When I was in elementary school, I used to complain about stomach aches all the time to get out of math class.¹ And when I say all the time, I mean all the time. The school nurse knew me. She could even recognize my footsteps and my knock. Anyway, being an extremely patient and sympathetic woman (perhaps she didn’t like math either), she always let me stay. I would hop up onto the spare cot with a Where’s Waldo book and spend the next half hour searching through the pages.

So after stumbling across downtown Silver Spring with a vicious zombie horde,² I found myself seated next to undead Waldo for a special screening of Shaun of the Dead! It was like a dream (nightmare?) come true!³ Here he is at the bar before the walk:⁴

The great thing that I discovered about Halloween in the city (versus good ol’ Fredericksburg) is that festivities go on for at least a week preceding the actual day! This meant that after the zombie walk on October 24th, I still had a whole week of events to look forward to! Highlights included a screening of Nosferatu at AFI with a live orchestra providing the soundtrack, trick-or-treating as Charlie Chaplin, and a Halloween in Paris party at Bistro Napoleon, where I spotted one of my favorite costumed pairs of all time:

Fantastic, right? Happy Halloween, and don’t forget to mail me your leftover candy!

1. What can I say? Math gives me a stomach ache ;)
2. Yes, I dressed as a zombie too, complete with slashed throat and blood-smeared face.
3. I think I alarmed him with my enthusiasm.
4. If you love Waldo as much as I do, you’ll be thrilled to know that the DC Defenestrators staged live-action Waldo searches in the city recently. The fun never ends!

Also, there’s a really cool guy in Toronto who does fabulous YouTube accordion tutorials, as well as entertaining street performances. He might be my new hero. Highly recommended.

1. Mostly challenges, in fact.
2. Although I think some of the reeds may need re-waxing.

I love to paint on anything, including flesh!

James did his own version of the 365 photo project: 365 Transformations. He painted his face differently each day of the year, and then kept going!

And, even better, there’s video:

The complete collection can be found on his flickr page.

1. And also aren’t Jim Groom. Sorry, Jim.
2. We won’t hold that against him, though.

–

On a page of story ideas:

A toad’s eye:

A cartoon man with an oversized tie standing on someone’s closed eyelid:

Brainstorming page for a poem:

Random face:

Linguistics notes:

More linguistics notes, and a Very Hairy Man:

Mermaid, and other observations:

An imagined doll outfit:

Someone you may recognize, but–as observed–not the correct age. And eye with arrows:

Feathery Tuesday:

Almost November:

A Halloween skull hat:

Shocked that it’s Saturday:

Random mermaid:

The evil elderly:³

More eyes:

1. Sometimes even accompanied by equally strange text!
2. From “Mr. Fox“, in case you didn’t get the reference.
3. Extra credit: “Scapegoats“

TEASER:

UMW students are–in general–pretty apathetic, except when they get riled up about silly things like this. Most of the “news segment” is scripted, all is exaggerated.

Enjoy!