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Enjoyed last night’s episode of 2HRadio with Cissa, where we talked about all sorts of things, including last weekend’s SillyBring. She and Shannon both wrote about the weekend on their blogs.

We had six of us for Sillybring: CheekySweetie, Shannon, Cissa, Whostolemyzen, NoelleD, and of course myself. Even though I brought my camera, I didn’t get any shots (aside from when Shannon and I went to Gatorama).

So let’s go with a couple of good photo sets from Cissa and Shannon, because they had the presence of mind to take lots of pics.

Here’s Shannon’s photos on Flickr.

And Cissa’s.

And my photos from Gatorama, which include the grinning Pepe LePew, who is getting laid. Lucky fucking skunk. If I want to get laid, I have to recruit crack whores…and even they are a tad picky.

Because I’m lazy and undergoing a series of anxiety attacks the last couple of days, I’m going to bulletize SillyBring.

• Shannon’s first night in Sebring nearly brought a live possum to her chair on my front porch. It was a big fucker, too. I shooed it away like it was a dog, half chasing it across my yard so that Shannon wouldn’t freak. Fortunately, despite having a run of bad luck lately, this particular possum was not, in fact, rabid, and did not leap for my throat and bite through my jugular. I assured Shannon I’d never seen a possum before, let alone had one walk up my sidewalk straight up to me…I don’t know that she believed me.
• Gatorama once again proved to kick ass. It was the one time I had my camera with me throughout the weekend. I was too busy enjoying everyone else’s company beyond that. We both got to hold a baby gator and croc, see TONS of gators in the lake (all of whom seem to be Jewish, since they swam for bagels like they were heroine), and the fucking skunks (literally). Also hung around long enough to see the gators being fed, which was something else. All in all, a fun afternoon with a VERY Floridian activity. Gator jerky available in the gift shop, please come again.
• CheekySweetie arrived a day before SillyBring to hang with Shannon and I before the other ladies got to town. Love, love, love her and enjoyed having two of my fave women together in one location again. Her laugh always gets me to smiling and laughing myself…much needed.
• Met up with Cissa, WhostolemyZen, and NoelleD at the Blue Lagoon for lunch (corn nuggets!) on Saturday. Fun and hilarity ensued (for pretty much the next 24 hours). WhostolemyZen and NoelleD and the others soon realized that corn nuggets are much like crack. Cissa was not overly impressed. Witches, whaddya gonna do?
• The next few hours were filled with shopping at Ross Dress For Less, Michaels, and some other clothing store. Shannon has been losing quite a bit of weight, and wanted some girl power to help her find clothes. The mumu looked great, but she went with different looks for some reason.
• There was much Foursquaring going on all weekend, of course. Vying for Mayorships in new venues was exhausting, but I wound up Mayor of a couple more places, even if it meant ousting some friends in the process. That’s right, bitches, I’m now a Super Mayor!
• We all spent quite a bit of time in our hotel room…2 bedroom suite, 2 bathrooms. It was perfect for the 6 of us to gather and hang. We also spent some time in the pool and hot tub. Mmm.
• Dinner at Don Jose’s Mexican that night. My Mom joined us all. It was Angel’s first time at a Mexican restaurant!
• The Why Not Lounge was perfection that night. Ladies drink free from 10-midnight (y’know, thinking of my ladies) and the people-watching was out of this world. People straight out of “Deliverance” were at the next table. I was just waiting for the banjo music to start. There were lots of big eyes (as SillyBringers stared openly at family members grinding on each other during songs, incredibly drunk folks who couldn’t talk or sing but tried anyway, and an amorous couple getting it on in the ladies’ bathroom) and laughs. Oh, and branding…can’t forget the branding. Shannon and Cissa and I sang karaoke, while Angel, WhostolemyZen, and NoelleD said “There’s not enough booze on Earth to get us up there.”
• Next morning, the girls came back to Shannon’s, Angel’s, and my hotel room and hung out some more, doing girly things like hairwraps for Shannon and Angel. I figured I’d forego the hairwrap, since my hair is maybe half an inch long.
• We went to Bob Evans for brunch (yay for blueberry crepes), lots more laughter, and ultimately our goodbyes. We took a few more photos outside, hugged and kissed each other farewell, then Cissa and WhostolemyZen and Noelle D took off for home.
• Shannon and Angel and I hung out at my house for a little while before Angel went back home. Then Shannon and I, though sad to see everybody leave, kinda vegged out and napped. I may have uttered the words, “I’m too old for this partying shit” once or twice.

And that was pretty much SillyBring. Shannon stayed another day, we enjoyed some mindless TV after our naps on Sunday. She made a delicious steak dinner for my Mom and I. Think we played some more “Price is Right” on the Wii before hitting the sack, exhausted. Next morning, more mindless TV (including RuPaul’s Drag Show). Enjoyed Shannon’s company immensely.

Then it was time to drive Shannon back to Orlando International to fly home. We listened to the Kick-Ass soundtrack on the way, having both LOVED the movie. Dropped her off at the Southwest check-in, hugs and kisses, and that was that. I drove home, sad to see Shannon go. Sad to see the extended weekend come to a close. Sad to be back in Sebring all by my lonesome.

And not to be a bummer, but my depression has really been taking a nasty turn for the worst, ramping up throughout the week ever since Shannon left. Nothing seems to be clicking for me…no matter what I try, I’m not feeling it. Reading, TV, music, being online, even rubbing one out – fucking anhedonia can suck my left one.

My naps aren’t all that great because (I think) of the Abilify. Which sucks, because naps are one of my escapes from reality. I feel paralyzed and overwhelmed, too. So much to do, some of it complicated, all of which led to anxiety attacks yesterday, where I had to constantly remind myself to breathe.

You’ve got to be a special kind of stupid to forget to breathe, yeah? I thought so, too.

a

So it’s official. Bubblewench is coming to Sebring toward the end of April. Not many of my blogger buds can say they’ve been here…not many can say they WANT to be here, but still. Shannon wants to meet up with her Florida buddies. Therefore…

We’re having a get together, and you’re invited if you can get here.

WHAT: SillyBring

WHEN: Saturday, April 24

WHERE: Sebring, Florida

I’ll research hotels if you want to come and stay the night. If you’re driving from Tampa, it’s about 2 hours drive. Orlando, about 90 minutes. If you’re flying in, Orlando International is the way to go (airport code MCO).

I don’t expect much response here, but if you do come, here’s some of what we’re thinking about. Karaoke at the infamous Why Not Lounge on Saturday night. It’s a hole-in-the-wall cave of a bar, but it’s full of characters, trust me.

We may also go to Gatorama during the day, which is a gator farm offering the largest selection of gators and crocodiles anywhere! So they say. You can even pet a baby gator.

Depending on how many people come, I also have a Wii with a 60-inch TV. I’m not having 20 people in my house, but again, I don’t expect even 25% of that in numbers, so we’ll see.

We can hit the Blue Lagoon for beers and dinner. Or the Wild Turkey, which has the best gator tail in Highlands county.

Gonna have a blast.

If you’re thinking of coming, leave a comment here…or email me.

EDIT: I didn’t realize this was the same weekend as TequilaCon. Oops. No matter. I knew I couldn’t go to TequilaCon this year, anyway. May as well bring the party here, since Shannon is coming. I hope that my TC buds all have a great time. But we will, too.

REDESIGN

So with the redesign of SecondHand Tryptophan coming within weeks, I’m opening up the floor to suggestions/ideas for the new look. If there are features you’d like to see, please let me know. I have a good idea of where I’m going with things, but I’d love to hear from you, too.

Again, comments here or email would be appreciated. Thanks, gang.

a

Click the tiny Stormtrooper to go see all of the Invaded! studio photos on the Halloween blog!

Those of you who sent in vacation photos helped us out with our decorations immensely. As I said yesterday, we converted my game room into a war room and covered three walls with "Recent Sightings", which were all 122 vacation photos submitted that had aliens photoshopped in. You can view the whole set here, but here are some of my favorites, and I've also embedded a slideshow of all of them, too. Thank you to each of you who submitted a photo!

Bluepaintred

Karl, Cissa, and Becky

Britt

NYCWD

Hilly

LeSombre

Mew

RebTurtle

P.S. I'm considering going to Las Vegas on December 11-13th for the huge blogger birthday bash. Any of you planning on it? When are you flying in? Inquiring Avitable braincells want to know.

(cross-posted to the Halloween blog)

I wish I was able to write a full recap of the party the day after it happened, but that would require preparation, motivation, and finished photos, none of which I currently possess.

If you had your photo taken in the studio, those should be done and up within the week. I'll post them here and on the Halloween blog.

If you have photos of your own, there is a Flickr group all set up – just upload your pics and add them to the group!

Before I write anything, I wanted to thank some people. First and foremost, thank you to James, aka Clown. He invested just as much time and energy into this party as I did. He spent hours on the computer working with the photos and creating the two videos that were at the party (I'll go into more detail with regards to those in a later post). James and I alone couldn't have done everything, though. If it hadn't been for the hours of effort by some amazing friends, none of this would have happened on time or even at all. Thank you so much to Jess, Todd, Baby James, and Hilly for putting in so much effort over the last few months. More thanks go out to Marc, Eric, Dave and Carolina for helping out over the last couple of weeks too! And thanks to Dave (and James and Jess) for designing the T-shirts to help raise money. Am I forgetting anyone? God, I hope not. Thank you so much for all of the work you put in for no other reason other than just being good friends. I'm blessed.

I plan on posting some photos of the props and a little of the behind-the-scenes in how we made them for the two or three of you that actually care about that. And I'll also show you what we did with the vacation photos you submitted. Not tonight, though. Tonight I just wanted to post a little by-the-numbers:

Number of tickets sold: 100
Number of attendees: 88
Number of crashers: 5
Amount of time I got to use my taser that I bought just for party crashers: 0

Guests who arrived drunk: 2
Guests who arrived high: 5
Guests who arrived naked: 0
Guests who looked naked: 1

Time the party started: 8:00
Time the first guest arrived: 7:55
Time the first guest flashed her boobs: 9:15
Time the food ran out: 11:00
Time everyone got the munchies: 1:00
Guests who passed out: 0
Guests who vomited that we know about: 0
Time the last guest left: 3:00

Real Canadians in attendance: 4
Fake Canadians in attendance: 3
Real 80s musicians in attendance: 0
Fake 80s musicians in attendance: 3
Han Solos in attendance: 2

Age of oldest attendee: 60ish
Age of youngest attendee: 15
Apparent drinking age in the country of Avitopia: 15
Number of years in prison I could have gotten: 4

Costumes related to the Invaded! theme: 15
Costumes that went the obvious "illegal alien" route: 12
Costumes that went with a Star Wars theme: 4
Costumes that went with a Star Trek theme: 3
Number of guests who dressed up like me: 1

Total hours it took to design, build and create the party: 480
Total hours it will take to break it all down: 5
Number of days before we start planning for next year: 60

Oh, and I guess that I will share a little bit about the vacation photos. We decided to turn one entire room into a war room, and the walls were going to be plastered with "alien sightings". So all of your submitted vacation photos had aliens Photoshopped in, and as soon as I can, I'll post them so you can download them. Here's one to show you what I mean, though!

Original photo:

Invaded! photo:

Thanks again to everyone who attended – you were the reason it was such a huge success!

Today's the day.

Over 100 people will be storming the house at 8 PM to party until I kick their asses out (last year that was at 5 AM). If you didn't get a ticket, gnash your teeth and wail, but never fear. There's always next year.

T Minus Three Days and Counting . . .

In six days, the following bloggers will be coming to my house for a quiet evening of checkers:

1. Miss Britt
2. Hilly
3. Dave2
4. Hellohahanarf
5. Sassy
6. I'm Wendy
7. Certifiable Princess
8. Kim
9. Libragirl
10. Bellaventa
11. Ren
12. Mommy Melee
13. NYCWD
14. Poppy Cedes
15. Angie (A Whole Lot of Nothing)
16. Hockey Man Dad
17. Finn
18. Karl
19. Floating Princess
20. Marty Mankins
21. Deb on the Rocks
22. Karen Sugarpants
23. Coal Miner's Granddaughter
24. Blondefabulous
25. LeSombre
26. Cheeky Sweetie
27. Turnbaby
28. Bubblewench
29. Little Miss Sunshine State
30. Faiqa
31. Sheila, Charm School Reject
32. Employee 3699
33. That Bitchy Chick

This list, of course, doesn't include the 60 or so local friends, spouses, dignitaries, and members of the royal family who are attending. It is shaping up to be a fun time, although hopefully someone will bring some box wine and Cheez Whiz because I'm only supplying Ritz Crackers and PBR to drink.

If you're attending and I didn't include your name, it's a complete accident and it's due to the fact that I'm writing this after midnight on a Sunday after working on decorations all day with Clown, Liquid, Dave, Hilly, and two other friends. All that's running through my brain are lists of things that need to be done, made, hung, painted, bought, and adhered. We're making real progress, and my hope of being done by Friday afternoon so I can visit with some of you who are in town on Friday night has increased from a 1% chance to a 25% chance!

P.S. I have been asked by a service technician, a pizza delivery guy, and a taxi driver if they can come to the party this year.

P.P.S. I said no.

P.P.P.S. But in a nice way, not in a "You don't even fucking know my last name, weirdo" way.

P.P.P.P.S. My hand may be permanently stained from using fake blood to create blood splatters:

There are six days until 100 people show up at my house to party. I think I need each of these upcoming days to be 40-50 hours long so that we have time to finish everything! Oh well, if I don't get a chance to get those engraved iPhones done for each guest, I'm sure everyone will understand*.

Today is the last day to buy tickets to Invaded! The party is next Saturday, October 24th, starting at 8 PM, and I hope to see you there!

Also, if you're still interested in purchasing an Invaded! T-shirt with designs by me and Dave2 among others, you can get 10% off all weekend long by using promotional code SWEETESTDAY9! Go visit the store and see both the T-shirts and the coffee mugs that are available.