Nobbies Adventure!

Halloween has always been my most favorite time of the year, well a close second to Christmas atleast. My love of this special holiday has led me to accept a position at Nobbies Party Store in the West Des Moines area. I started late August and had been working there for a tiresome two and a half months until November 1st when a list of twenty or so names appeared on the bulletin board. I admit that I was a bit saddened to see this, because my experience was indeed one that I do not regret. I met plenty of friends and will miss them all greatly. Near the end of my Nobbies Adventure I heard about a coworker who suddenly left us on October 26th. I never knew her to well, but everyone including myself never expected to lose a fellow employee to a terrible stroke. Her locker in the brake room now holds a small shrine in her memory and will be welded shut with a small engraved plaque on the bottom. 

My time there before that was also challenging. I explained to my boss during the interview process that I was talented in face painting and drawing. There was infact a position open to assist the resident part-time makeup artist with some of his clients and I was happy to volunteer. I'd never done more than do a few simple designs on faces at picnics, barbeques, and childrens' parties, but nothing close to professional special effects makeup artistry. My first clients were booked by myself and they requested two zombie looks for themselves. They gave me a very generous tip, though they never did send a picture of themselves for my collection as they promised, but my second client seemed excited enough to oblige. I transformed an ordinary dentis from Idaho into a ferocious orange cat. He was the most thrilled by my amateur face painting. I say amateur because I know I can always improve and after waiting so long for an opportunity like this, it's hard to say that I'm very experienced.

Sadly I was unable to take part in any or all Halloween festivities, though I probably should've seen that coming before the fact. I was dressed up parading around in my festive "grim reaper" costume that I purchased with the employee discount and was having a ball. I even was seen on t.v. all dressed up when the local news stopped by to do a story on the Halloween rush at Nobbies. My biggest regret is that I don't have the heart for scaring children, so my "character" was short lived on the floor until "Beggars Night" when all the kids were away trick-or-treating and the adults where prepping for a night of drinks and dancing at the clubs downtown. Since my collection of costumes has grown, you can expect me to throw my inhibitions to the wind and unveil my scariest tricks for next year.

Caricature Adventure!

Well, a whole summer seems to have gone by rather quickly and my summer jobs have passed even quicker still.  I've been working at Fareway, (an Iowa based grocery store), and never really did much other than that since I started working there. Two full years had passed before I made the decision to acquire a second job as a caricature artist working at Adventure Land Park in Altoona, Iowa.  The experience started out wonderfully.  The daily commute back and forth from the park back to my house was kind of a short one so it was easy enough to get there on time.  All I did was sit at my desk drawing people's faces so that they looked like cartoons.  lol.  The first few weeks were a bit difficult because I've never done caricature art before, nor have I even picked up an airbrush.  Surprisingly, I started earning an honest paycheck in no time.  Every week for the following month and a half there were different people coming in and it maintained my interest enough for me to not actually get sick of working.  I started taking some pictures of ones that I was most proud of and decided that one day I'd put them on a website for promotional reasons.  Well it didn't last as long as I thought.  Me and Adventure Land parted ways shortly before the season came to a close when they started shifting from all day hours to minimal weekend hours.  But the reason why I left is a story I'd rather not share depending on which of my former coworkers is reading this.  I guess you can't make friends with every one, and let's leave it at that.  But don't get me wrong.  I really loved it there and it just didn't work out.  

So anyway, I have the pictures uploaded onto my computer and shall commence the task of placing each one on this blog (via a link to my photobucket account) which should make it easier.  All for the sake of showing you what Adventure Land is now missing as far as employees go.  lol.  Click on the 'Caricature Adventure' pic above the 'About Me' bar on the right side of the page to view the pictures I took.

Hope you enjoy them. 

Welcome to "The Green Room".

We at the Des Moines Playhouse will be performing this classic Broadway show called "The Pajama Game".  The story is something you'll have to find out later when you come see it.  lol.

Today's topic is about a simple and exclusive place for fellow thespians at The Des Moines Playhouse.  I was acquainted to "The Green Room" as I was exploring the various halls and passage ways of the playhouse.  After going through the most unique and extensive prop room I'd ever seen, I stumbled into this place by a most fortunate coincidence.  

The place was definitely green paint-wise and I suppose that's where the name came from.  But that wasn't the special part of it.  I saw it as being connected to all things there from the song room, to the costume shop, to prop storage, to the dance room, to a long staircase ascending to the stage itself.  Many great actors have passed through the threshold of those stairs, (one of them I might add was Cloris Leachman, whom you may have seen in movies such as Spanglish, Sky High, and Young Frankenstein).  The realization of it made my head spin.  I feel privileged to be a part of this show.  See you later when I'm on stage.