Halloween, tats and keys

One of my teammates and friends Toby Long and his wife Donna hosted their annual pumpkin carving party. I didn't plan to go at first as I was racing the next day, and I thought I wouldn't have that much fun since I wasn't drinking at the time. But, I got a call from my neighbor Sean wondering if I was coming and with the constant egging on from him, Karla, Beth, Anthony, Marisa, and Toby, I was convinced to at least swing by for a little while and hang out.

I decided in order to get ready for my next race, which was the costume Psychocross race, I would bring my book of fake tattoos and have my comrades help me put them on. Also, to help prepare for the race, I stopped off at a local market to get fixodent for the teeth as was recommended by one of the photographers I talked to at the DFL race earlier this year. He said it would work well to keep them from falling out and that spirit gum would help keep my mustache, armpit hair and chest hair on. Not a bad investment...about $7 for the spirit gum and fixodent combined. And I can use them for many future costumes to come.

I pulled up, ran in, got the fixodent and went to the checkout counter. The guy ringing me up asked for my ID...and I was thinkin since when do you need an ID to get fixodent? The guy told me "Well, I saw you pull up and I didn't think you were old enough to drive." To which I laughed and responded, "Yeah, you might wanna double that...I'll be 30 in a few months." And I was also thinking the guy must be really confused since he thinks I'm 15 and I'm buying fixodent! Can we say meth problem?

So, I get to the party and say hello to everyone and immediately start asking if I can get help putting on the tattoos, to which Toby responded saying he was an expert being as he was a father and all. And boy I tell you, those are a bunch of adults screaming for entertainment, because EVERYONE (kids, parents, and adult bystanders alike) all wanted to put on fake tattoos. They were the hit of the party. Woohoo! I put on about 8 tattoos and called it a night for those things, my favorite being the "Game Over" tattoo right in the tramp stamp area in case any guys were to get any ideas!

Later, Toby gave us a lesson in carving pumpkins and we did a little late night carving of the last of the uncarved ones. So, after a few more drinks (all but me, of course) I decided it was time to hit the hay and headed on out to my car. I went to grab what I thought were my car keys, but grabbed what were in fact my house keys, at which point I realized I had locked the car keys in my car. Doh! Luckily, I had my AAA card on me and called them right away and went back to hang out with the Longs and friends. AAA said they'd be there in 20 minutes...perfect! Well, half and hour later I called them and they say it's going to be another 45 minutes! Jesus criminey! I needed to get home so I could get up to drive all the way down to Santa Cruz area (Soquel) and race for crying out loud!

Finally, they did arrive, and after a bit of chit chat with the AAA guy I made it home around 1:30am. Ouch! I am no longer a night owl, so that's pretty late for me for all you youngsters and party animals. After that, I vowed to do what I had been putting off and go get some copies made of my key and put a hide-a-key under my car. Besides, you can never have enough key copies. Just ask Beth, who I donated my old car to...I had 6, count 'em, SIX spare keys that she got from me since I was notorious for either losing them, locking them up in the car, or leaving them in inaccessible places.

So, that Monday I took off to the hardware store and got myself a couple of keys made and a hide-a-key box so I could put one under the car as soon as I got home. I'm reaching under the car to put the box on the bumper and realize that the bumper's plastic, so I need to get under the car and find another spot. I get down under the car and look for a nice, sturdy metal spot to put the magnetic box and guess what I found? I found that there was ANOTHER hide-a-key on the car that was there the WHOLE time! Damn! If only I had known that Saturday night, I could have been tucked in bed by midnight. *sigh*

But thanks to the Longs for putting up with me for an extra hour and a half and even being so kind as to offer me up their car to drive home and to the race the next day. Truly awesome and generous people. You know I'll be back next year for their annual pumpkin carving extravaganza if I'm in town.