One of my friends, who is a professional event planner, planned our New Year’s Eve celebration. She used her hotel points to secure our double room downtown. Some of us came from out of town, but those of us who lived in Austin forgot to bring a cooler. Since we had two joining double rooms, we used one shower as a cooler and the other for showering.
I learned the “rule” about taking pictures: raise the camera above the subject so that she appears slimmer.
Even though the other women had referred to me as “skinny,” I appreciated the slimming effect of a higher angle after a week and a half of Dionysian celebration.
With 7 women staying together, we had a good time getting ready and taking pictures. At one point, I wondered if we would leave the hotel to celebrate with other people.
Once we got out of our room, we had to take group pictures. We all sported boot bling and asked a guy to take a picture of our boots. At first, the guy got real excited because he thought we’d asked him to take a picture of our “boobs.” Dream on! He hastily re-aimed the camera for this blurry shot.
We took two cabs to a honky tonk bar. We arrived around 9:30, which was far too early for a good crowd, but since we were a group of 7, we brought the noise. Plus, we got three excellent tables in the middle of two bar areas and the mechanical bull.
The last time I’d ridden a mechanical bull, I was 27 and teaching in South Korea, riding for free since the operator liked the way my flying dreadlocks drew in the crowd. I got another free “ride” this time around as well since the bull wasn’t moving for this action shot. Actually, it tilted down when I mounted it since I started the whole pose-on-the-bull event. As you can see from the background, we were the only people in the club.
Another photo op we took was at the arm wrestling table. Again, since we beat the crowd, we had to entertain ourselves as best we could.
I’m not a “shot” person, but I participated in the first round and took one sip of the subsequent ones, passing the rest off to a friend to finish.
I stuck mostly to mudslides. In this picture, I’m sipping a mudslide and sporting my earplugs since the live band started playing at 11 pm.
One of my friends showed up just before midnight. Thank goodness because with a posse of 7 women, we needed more men to dance with.
One of my goals during the two-week winter break was to complete my eighth “The Adventures of Infinity and Negativa” painting, which happened today. Just in time to face school tomorrow. I knew that my present abilities would not freehand a good outline of Utila Island. So I printed a map of the island, photocopied it on a transparency and projected it onto the canvas to trace.
The biggest challenge for completing this canvas was not my busy schedule, but the cold weather. If the temperature was in the mid 50s, I’d put on a jacket and go out to paint. Anything lower than that stopped me from painting on my balcony, my preferred environment.
At the risk of being my own worst critic, I think the Caribbean water is too green-looking, but I love how the ladies look. Practice does make a difference. I attended an art opening last night and I got some ideas about how to do the eyes and fingers differently.
Here are my 8 “babies.” I’m so proud of them all. I’m about a third of the way done with the series. The two tricks will be to complete the other two-thirds by the end of the year along with the manuscript. Wow, there it is, my year-end goals!