy (going to see the final dress rehearsal for Dividing the Estate, which I did last week, or going on a ghost tour of the Merchant's House Museum, which I'm doing tomorrow), but I recently said Yes to something pretty difficult.

We're gonna throw a housewarming party.

The idea of this fills me with dread. It's weird, I know, but it seriously scares me.

What if no one comes? What if they have a bad time? What if they hate the food? What if they steal my things? What if the gerbils get upset? What if they stand on our bed while wearing shoes? These are all stupid fears - we're only inviting a handful of friends that are trustworthy, well-behaved and non-judgmental, but I'm still worried.

I'm frequently uncomfortable with anyone, even people I know and like, being in my house. Case in point, back in St. Augustine I frequently turned away would-be guests from my eccentric and spider-filled studio. Here in NYC, I've had almost no one over to any of my apartments ever.

One-on-one guests are bad enough (though, strangely, Julie came over last night to sketch Cakey, and that wasn't uncomfortable at all), but now multiply it to maybe a dozen people. Madness! And then add on all the hosting responsibilities. Lunacy!

It brings to mind the only party we ever had at my house when growing up. It was my brother's birthday. He was probably six or seven, so I was just four or five. And for some reason (I'd guess because my mom didn't understand the customs of birthday invitations or RSVPs), it was up to my brother to invite all his friends.

I don't know if my brother could really write back then - did he give out invitations? Did he just mention this party? How could these little kids be expected to tell their parents, and for their parents to take them seriously and drive them to this unfamiliar house? How did they even know the address?

I don't know what went wrong, but something did, because only one kid showed up. Just one kid.

Years later, I asked my brother if he remembered that party, and if it sucked, and he tersely replied that yes, he did, and yes, it did.

We never had a party in that house again.

So now we're gonna have a party soon. And seriously, this is probably the most stressful thing I've blogged about all year. Maybe even more so than getting my wisdom teeth removed. Madness.

The Lodge Classes Up

Today the Lodge did something that I haven't seen (or noticed) during all my time here: they invited a guest chef to come cook a classy lunch, in addition to the regular options.

Now I'm one of those people who love Food Network but isn't a foody (I enjoy eating garbage - last night for dinner I had a slice of pepperoni pizza and a bowl of Fruity Pebbles), but I still think it's pretty cool that they got Ed Brown from Eighty One to cook a risotto and shrimp dish.

And, it being the Year of Yes, I totally ordered it.



I was a bit surprised by the portion, since the Lodge usually gives you mammoth-sized servings of meatloaf or whatever, and the price was twice as much as a normal lunch, but again, this is a guest chef.

Verdict: Pretty good! I am not really a shrimp lover unless they've been fried or cooked by my mom, but I enjoyed it. Still, I'm glad I got a small serving of chicken Waldorf salad (which I'd also never seen at the Lodge before) to top off the meal.

Hey, How Was Equus?

In a word: mind-blowing.

In two words: pretty mind-blowing.

I'll forego writing anything stupid about seeing Harry Potter naked (although you do indeed get that), because once I got engaged in the play (and it IS quite engaging), that doesn't seem as important.

It's been about ten years since I've read Equus, and I'd never seen it on stage before. It's powerful, powerful stuff. About passion and madness and worship and how they can all mix together.

And I kind of feel this play is about the best argument for beastiality that one can make... which is something I never thought I'd write.

Anyway, Pam's birthday is next month (on the same day as my brother's - a coincidence that means nothing), so she gets to pick, and since she likes Entourage, we're gonna see Speed-the-Plow starring Jeremy Piven.

I can't think of any decent pun involving that title.

ZombieCon: A Survivor's Recap

I was conflicted about going to ZombieCon, because our TV and TV stand were getting delivered some time during the day (between the ridiculous window of 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. - thanks, guys), and I felt kind of bad about leaving Sarah at home to wait for them.

But screw it, I went anyway! And here I am in my biohazard survivalist gear.


I didn't wanna wear zombie makeup, I kind of hate putting on that stuff (and I didn't feel like ruining any of my clothes), but it isn't right to tag along as a civilian, so I put together this outfit.

The cool part was I frequently heard people say "That costume is REALLY creepy," because you couldn't see any of my skin or face (underneath the gas mask I wore one of those invisibility hoods).

So how was ZombieCon? It was pretty fun! As you know, I love wearing costumes and getting my picture taken, but I probably would have had more fun if I went with a group of friends.

Things that were cool: Seeing people dressed up like zombies, natch. The Disco Zombie. Getting a feel for a zombie stampede of the Manhattan Mall. Walking through Halloween Adventure. People looking at me warily.

Things that weren't so cool: The puddle of water that condensed inside my gas mask and occasionally spilled out. People not getting into character - I saw too many zombies with cell phones and cameras. And a lot of them were pretty lively for dead people. At the very least, I'd hoped for more shambling and groaning.

But I'm guilty of this, too, I went mostly to take pictures, but it's like I learned at Dragon*Con - you can either be the photographer or the model, but not both.

I conked out around midway through the afternoon (mingling with zombies is hard work!), and I ended up heading home before things got interesting - namely, the invasion of Wall Street and the after party.

I'll be back next year... unless there's a real zombie attack before then, in which case I can relive the magic every day.

ZombieCon '08

Q. Do I wanna go to ZombieCon tomorrow?

A. Yes, I think I do.