feathery
2008-10-06 3:10 p.m.
i realized something was really wrong when i initiated a conversation with an old ac friend, only to have it go like that.
me:
hello!
still having promos?
friend:
yea.
y?
got dance thing to ask me go to again?
i thought i should feel offended at that, so i asked why.
friend:
tats the only time u find me.
i have become too transparent for my own good.
but in my defense, i DO sometimes talk to people simply for the sake of talking!
usually not anyone other than close friends, but still.
anyway, i have quite some to blog about. that was just the opening message.
so last friday we had the character-developing sandcastle building thingy at east coast park.
how piling up a mixture of sand and seawater under the burning hot sun is sposed to be character-developing, i really dont know.
the only thing i gleaned from the experience is that being a construction worker must be really tough.
michelle and i debated over whether to skip it altogether, but in the end decided not to because we had pretty much used up our quota of parents' letters this year already.
we originally planned to be slightly late and blame it on our getting lost, but we hadnt counted on ACTUALLY losing our way and running into a full-out rainstorm.
her sense of direction is even worse than mine, and that's saying something.
as it was we arrived a whole hour after our estimated slightly-late time, and discovered - to our great astonishment - that they had managed to continue building the sandcastles even through the storm by the simple means of wearing ponchos.
such dedication!
so we stood around trying to be helpful but ultimately getting in everybody else's way because we didnt know what on earth was going on.
in the end we earned our keep by simply hauling seawater to and fro like little old monks.
what kept me occupied, however, was the monumental task of trying not to get sunburnt or tanned in any way.
call me vain but i was raised under the slightly neurotic beliefs that the sun is bad and UV rays are evil; that tanning was invented by the pasty caucasians trying to achieve the perfect olive color asians are already born with and that we would be stupid to ruin it with further tanning (which would turn us into another race i shall not mention because i am not racist).
all that was instilled in me even before the harmful effects of UV rays were truly understood.
dark skin was just not appreciated in my family, period.
the one time i was careless and let myself get sunburnt, i remember going home to be laughed at by my oh-so-fair family and called 'lobster' and 'bao qin tian', on top of having to deal with tight uncomfortable skin and then the peeling and tan lines and it was just not worth the few hours of fun.
so because of all that inbred hatred of those bright sunny rays i spent the time i was not hauling water figuring out the precise direction and angle the sun was shining from, so i could position myself perfectly to receive the lowest amount of rays humanly possible.
and when i WAS hauling water i crabwalked to maintain that position.
neurotic, yes i know.
but anyway the final product turned out quite well in the end.
(pictures stolen from shuqiao's blog.)
my sun-fighting efforts were totally worth it in the end though, because i went to xen after and had to wear the horrid fishnet stockings with the feather boa at the butt which itched terribly as it was, much less with sunburnt skin.
i must say i am quite appalled at the costume chosen this time round because it is stepping very delicately on the fine line between sexy and sleazy.
but oh well, some of the others have worse ones so who am i to complain.
here are some pictures! stolen from dionne's blog.
bianca's candid picture, followed by the not-so-candid one. 
the feather boa of the pirate costume - it was SHEER COINCIDENCE i chose yellow which just happened to go with the cougar shirt. behind you can see yanqing's purple tail. 
bits of dionne's white tail, stuck to her hair. behind is a very dim image of what the whole outfit is like. 
random picture of salsa dulce during the mock performance.
too bad there are no pictures of the penguin outfit! it was the coolest of the lot.
with that i shall sign off now, taataa.
