2006-10-16 - 11:37 a.m.
Wandering imagination
A good weekend, overall - too much money spent, but hopefully a lot of it will be recouped in the future, as a bunch of it went on a club membership for buying things more cheaply - big ticket items like refrigerators, cabinets, and the many, many things that go into building and furnishing a house. That said, the membership was steep, and I don't recommend it to anyone who isn't planning a major remodel, but I think we'll do quite well over it. Other money was spent on cheese, girly things from the health food store, and party supplies for Bob's party in March. Yes, we start the whole planning-for-the-birthday thing well in advance so a) I don't bankrupt myseslf and b) I can find everything I have in mind for the theme, which this next time will be "insane asylum" a la "House on Haunted Hill" (the remake), which means I only have to decorate the basement, as the upstairs is a nicely furnished mansion, lit by candles (okay, I have to decorate with candles, but as anyone who regularly shops at IKEA knows, that's not hard to do). I've been investigating lab supplies and biohazard stuff all morning in between actual work, but if you're ever interested in building a mad scientist's lab of your very own, you can't do much better than American Science and Surplus, who have many fine and odd things for quite reasonable prices. They have an astonishing amount of other things, too, so if you ever wondered where one could get a finger coathook like the one featured in the truck stop scene in "28 Days Later", you need look no further than this fascinating catalogue. Those of you who have read my diary for any length of time know that I'm a complete horror movie buff, and I've been hoping for a chance to run a horror themed party for a while. It won't be too gruesome, but it will be slightly scary, because let's face it, lunatic asylums, even if vintage 1930's style, are *scary*. Any old institutional building is scary. Old hospitals are the worst, though, don't you agree? I found the movie "Jacob's Ladder" to be absorbing and mildly creepy (I'm one of the people that liked it), but the scenes where he's beeing wheeled on a gurney through an increasingly dingy and nasty series of hospital corridoors made my hair stand on *end*. I suppose it's because we're often so vulnerable when we're in a hospital, and we need for everything to be as soothing as possible. And you can't deny that it's much better to be fleeing the supernatural being intent on making your brains into a Slurpee (with special souvenir skull mug) when fully dressed and armed, not clad in an open-back paper gown with only a dull scalpel as protection. Is that a harmless breeze across your nether posterior, or the breath of a creature from beyond the grave? Either way, I'm snaffling myself a long lab coat as soon as possible. Check in the neurologist's lounge - they tend to wear the knee-length ones. (Check for bloody handprints first.) I suppose it's a mild irony that I work in a hospital building, and one built in the 1900s at that. In the morning, I'm the only one in the office, and the lights are on half-light for energy-saving purposes. If I'm lucky, I'll have a cockroach for company (they're pretty chatty before anyone else comes in), and I have to negotiate the long half-lit halls alone. Fortunately, our front door locks (as do all the restricted patient areas), and the glass can probably withstand a zombie attack long enough for me to escape out the back fire stairs. I have taught the cockroaches all about hand-to-hand combat, and they'll provide an additional line of defense as the zombies will probably slip a bit and fall over as they stomp on them. Yes, I have a somewhat overactive imagination. It allows me to think up all sorts of cool ideas, so I'm okay with the occasional trip down darker halls.
Dorsal - Ventral
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