I can't remember the last time I had any kind of face painting done. It has to have been sometime in my childhood. Thirty-five or more years ago, probably. Honestly I can't remember if I've ever had this much face paint on for any reason.

And, I suppose I shouldn't complain about it, even though the end result looks nothing like the example I pointed to on a sheet of skull designs to the young woman who painted my face. This was at the Día de Muertos Festival at Seattle Center, which is going on on both yesterday and today, but I only had time for it yesterday. I asked Tracy if she was interested in joining me and she was, so we made plans; Shobhit did not have to work until 5:00 and so he walked down there with me to meet up with Tracy at 1:00. But, Shobhit left after about 2:45, and Tracy and I were there another couple of hours—mostly because Tracy wanted to go have the Day of the Dead face painting done. Anyway, there was a table of five women who were quasi-volunteers; the tables did have a QR code for making donations, and both Tracy and I Venmoed them $20. Even though the end result of my face design looked nothing like the design on the paper that I had selected.

But, they were all nonprofessionals, mostly donating their time (for all I know the Venmo donations only went to the festival organizers for following years, rather than to the artists), and they were trying to be efficient with their time. There was a rather long line, mostly adults accompanying children (although in those cases only the children got their faces painted). If you look at the black "socket" designs around my face, though, they're really kind of just big blobs, with three little wing-like designs on the upper-outside sides. On the design on the sheet, this design was very simpler but much sleeker, and I chose it because the eyes had three kind of inverted tear-shaped wings on each eye, which looked rather like eyelashes. This was precisely why I chose it: to look sort of like a skull with makeup on.

That was certainly not what I got. But again, I did not complain. I made my donation and moved on, and amusingly, shortly after that Tracy and I walked from Seattle Center over to Van Vorst Plaza, where I expected to get photos of the last "SEA Giant Skulls" I still had not seen. It cracked me up that we were just two people walking through town, with Day of the Dead skull makeup on.

And then . . . the skull wasn't there. What the shit? I looked all over, as I expected something as great as last year—this was the location of probably the best skulls of last year's exhibit. But now, there were just tables set up on that raised area up a few stairs, and no skulls to be found. Tracy decided she wanted something to drink so we went into the Starbucks that is right there, and I asked the barista if she knew anything about it. She said there used to be a skull up there, and had no idea where it went.

Then Tracy reminded me of something I had told her last year: that it's best to view them early in the month because they often get damaged. Maybe some even get stolen? Whatever the case, this one was gone now. Dammit! Another note to self I need to make for next year: go find and get photos of the skulls right after they are put out at the beginning of the month! Get your shit together, Matthew.

After that, I decided I needed to go to Spirit Halloween, which Tracy did not want to join me for. She did not drive to Seattle Center and decided instead to Uber, something she does a lot if she doesn't want to deal with parking. She presumably Ubered home, and I walked two blocks over to catch a #70 bus, now roaming around town by myself with that skull makeup on.

I needed to find spray hair color for my costume, and I sort of found what I wanted at Spirit Halloween. It was the best I could find, and at least it only cost about four bucks. When I walked around the neighborhoods, the U District or Capitol Hill, people would either pretend nothing looked different, or I would get blatant looks, or occasional actual smiles. When I was boarding Light Rail in the U District to return to Capitol Hill, an older lady getting off the train smiled broadly at me and said, "Happy Halloween!"

I suppose I could tell you a few more things about the Día de Muertos Festival, though. The most important exciting thing is: I got new earrings! I wasn't even looking for earrings per se, but we were up on the second floor of the Seattle Center Armory building—where the entirety of the festival was presented this year; the shrines to passed-on loved ones that had been in Fisher Pavilion last year were now all put up on the second floor of the Armory—and we found this one vendor with hundreds, maybe thousands, of little Day of the Dead trinkets and knick knacks for sale. Tracy spied a pair of little Day of the Dead skeleton earrings, which I thought were very cute but weren't quite to my taste for actually wearing.

Among the countless miniature items for sale, though, we started to notice other little packets of earrings for sale, and while Shobhit really wanted to support the guy selling this stuff (he was particularly taken with these clay cougar heads wrapped around skulls that were actually nearly the size of a real human head, but these were $68 each—kind of a steal for the artistry and craft involved, but more than we wanted to pay for something), I was the only one realistically going to buy anything. All the pairs of earrings were $15 which was quite reasonable. Eventually I found a pair of Day of the Dead dog-skeleton earrings I nearly bought—and a minute later, Tracy found these cat ones!

I've already had a couple of people tell me they could represent Shanti and Guru, who both died earlier this year. And I do kind of love that idea.

Anyway. We spent a lot of time browsing vendor tables, and artistic displays, including amazingly intricate kind of dioramas made out of fruits and vegetables that also get used as offerings to the dead. Even before Shobhit left, I had taken 47 photos; in the end, my full photo album for this event had 54 shots in it—far more than the merely 25 shots I took when I went there for the first time last year with Shobhit.

We went downstairs looking for something to eat. We went to a vendor selling tamales where they said they had vegetarian options—but Shobhit asked, and they did disclose that they use lard in their dough, which is a deal breaker. We just got the cup of hot chocolate we had remembered getting and really liking last year. We went to Blue Water Grill, thinking we might get nachos, only to discover they use lard for their nachos as well. We just sat with Tracy, who was very hungry, while she ate her own plate of nachos.

We went back upstairs so Tracy could go back to that same vendor and make a final purchase of her own. She got a few things, including an angel and devil pair of miniature boxed skeletons. Shobhit left soon after that, and you already know the rest—now I need to get this posted and go on to the next event of the weekend!

[posted 9:38 am]