january 2

emptied out and getting to chill at home for a couple of weeks.

january 1

my visit home to virginia for the holidays was filled with family, friends, food, music, movies, SLEEP...and even a little romance that has potential (fingers crossed!) for big romance.

it was, all in all, just about as perfect as a week can get, but this photo, for me, sums it up.

delusion: the blood rite

my slight obsession with nathan fillion led to a recent discovery of a haunted house in los angeles.  a slightly different kind of haunted house.  an interactive haunted house.  an interactive haunted house co-produced by neil patrick harris and a well-known hollywood stunt man. 

knowing she’d be up for it, i invited my friend jami to join me, and we bought our tickets weeks in advance for an almost sold out run of delusion: the blood rite.  in fact, october was completely sold out, so we purchased tickets for november 9^th.  and tonight was the night.

on our way to la, we planned to stop for dinner, but our destination changed as we drove by a restaurant with a cool sign.  yes, a sign.  it was upscale 50’s, and it was interesting enough that we decided to check the place out.  ironically, we thought it was a completely ‘random’ restaurant, but, as it turns out, it’s been featured in many articles and publications, many of which were on display in the bathroom hallway. and, lucky for us, the food was excellent.

after dinner, we headed north to la and got ourselves checked in at the run-down-mansion-cum haunted play.  we would be in the ‘maggot debridement’ group.  there was a food truck on site, as well as a bar, but mostly we passed the 20-30 minute wait listening to the comments of the other groups coming out of the house.

when the ‘maggots’ were called, we made our way down a staircase in the backyard where we waited for the rest of the group to gather.  there were 10 of us total, 2 couples, 4 members of a harry potter fan club (who pretty much only communicated in terms of hp. i.e. “he may be gryffindor now, but he’ll be hufflepuff by the end of the night!”)

our group was gathered on the staircase landing, next to a ‘cemetery’  and our guide gave us a few rules.  the standard ‘no photos’, and the less standard, ‘don’t touch the actors, but they CAN touch you’.

she then asked if anyone in the group had type o blood.  several raised their hands (is it weird i have no idea what my blood type is??) and she took particular interest in the two with o-, asking them to come forward and be in the front of the group as we slowly filed passed the graves, listening to an audio recording of who we were and why we were here.

we made our way around the graves as the audio ended, and were stopped by our guide at the elaborate gates of a more ‘formal’ graveyard.  there, she asked who was the bravest of the group and the 3 hp girls pointed to their one male member.  the guide remarked that his companions thought he was brave, but he didn’t seem so sure.  he responded that he would be brave, no, he WAS brave, and she then gave him a satchel to keep safe.  she then assessed our group, came to me, and handed me a bottle of liquor.  i remarked that it might come in handy, and she replied that it would.

she then gave us our first task.  we were to go into the graveyard, find the gravedigger, and somehow convince him to give us a vial once belonging to the now deceased ‘master of the house’ and mad scientist of sorts.

we headed inside and sure enough, found the gravedigger, in a grave, on top of a coffin.  he asked what our purpose was and satchel guy told him that we had come for the vial.  he then climbed out of the grave, giving us a few more pieces to the story, before saying he might need a little help to loosen his tongue and reveal the location of the vial.

i pulled out the bottle of liquor and asked if it would help, and he said that indeed it would. at which point, he told us that the vial had been buried with lowell (the master) and that we would have to get it for ourselves.  so, satchel guy jumped in the grave, opened the coffin, and removed the vial.

our guide ‘found us’ again to take us to the front of the mansion, where we gathered around the front steps.  there was a young girl on the balcony above, singing "ring around the rosie" while swinging her doll around.  when the doll dropped, jami headed up the steps to retrieve it.  she threatened jami by telling her that she would get the doll from her corpse later.

the guide then suggests that we knock on the door - which i do - but no one answers.  so, the girl begins asking some of the group members how many people they killed in the war (we had just returned from), and after getting less than satisfactory answers, moves on to chastising jami for not holding the baby like a baby.  she then tells her to rock the baby, to sing a lullaby to her, and for the rest of us to help her sing.

 it’s then that the front door opens, and we are quickly ushered inside by a woman we learn is anna, dr. lowell’s daughter.  she tries to jog our memories, telling us about her father, about the time we were here before the war, and why we have come back.

i have to pause here to mention the ‘set’.  it is truly incredible.  it feels real.  the attention to detail is outstanding and the actors are extremely well cast.  while we are listening to her dialogue in the foyer, a ‘creature’ slithers down the stairs, and i immediately have one of the great ‘creep out’ moments of the evening.  she finishes the introduction, giving some background on these creatures, then guides us into the adjacent study.

once inside the study she tells us that we need to find three objects...a journal which has the combination for the safe behind door #1, a dagger, and a key. she tells us that we must first get the key to open the door behind which is the safe.  she selects one of the harry potter girls, and me, to go through door #2, down a long hallway, into the kitchen where the butcher resides.  she cautions us not to be very quiet and not to wake him.

we creep down the hallway, not sure what to expect, and for me, this would turn out to be the scariest moment of the evening.  something about being separated from the safety of the larger group amps up the fright level exponentially!  we make our way into the kitchen, barely stifling our nervous laughter, and the 4’ tall hp chick, sort of, silently gets on her tiptoes to retrieve the key from above the butcher’s head.  She grabs them and we make a break for it, running back to the study.  (i understand that sometimes, upon arriving in the kitchen, the door shuts behind you and the butcher ‘terrorizes’ you.)

when we re-entered the study, the rest of the group was gathered around the desk, having just discovered the location of the safe’s combination. as anna begins to open the safe, a body falls out, and the butcher pounds on the door we’ve just come in from.  anna rebukes us for waking him before letting him in and allowing him to ‘have his fun’ with the body in the safe.

she rushes us past him into a room where we see a woman, standing on a chair, with a noose around her neck.  she explains that this is her sister, who has contracted a terrible and highly contagious disease that will infect us all, unless we kill her now.  she then reminds us that when we were here before the war, dr. lowell’s experiments resulted in some unique powers – including telekinesis – and that she suspected we still had the skill.

she tells us to put our hands out, and to push the chair out from under the woman with our minds.  and the chair goes flying backwards, hanging the woman in the process.

remember when i said that one of the producers is a stuntman?  as a result, the ‘action’ is impressive.  better and more impressive than anything i’ve previously seen.  in fact, i’m still trying to figure out how the creepy crawly guy on the front stairs made me feel like i was in the grudge.

at any rate, after we’d all committed murder, anna leads us into the music room, where we find a one-armed soldier pecking out keys on the piano.  it turns out that he was anna’s sister’s lover and he is pretty ticked that we’ve just killed his girlfriend.  he tells anna that he will take someone from her in exchange.  and to decide who that is, we will play a game of musical chairs.

jami and i find seats, but one gentlemen isn’t so lucky.  the one arm soldier muscles him into the room next door, knife at his neck, with us following behind.

in this room we find a heavyset girl, dancing, with the dagger.  the one-armed soldier tells us that the only way he will release our ‘friend’ is if we retrieve the dagger, and in order for us to retrieve the dagger, someone needs to dance with her, and dance well.

anna selects another gentleman in our group and says that since he seems to think this is so funny, he can try his luck. he begins to dance with her and she is clearly not pleased.  she bemoans his skill and wonders if it is her form that is not pleasing.  she tells us that she can appear any way she wants and proves it by going behind a curtain and returning as a ‘beautiful’ woman.  anna indicates that we have to try again and she selects me as the dancing partner.

i’m apparently a better dancer, and she giggles and twirls, and hands me the dagger.

after securing the dagger, our group member is returned, and anna takes us upstairs. she stops us on the landing, tells us that ‘grandma’ is in the bathtub at the end of the hallway, and that she has a key around her neck that one of us must retrieve.  one of the guys pushes his girlfriend forward, and anna tells her that she has put grandma in a trance, but that she doesn’t know how long it will last.

the girl makes her way down the hallway, and as soon as she gets inside the bathroom, the door slams shut behind her, separating her from the rest of us.  the butcher then appears in front of the bathroom door to attack us and we all use our telekinesis to keep him at bay.  it’s a struggle at first, but eventually with one great push, he goes flying about 40 feet down the hallway and disappears,  anna pushes us all into the room at the top of the stairs and the door to the closes quickly - with anna still in the hallway - revealing a man behind it.

he tells us that he is anna’s brother and that all along, she has been tricking us.  that her real purpose is to summon a demon, and that she has used us to accomplish certain tasks for that ritual.  he tells us that in the end, she will drain us of our blood to raise the demon.

charles, the brother, then notices that we are missing someone, and reluctantly agrees to help us get her back. he is clearly afraid, but leads us through a couple of small rooms, and before opening the door to the last room, tells us that whatever we do, we have to smile big and keep smiling.

we enter the room to find a girl in pigtails, talking to our lost group member, who has been tucked into bed.

the girl tells us that she is reading her best friend to sleep, and charles encourages her to let our ‘friend’ go.  she refuses, repeating that this is her best friend, and she’s having fun, and wants to play a game.  she then brandishes a large knife.

charles laments what he believes is about to happen and asks if anyone can think of a way to distract her.  jami, still carrying the doll, suggests that the baby might help, and charles thinks that is a wonderful idea.  he reasons with pigtail girl and suggests that the doll will be more fun – that the doll can dance!  he whispers to jami: ‘show her!’ and jami makes a naked baby doll dance.

pigtail girl concedes that this is more fun, and she takes the doll, letting our friend return to the group.  we head out of the room quickly, and are greeted next door by grandma. she’s feeling a little weak, and is looking for the strongest guy with the most potent seed and some good blood to ‘revive her’.

she chooses one and tells him to lay down on the bed.  he complies, warily, and charles suggests she try the blood in the vial, which he has (unbeknownst to her) infected with a quick acting plague in an attempt to kill anna.  she takes a sip and makes her way to the bed, where, just before she kisses the man, suffers a violent reaction to the tainted blood.  while she rails against charles and begins dying, we are hurried down a hallway and down stairs with a number of creatures hanging and slithering above and in front of us.

we quickly walk under them and once back down stairs are told we have to go into the basement, and that charles cannot accompany us. we do as we are instructed and find anna and an acolyte down below.

anna finally reveals her deception and instructs her acolyte to put us in a cage.  instead, annoyed with a comment from one of the group members, he ushers us into a pitch black room.  we can literally see nothing, and all i know is that strangers have locked grips on both my arms, with jami a couple people down from me (i think) and the sound of rattling chains is getting closer.  when our eyes begin to adjust and we start to see the image of a woman coming closer, anna intervenes, pulling us out of the room and into the aforementioned cage.

the acolyte then chooses a sacrifice (the same girl who got the bedtime stories) and chains her to the wall.  anna takes her place on a pentagram outside the cage and begins the summoning.  but something goes wrong.

the ceiling is falling down around them and a demon appears (at this moment, i truly felt like i was in an episode of buffy the vampire slayer), but the demon is upset with anna, and begins to attack.

while distracted, charles rushes in to release us from the cage and get us out of the mansion, at which point, the story is over.

so. that is the experience in its play by play form.  i left mostly in awe, with only slightly mixed feelings about the whole thing.  ultimately, i’m soooo glad i did it. i had hoped for a higher 'scare factor' and it was a challenge to follow the story, which came to an abrupt and unsatisfying ending, but i thought the actors were fantastic, and i did really love the small group size, the inter-activity, the task completion, the successful separation and return of group members, and the effects.  i would do it again, but i think next time, i’d like to go with a bigger group of my own friends to share the experience with.  definitely a very unique experience!

it's the best bad idea we have

i just couldn't stay away from argo.  i try and be conscientious about movie ratings, but argo had my name written all over it.

first, it's ben affleck, who i've loved since good will hunting when everyone else was falling all over themselves to get in line behind matt damon.  don't get me wrong, matt damon is great, but ben affleck has always been a little more "me". there was a time around those jennifer lopez years where i hid my love in a closet, but thankfully, the jennifer garner years (who doesn't love them some alias?) have allowed me to open that door, and open it wide.

more importantly though, i grew up in a world where employees of the "state department" were my sunday school teachers, middle-eastern souvenirs turned out to be live grenades, the words "assassination attempt" were part of my childhood vocabulary, and there was a day where my father sat in ronald reagan's oval office and was 'encouraged' to hold the iran-contra scandal he had discovered.

iran was a place i was aware of, even at a young age.  in fact, despite the fact that we lived in a pretty "white" northern virginia suburb, my best neighborhood friend, bita, was first generation iranian-american.

i was fascinated by her.  i loved listening to her speak farsi and tell stories about her home.  in hindsight, i wonder if my dad found it ironic that during the time iran was so heavily featured on the world stage (and in his life) that it was also so relevant in my world, for completely different reasons.

at any rate, when i first heard about argo, i was excited and hesitant.  i was too young (3) to remember any of the details of its non-fictional origin story, so i was curious and interested.  it reminded me of my childhood after all (how many people equate iran and hostages with memories of their childhood, i ask you?). and it's also ben affleck.  on the flip side, i've been on a run of  crappy movie choices lately, and i didn't want to be disappointed by this one.  i waited for the reviews to come in, and was blown away by the high rankings.  and that made me even more hesitant.  with great expectations comes the very large possibility that they will not be met.

but i got over it, and it's one of the few times my great expectations have been exceeded in a movie theater. after all, how does a movie where you already know the ending (spoiler alert: the hostages get out) keep you engaged and wondering what's going to happen next?!

somehow, it did.  somehow knowing that there was a happy, real, ending, did not lessen one ounce of  the tension i felt.  i white-knuckled it through the particularly stressful moments and felt genuine concern for the characters, forgetting time and time again that they would in fact escape, and wondering which moment would be THE moment where it would all fall apart.  it's what makes the movie genius.  perfectly cast, acted, and directed, it gives you just enough, but not too much, and all at the right times and in the right ways.  it's been a long time since a movie hit the mark for me like this one hit the mark.

and my last, lingering, thought, is one of gratitude. i am grateful for the unsung heroes. the ones whose faces don't make the six o'clock news, and whose names simply become stars carved on marble walls.  and i am grateful for the sacrifices that i don't even know have been made in order to secure the freedoms that i and all other americans enjoy.

happy halloween!

halloween in california is the awesomest. seriously. the best.  maybe it's an overcompensation for lacking real seasons, but the variety of october holiday experiences are diverse and numerous -- and i've been taking advantage all month.

the celebrations continued on saturday evening with a church sponsored mid-singles dance/awkward social experiment up in los angeles.  the truth is, i really shouldn't have gone.  i was exhausted from my late night pool adventures and my early morning flight, but i get to be in town for these things so rarely that i felt like i had to go.  unfortunately as a result, i went with a bad attitude and a low tolerance for the 'awkward social experiment' portions of the evening.  i can't imagine that my company was remotely enjoyable, so i'm grateful that my companions were not only people i genuinely enjoy, but also ones who were very patient with me.

nicole, matt, jami, me, and rick

and on the upside, i was happy with my (red riding hood) costume, for the first time in years!

luckily, i had a chance to redeem myself on all hallow's eve.

a friend from church had organized a group outing with various stops throughout the evening.

jami and i headed to john's (the organizer extraordinaire) house to see if anyone else needed a lift, and filled the car before heading off to stop 1: the earrywood haunted house.

the local haunted house celebrated it's 10th anniversary this year, and this was my second visit (my first, a couple of years ago). i love that this free haunt is a truly home-crafted affair created for the sheer love of the holiday, and of scaring people, and that it is a really good haunted house!

during our wait, the group expanded from a dozen or so to 30 or 40 people,  we used the time to catch up with old friends and make new ones.

when our time came to enter the maze, rick, emily (a new introduction), and i headed in.  much to my chagrin, i brought up the rear of our trio, so of course i quickly became the obvious target.  so much so that one of the 'characters'  followed me through the entire maze, periodically popping up out of nowhere to remind me that he was there.  i got a few genuine scares and screams from the experience and managed to make it out alive!

i waited for jami and the rest of my car, who had somehow ended up at the back of the line, before we headed out to stop number 2: dr. tony's halloween extravaganza

this was a new, and totally amazing experience for me.  all i knew going into it was that we were going to some kind of halloween block party, but i learned later that the event originated from a local brain surgeon who loves the holiday and happens to own a few investment properties in the same neighborhood.  so, every year, he picks a theme, foots the bill for and enlists the aid of his tenants and other neighbors for a neighborhood-wide halloween celebration.

my initial reaction was surprise at just how many people were wandering the streets participating in the festivities.  i also found it very exciting that there was a halloween activity that somehow blended children and adults, costumes and 'street' clothes, trick-or-treating, and party, seamlessly. 

the crowd, though large, was remarkably tame, friendly, and diverse.  it felt so different from previous halloweens in virginia.  i've been a little east-coast homesick lately, but october has given me a chance to remember some of the things that make california special, and the block party was the icing.

this year's theme was the wizard of oz, and after joining up with a couple of other cars, we began following dorothy's journey from kansas to oz and back again.  criss-crossing the street from top to bottom, each house held a piece of the story.  we started on the farm (complete with actual tractor) with dorothy singing about a rainbow and slowly made our way through the rest of the tale.

we saw dorothys at most of the houses, each one at a different place in the story.  we met glinda, the tin man, scarecrow, cowardly lion, and of course, the wicked witch, time and time again. we lost our friends and found them, and lost them again.  we avoided a tornado, sang with munchkins, traveled to the emerald city (complete with giant animatronic 'wizard'), met more friends, waved off a hot air balloon and called it a most excellent night.