A Short Photo Journal

Who got hairspray all over the mirror? I'll give you one guess.

My blog has been a little heavy on the costuming posts so I thought I would throw in a short "day in the life of" post.

My lucky charms. I did not wear false eyelashes for the Visioncon performance and it felt completely off. I think it was due to the lack of false eyelashes. Call me superstitious.

The most eyeshadow I have ever owned. I bought this E.L.F. palette during the Christmas holiday for $5. My favorite color is the bronze-gold in the second row from the top, fourth from the left.

These 5 lucky ladies are lined up hoping to be picked as tonight's ring of choice. I went with the pearl, rhinestone, butterfly ring.

I rarely get nervous at the venue or during a performance. I do however get nervous during the "primping" process when I'm getting my make-up, hair, and costume together. I made repeat trips into my office to huff on these lovely pink roses clipped from my friend H's garden to de-stress.

I usually listen to non-bellydance music when I'm getting ready to relax and take my mind off the upcoming performance. I brought my laptop into the bathroom and listened to this song to Elivs Crespo's  Por El Caminito and merenged around the room to get rid of my butterflies. 

PS. Daryl (Norman Reedus) is my desktop wallpaper. You're jealous, I know. It's ok.

I load up my bag with flyers and business cards from local dance studios. I'm not affiliated with any studio but I always pimp my local community.

Ready to walk out the door. A huge thunderstorm is coming so I'm keeping my hair up until I arrive at the venue.

So, the rule of thumb is to always try on your costume before your performance. Right before I took the above picture I put on my belt and it practically fell off of me. I've toned up enough around my waist that the belt hooks were too loose. I had tried on the costume 2 days prior but apparently did not dance around vigorously enough to ensure the belt still fit. My first inclination was to tighten it up using safety pins. Realizing this was a horrible idea (that I've used in the past) I grabbed the sewing kit in my bag, snipped out the hooks, and restitched them in under 5 minutes. I'm pretty sure it would have taken me that long to pin the thing together with safety pins. With this accomplishment I declared out loud, "'Cause I'm a Motherf*cking Professional!"

Here are volunteers counting bids and donations.

My performance was at a fundraiser for the Doula Foundation, which for friends who know me, is pretty ironic. I was kept hidden in a back room while the live auction was being held in the main venue.

And I waited...

I was asked to be at the venue around 7:50-8pm. I was pushed back to dance between tables at the end of the live auction after they auctioned off 2 Moneyball posters autographed by Brad Pitt. In case you didn't know, Brad Pitt was raised in Springfield. I don't think the crowd was very excited about owning more Brad Pitt memorabilia but they forked over $250 each for the posters. I finally got to perform for 3:44min and left by 9:15pm. I grabbed my umbrella, hiked up my skirt (literally) and made my way home through the rain.

~N