The Tortoise

In preparation for my upcoming Christmas tree decorating extravaganza, I thought I would provide some insight on some of the origami pieces I am in the (slow and torturous) process of completing. This first piece will be on the tortoise.

I am starting with the turtle because it has so far been the most difficult piece to create. I don’t know how many of you have attempted origami before, but some of the directions they provide are just awful. In several of the books I have, they all seem to have one thing in common; they spend several pages on a primer for “basic folds” and starting positions called “origami bases.” That is to say, all books except the one I started with…but that’s where this story takes place.

So, my biggest mistake was not reviewing these pages. In this day and age of “just tell me what I need to know right now” I figured I would review the things I needed when I needed them (and not a minute sooner!) My other issue with the directions is the pictures themselves. In many cases, they show the result of not one but a couple of folds at once. No fair! It is amazing to me how much time you can spend looking at a flat 2 dimensional picture of something and trying to figure out how they got there. It’s a good thing the paper is so cute!

Anyway, back to the tortoise. Let’s start off nice and easy with a bit of history. According to one of my books, the tortoise symbolizes long life and happiness. Placing a model of the tortoise by the back door of your home is said to attract good fortune. I don’t know about a long life, but I do know it took me a good long while to finally figure this piece out. The process went something like this:

Page 42: The Tortoise.
Step 7. Step 7? Where are steps 1-6? Oh wait, the directions say go to page 35 for steps 1-6. Got it.

Page 35: Blow Up Bunny. (Who names these things?)
Steps 1-5. No problem. It reminds me of making a cootie catcher. Why don’t they just say that?
Step 6. Collapse into a Waterbomb base. Hmmm….Waterbomb….Ok, where the heck is that? Back to the table of contents….nope. Terrific. Good thing I have other books.

Different book, Page 20. Waterbomb Base
Step 10. Done! Geesh it was only one more step. They couldn’t have sprung for the extra visual? Back to the other book…..

Page 42. The Tortoise (take 2)
Step 8. Fold just the front layer in half upward using the crease made in step 7 and squash so that your paper looks like picture 9. Squash?? That doesn’t sound very origami-instruction-like. Mine doesn’t look like picture 9. Let’s try this again….

2 hours later…..

Once again reverting to a different book, I find something called a “Squash fold.” The definition reads “A double layer flap is opened and squashed flat.” Grrr….back to the other book.

Page 42. (I never want to see Step 8 again, but now I do look like the picture in step 9.)
Step 11. Uses the squash term again, but this time I am ready for them! Feeling very confident now, I am finally ready to turn to page 43.

18 steps later……a tortoise!

It’s one of those designs that ends up all folded up and you have to gently pull apart to try and inflate. When that doesn’t work, I grabbed the toothpicks and start trying to work it from the inside. Eventually, you see the end result in the picture I included. Notice there are 2 of them? Well, I decided that I needed to make another one just to show that I wasn’t afraid of trying to do it again. The second one took about 5 minutes. (Stupid squash fold…)

After that, I decided to call it a night. The following night went much better, but that’s another story……

Halloween Ball

Well, the big weekend has come and gone. This past weekend was the Fetish and Fantasy Ball. I had a couple of friends come with me (who asked to remain anonymous) and we had a great time. In preparation for the big event, we had some last minute shopping to do. We decided to go wig shopping.

As you can see from the picture, I found one. Actually, I bought 2 wigs, but decided the blue beehive was the best one to wear for this party. I also found some boots that I could actually zip up over my calves, so I bought those too. In hindsight, of course, I should never have worn new shoes to a party where I was going to be on my feet for 6 hours. Then again, I have never been particularly sensible when it comes to my footwear.

The party itself was pretty interesting. It took place at a hotel/resort off the strip. One of my friends was staying at the Hard Rock which was across the street from the Ball, so we all decided to get ready in her room. 3 hours later we were finally ready to head out. We had to walk through the hotel and then halfway down the block to get to the place. I’m pretty sure I already had blisters by the time we got to the hotel. It was clearly going to be a long night.

Once we got inside, there were a number of different rooms and things to do. Some of it was blocked off to us since we didn’t have VIP tickets, but other than that, we spent time in one small room that had a spanking demonstration going on. There were probably 4 or 5 people up on a stage and anyone in the room could go up and get themselves tied to a cross or put in a stockade and get whipped for a while.

The other interesting room was the vendor area. It had the kind of things you might imagine. Lots of sex toys, lots of art, some funky photography you could pose for, and other items you could probably find at any adult store. There was also a fire show somewhere, but we never got there. Not sure what happened, but we just never seemed to find it. I guess I’ll just have to wait until next year.

The costumes ran the gamut as you might guess. Plenty of what you might consider “normal” Halloween costumes and then there was the fetish group. I would say most people fell into the leather-clad arena. My friends and I fell into that group as well. The corset I ended up buying came with its own nipple rings on the front. Frankly, I am amazed at the number of people who walked up to me and pulled on them. Some of them asked, but most of them just did it. Thank God they weren’t real!

I had several people stop and take my picture, so I am hoping that I end up on the Balls’ web site. How cool would that be?

Is it really the Middle of October???

I can’t believe it is almost the middle of October. I feel like I have been more than a little lax in keeping up with my writing, but I have been pretty busy with getting my latest project completed. It’s crunch time and I find that when I get this way, I want to get away from my computer as soon as possible rather than linger over it trying to come up with something new to write.

So, I have a trip planned for next week. It’s nice to be getting out of here for a bit. Granted, I am going out of town for work and I have to deliver a week’s worth of training. Still, its new surroundings and I get to blow the dust off my AMEX card and use my brand new suitcase, so there is just a bunch of joy-joy feelings all around.

After next week is over I can spend more time concentrating on Halloween. Yay! I am going to the Fetish and Fantasy Ball this year. It should be really, um….interesting. I have my outfit ready to go. I am still a little undecided as to whether or not to wear a wig. Somehow I am thinking it would be a bad idea. (Too hot! and not in a good way.)

Other than that, I may be going out this weekend with the girls as Heidi’s “party spouse” and designated driver. We’ll see. I don’t even know where we are supposed to be going yet, but I’m sure I’ll have another story to tell.

Here is a picture of me and Heidi’s daughter, Harmony when we went to the 51’s baseball game in August.

Ok, well that’s about it for now. Big stuff coming up for the rest of the year, but right now it’s nose to the grindstone until I finish this project. Boo!