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6:24 p.m. - 2004-11-02
Dia de las muertes
I'm just totally blown away, but in a good way. Last night was the Day of the Dead celebration, and it was so completely amazing to me....

But, no kidding, I'm exhausted.

I'm not sure I can even write about it. It was one of those occasions that just doesn't lend itself to simple words. So how about a bunch of disjointed vignettes?

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Got to the gallery around 12:30 on Sunday, which was also Halloween. Which was also my birthday. To my surprise, there were already people there who wanted to help. We've been having work days all along, but I sort of thought folks would poop out at the last minute and Tracy, Wendy and I would do the whole thing by ourselves.

Well, that just shows you what a cynical, jaded dweeb I am.

And to further restore my good feelings about human nature, around 2 pm dear Patty brought a huge amount of Indian food to the gallery and we all sat down and ate. And for dessert?

Three birthday cakes. THREE!!!! And they were three of the most insanely delicious cakes I've ever had!! A "tres leche" torte, a peanut butter/chocolate cake, and a selection of tropical fruit cheesecakes.

Have you ever had papaya cheesecake? Oh. My. Freakin'. Lord. It is to die for.

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The actual installation? A nuthouse. All I can say is that Tracy, Wendy, and I avoided murdering eachother and everyone else had a fantastic time.

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Spent the night Sunday at the gallery. I had brought my sleeping bag and overnight bag, and made up a bed in the loft.

I use the term "bed" very loosely here.

Tracy stayed with me, but where I went to bed around 1:30 she didn't lay down till about 4. We both woke up around 7, and had cake for breakfast.

Later that day Wendy's husband Michael congratulated me on joining an exclusive club.

"What club?" I asked.

"The club of people who've spent the night in the gallery!!" he grinned. Evidently he spent the night there about a year ago, to protect some recording equipment they were using there!

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The actual celebration? I actually didn't see much of it! It was in the gallery's courtyard, and the adjoining alley. I wound up sitting behind the front desk, to answer questions about the celebration and take donations.

Well, somebody had to do it!!

Even from my remote spot though, it was very moving. We had encouraged people to bring remembrances of their loved ones who had died for the altar, and over and over I was shown photos of fathers, mothers, sons, sisters. I was pleasantly surprised at how many pets I saw, and I was glad we had made one section of the altar for animals.

It was also so moving hearing stories about these people who had died. Everyone wanted to tell a story, everyone wanted to put a person behind the face in the picture.

And over and over people thanked us for doing the show, so they could have a place to put all these photos and stories. That alone made me feel like all the exhausting work we've done for months and all the frustrations and head changes I've gone through were worth it.

Will I do it again next year? Yeah, after seeing the results, I think I'll do it again next year, If Tracy and Wendy want to.

I'll start in January though. And I'll buy a big bottle of Advil before we start!!

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My favorite part came at the end of the night. I was saying goodbye to Johnny, and he was telling me how much it had meant to him. I wanted to give him something to thank him for helping and so I got him one of the papier mache bones I had made.

He insisted that Tracy, Wendy and I sign it, so it would be a real souvenir.

I loved this idea, so I got one, too, and we signed each others. And then Wendy and Ashley wanted one, so I cut a few more off of the big "Bone Arbor" I had made, and we all ran around getting each others autographs on our bones.

"It's just like a high school yearbook!" giggled Ashley, as she wrote "BFF!!" (Best Friends Forever!!) on my bone.

We''re going to have a thank you dinner for the volunteers in a couple of weeks, and my plan is to make a bone for eachone of them. Yeah, everyone should have the thrill of autographed bones!!


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