Category: Just Shelley

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

Dorothea, while writing about gaming characters, wrote the following today:

Do not wave a character sheet around yelling “But my character’s a sweet, easy-going chap!” when he’s just instigated an unnecessary catfight with the rest of the group. That dog so won’t hunt.

Your character has to take responsibility for his/her actions just as you do. A character sheet isn’t a shield or a get-out-of-doghouse-free card.

Sometimes Dorothea’s writings about gaming come all to uncomfortably close to real life. People will perceive you based on your actions, not how you perceive yourself.

And you can’t yell “Fire!” in real life and then bitch when you get hit in the face with a bucket of water.

It’s not often that one can room with an ex-husband and manage to remain best friends. It just goes to show that though I may be firey, difficult, opinionated and hard to live with online, I’m a soft, loveable, easy going charmer offline.

Well, no, not really, but it was a nice try.

Anyway, the roomie and I visited downtown St. Louis Saturday afternoon and by impulse decided to ride the tram to the top of the Arch.

Before going further, it’s important to know that I’m slightly afraid of heights, though it’s manageable. I have no problems in tall buildings, on bridges, or on hills, but I can get uncomfortable with open stairways — I get dizzy for some reason. I’m also a bit afraid of tight, closed spaces, though it’s also manageable. I love caves, but the roof has to be at least a foot over my head; I’m not one to crawl through tight spots.

Anyway, back to the story.

We stood in line to go through security, which only took about 20 minutes. And then we stood in line to be admitted to the waiting area for the tram. Another 20 minutes. Then we stood in an inner waiting area for about 25 minutes. We were finally allowed in to the stairs for loading on to the tram. The wait there was only about 6 minutes, giving me enough time to realize that the entrance for the tram was about 4 feet tall and about half that wide.

The guide joked with the crowd, “I hope you’re not afraid of heights or are claustrophobic”. HaHaHaHaHaHa.

When the tram arrived and the door opened, these people crawled out of this little egg like thing with five seats crammed into a space that could easily fit two.

Rob and I were the last on, which means we were right next to the door. The door with a glass window. The door with a glass window overlooking a great, big, tall stairway. The door with a glass window overlooking a great, big, tall stairway, all viewed from the inside of a little itty bitty living space. For four minutes. And they didn’t provide Tic Tacs.

Next time I get an impulse, I hope someone hits me.

In the meantime, thanks to Norm Jenson for feeding my Tim Tam habit…

…and get off your butt and vote tomorrow.

Today is my favorite holiday, Halloween. Forget reality for a day and be an astronaut if you want, against a backdrop of crisp fall weather, spiced apple cider, colorful leaves, and flickering lights stuffed into a gourd.

A few years ago we spent Halloween at Salem, and that was interesting — a bit of hokey fun to go with the very real history of the Salem witchcraft trials. Other years I used to go to parties on Halloween night, but no longer. Today, I’ll go for a walk during the day, enjoy the decorations and the fall colors. Tonight, I’ll hand out candy, though I wonder if we’ll even have trick-or-treaters this year.

I used to love dressing up for Halloween, but not every one does. Shannon wrote in her weblog about having to dress up for her job at a restaurant, something she wasn’t particularly happy about. I suggested she go as a health inspector.

As for my own costumes through the years, I’ve done the usual: princess, hobo, witch, and drunken teenager (wait a sec — that one was real). Not terribly original. However, a couple of Halloweens I did wear fairly unique costumes, or at least, I thought they were unique.

When I was 12, I dressed up as a voodoo doll. I cut a hole in a sheet, and covered it with garish symbols and signs. I then tied a pillow underneath the sheet in the front, and carried around a box of stick pins and let people stick me.

When I was 21, I dressed as a huge green butterfly. I made gossamer green wings 6ft wide that I tied to me at neck and waist. I then wore a green t-shirt, shorts, and nylons, and spray painted my hair silver. To finish the look, I made sparkly antenna, and glued sequins to my face. It was hell getting on the bus to work, but the passengers were great help, and we all had fun.

When we were kids, sometimes we’d go to parties, and dunk for apples, and pin tails on the donkey, and have pumpkin carving contests. I imagine that kids today are too sophisticated for this type of silliness, but it was so much fun. And the trick-or-treating! Running up to each house, opening your bag, yelling out “Trick or Treat!”.

I went trick-or-treating with my brother and his friend once. I must have been young, very young. We went up to a house and Michael had me knock on the door. An older man answered and I said, “Trick or Treat!” The man gave me an evil grin and said in sepulcher tones, “Wait here, and I’ll get the knife.”

As I stood there in confusion, my brother yelled out, “Quick Shell! Run for your life! Run! Run!” I ran and ran and ran, in absolute terror.

(You know, my brother was a real asshole at that age.)

Another time my mother couldn’t take I or my brother into town for trick-or-treating so we tried to trick-or-treat at the farms surrounding us. One of the closest was just down below us, through a patch of trees near the river. When our neighbor answered the door, he was surprised to see us as most people weren’t expecting kids that far in the country. He didn’t have any candy, so he invited us in and hunted around and found cocoa and marshmallows, crisp apples, and pretzels.

He made us a little feast, and as we sat and nibbled and sipped, he told us one of his favorite ghost stories — one scary enough to be fun, but not too scary for walking home through the woods when we left.

Dark and difficult day and evening with much to work through. Walking around with a cloud over my head and rain in my eyes, and then I visit Shannon and I stumble on to a pot of gold.

Lovely music. Lovely, lovely music. The result of a musical collaboration between two webloggers who have never met: Shannon and Scott Andrew LePera.

Thank you for brightening my day, Shannon and Scott. And Shannon, congratulations on your upcoming performance with the 2003 Tori Amos Tribute.