Yesterday night, as I crawled into bed after an exhausting, hyper scheduled day, I realized something: I have not checked my facebook account today.
If you knew me (and some of you do!) You'd know just how out of character this is. I'm not proud of it, but I'm a bit of a facebook addict, and check my facebook an embarrassing amount a day. But aside from the fact that I had some 250-odd new posts to go through later, I noticed something strange...
I didn't miss it.
Not even a little. What was normally one of my main lifelines of social networking just didn't seem necessary after spending the day up to my neck first in theatre students and then in the company of friends, and friends of friends. Sorry technology, you still pale in comparison to reality. Keep trying.
Another thing this month of unusual productivity has brought me is a reminder of just how much I love, to borrow a line from RENT, "Making something out of nothing". There's a great satisfaction in asking someone "what can you do with paperclips, cardboard colored folders, and nothing else?" and then hold up a tiled Mod-style go-go dress you made. (Even if it took four hours!) There are lots of things in life I enjoy, but there is a singular kind of pride at being able to point at something and say "I made that."
A secondary victory, but also impressive to me, is I can also point to any of my creations from this week and say "I made that without lacerating myself on the box cutter OR the exacto knife!" This may seem like a small accomplishment, but I have been known to accidentally close Swiss army knife blades on my fingers, and can cut myself on just about anything, including the rim of a peanut butter jar. Safely handling an exacto knife at 2 in the morning for me is like a duck learning to sing "Pirates of Penzance". But the deed is done, and my skin is miraculously unmarred.
Although getting to that point wasn't easy. This particular project did require some ingenuity and finesse. I needed twelve cardboard costumes, each one fitting into a series of cliche cliques. ( "girly girl", "cool kid", "gamer", "the kid that is likely to stab you with his protractor if you look at him funny"....OK, so maybe not the last one. Its not that kind of play) I don't know what junior high you went to, but there are not a lot of kids rocking the cardboard attire. There was no pattern to follow, just a shitton of cardboard cluttering up my house and an alarmingly long to-do list. Hoo-ah.
Now that I'm finished, here is a complete list of the materials used to make them:
Cardboard- all second hand and therefore free (yay!)
Cardboard folders- also second hand, obtained at a pittance at RAFT
Cardboard rings- used to be the foundation for tape rolls
String- the only thing we actually needed to purchase
Paperclips- lots of them.
Black Duct Tape- heck yes
Paint- just a touch, where needed
So if I had to include the things I had around the house in the budget, I'd say I was able to make twelve costumes for about 10 bucks. Not too shabby. Or perhaps Shabby Chic?
...its more chic when they don't have smiley faces on. You'll have to trust me on this one.
