The Awakening by Kate Chopin

Downloaded The Awakening unto my cell phone in order to read it. It took me a while to finish it, since I only read this one while riding the subway.

Ever read something and kept thinking "I've read this before"? That's what I kept thinking when reading this novella. I'm not sure if I actually read it before - after all, there's the four years as an undergraduate majoring in English under my belt, not to mention the year as an AP English student in High School. But aside from the vague feeling that I had read it before, I really enjoyed reading The Awakening.

It's the story of Edna Pontellier. When the story opens, Edna - mother, wife - is with her family vacationing at the Shore, as apparently all well to do New Orlenian families did. As it was, Edna was always different from the other mothers/wives present; her French wasn't as good as that of the other Creoles, and she was able to forget about the existence of her two boys (Raoul and Etienne) for hours at a time. And then there's Robert - a young man accustomed to flirting and spending all his time with married women vacationing in his mother's "resort." Something no one looked at in the wrong way, as apparently his attention kept the women occupied and away from their husbands. Here Edna also differs from the other mothers/wives. She doesn't seem to realize that Robert's attention is supposed to be harmless, not real, something to enjoy for a bit and then throw aside as you return to your husband.

You see... Robert's attention "awakened" Edna from the world she lived in, turning her from mother/wife to woman. Chopin did a great job here, in demonstrating Edna's feelings, and the fact that there was no name for them at the time. The only woman in the story that lives alone and without the pressure of men/children is often described by others as mean and disagreeable. When Edna returns to New Orleans while Robert runs to Mexico, Edna feels sexual desire, allows herself to enjoy her ennui, defies her husband, walks alone at night, and is happy when her husband and children have to leave town. I imagine that at the time of publication this novella must've been very scandalous.

Lots of things happen in the middle and I won't go into the details of it all. The end, however is thus: Robert returns from Mexico and declares his love for Edna; but Robert is pure and because he loves her  and would not see her be damaged by society, chooses to not have an affair with Edna or even try to convince her husband to "let her go." Then, Edna actually witnesses childbirth. She remembers giving birth very vaguely thanks to the chloroform involved; seeing the act up close stirs the motherly instincts in her that she apparently had somewhat dormant.

Ultimately, Edna decides that she would never sacrifice her self not even for her children. I don't think that what her self is, is ever spelled out. But Mrs. Pontellier goes the way of many a heroine that attempted to be different, and indeed I was not surprised by her actions and how they put an end to the story, as it is exactly what many other literary women (Anna Karenina I'm looking at you) had to experience in order to be free.


All in all it is a very good read, and something interesting to look at from today's perspective. In this story, women's worth and self were controlled by the men in their lives, by what they "did" (wether they be mother, wife, artiste), and I wonder if we really have changed. There is no parity between the sexes still, in so many industries. But at least we're free (I think) to search for self.

Countdown Begins!

In case you don't know, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2, will be arriving in theaters at midnight, July 15, 2011 - exactly 107 days away.

One has to plan for these things! For part one I didn't give myself enough time to do everything properly. So here's the plan: just like last time, I want to re-read all of the books to then re-watch all of the movies. This is no small feat and as I mentioned, the last time I ended up having to cram things together and that wasn't as great as I wanted it to be.

So! The plan is to give myself two weeks with each book. I know, I know... you'll say, Caminante, some of those books can be read in a day. And some might take more than two weeks. The two week time period, however, is to give myself a cushion. Work will be getting busy come the last part of April and it promises to stay so until the end of June at least. (To which: Huzzah!). But since you can look to the left of this column and see the four books that I'm currently reading, I'll say it's not bad to think that it'll take me about 14 weeks to re-read the whole thing. I want to take my time as much as possible, and maybe even write my thoughts after each book. This way, if it only takes me two weeks to read Sorcerer's Stone and The Chamber of Secrets, that's a two week lee-way that I've earned for the bigger, slower to read through books like Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix.

In any case, there'll be 14 weeks for the books. Great! Then exactly a week for the movies. This one I had to give a lot of thought to - last time I tried to watch them with Ida or Cariño, and that complicated the schedule. This time around I'll give them plenty of notice so we won't have schedule problems! I'll start precisely on July 7 by watching Sorcerer's Stone. The idea is to have a movie a day, so that I won't burn out on them. However, I plan on taking July 14 and 15 off from work. The 14th will allow me to catch up with movies if for whatever reason I fall behind. The 15th is so that I can wake up as late as I want and that I can have the rest of the day to enjoy myself. This might change however - it all depends on how busy work will be and if life decides to send me any curve balls.

So that's how it goes compadres! Maybe I'll install one of those nifty countdown clocks on the sidebar. I'll keep you posted as to my progress as tomorrow I'm scheduled to begin Sorcerer's Stone. Eeep!

Saturdays Rock Like This

A most interesting Saturday. First stopped by Union College to listen to some Theological Poetry and then have a good meal with friends. A subway ride later I was at Amsterdam Billiards where I met up with Ms. Greene. We spent an hour shooting pool.

Neither one of us is really good at it, but it was a good time. Once we were done there we walked to The Center to attend "Shameless! A women's dance party."
Although I've been to The Center before, this is the first time I attend a party. I have several observations about the night. Let's begin by something that I've also noticed at the RF Lounge: DJ sucked. Mind you, I left early, but I hate this stupid practice of having the "good" DJ be there after Midnight or whatever. Don't they know that Lesbians leave early?! In any case, during the hour and a half I was there, this person DJ'ing managed to massacre a gazillion songs, and insisted on scratching. The mic levels on their scratching were too high, and their skills weren't good anyway, so I suggest a lot more practice. I'm told that the music got better as the night progressed and after the Drag King show, which I unfortunately missed. But really - how hard is it to pay attention to the audience? Yes, I know you think that song is awesome and you want to sing along to it, but if you see the crowd pumping up to a song/genre, the first rule of DJ'ing is that you play something similar. If you're looking to change the genre, then you transition from song to song until you can seamlessly move from reggaeton to salsa, or whatever the hell you're going for. A scratched up version of Nirvana's Smell Like Teen Spirit? Does NOT belong on the dance floor. Not when people are dancing already.

Second thing I noticed about the night: women are cliquey. I'm dead serious y'all. The entire area consisted of small groups of women, ranging from 2's and 3's to sometimes even 6. They all circled around each other, danced with each other and once in a while one of their members looked around to see if they were interested on someone else. There were some lone ladies that stood against walls or danced by themselves, number after number. How's a single woman supposed to meet someone else!? And I ask this hypothetically since y'all know I'm very much taken. I tried to give advice to Ms. Greene, but half of the time I felt like I was blowing smoke, because really, I can count with two hands the times that I've been successful in getting some random girl at a club to dance with me. I'd be willing to stop by The Center and their parties if they got a better DJ and if their bartenders stop being stingy with the liquor.

The night was not lost however, since even though I did not wear heels or managed to make eye contact with anyone in the room I got to go home with one beautiful lady, so huzzah me!

La lluvia no daña mi fiesta

On Wednesday, there was rain. Like tons of it. Even some snow. Hell, anything that could fall out of the sky and not be part of a plague fell out of the sky. We didn't let it stop us though, and so Ida, Steph and I made our way to Victor's Cafe. This was my second time at the restaurant and the end of the night reminded me why, even though I loved the food I hadn't been there again (it's hella expensive, y'all.)

I began the night by following the waiter's suggestion and getting a classic mojito

I also decided to live it up by asking for tostones, even though green plantains are in my no-no list

They come with a garlic mojo sauce. Perfectly crispy and well done. For my main entree, I chose some picadillo, topped with an egg.

After promptly giving my avocado to Ida, I proceeded to devour the meal. The picadillo came in a maduros "cage". The best part however, was the opportunity to eat arroz con huevo in an upscale restaurant. My mother would kill me if she knew how much I paid for that meal. The portions were great however, and although I endeavored to not eat all of the rice I could not help myself. It was good though - even with the tostones and the maduros I did not feel super full at the end. To borrow from the Buddy Herms food tumblr style:

Yes, Ma, I cleaned my plate.

The evening was punctuated by the sound of rain against the skylight and the occasional flash of lightning. Afterwards, we walked in the rain/snow to Carnegie Hall were Ida got us free tickets to attend a concert by the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra. It was our first time at the Hall and the seats were amazing. It was also a lot of fun to see the musicians up close - the one's that were visibly passionate about what they were playing were the best. The Hall itself is magnificent... the seats were so big and comfortable compared to some Broadway theaters I've been at. But then again, they were orchestra seats, and I don't often sit in those. Although wet, it was quite a delicious night.

It's going to be hard to move out

When Mami keeps coming up with meals like these

yet another version of a chicken salad; this one with breaded chicken, sliced raw cabbage, mandarins, some potatoes, cucumbers, green peppers and a little bit of lettuce underneath it all.

Chango's Fire by Ernesto Quiñones

It took me a while to finish this one. Another novel by the author of Bodega Dreams, this one is also about a twenty something man of Puerto Rican descent that lives in Spanish Harlem. This one also includes a childhood friend from that neighborhood that the protagonist loves, but isn't that great for him. This one also includes a young woman of Puerto Rican descent whose beliefs influence the protagonist. Last but not least - the protagonist finds himself in the middle of a not so legal situation involving an almost legendary figure from the neighborhood.

Don't get me wrong - these are two quite distinct books, but the similarities were too glaring not to point out. Like in Bodega Dreams, Quiñones addresses gentrification, but in this case he does it head on, and I'm sorry to say, he does it in a preachy way that made it hard for me to finish the book quickly. I kept putting it down and picking up other books because there was nothing in the novel really pushing me to keep on reading.

Present in this novel that wasn't in the previous one, were a gay man (who sacrifices himself for the protagonist and his family) and a white woman, who is Julio's (protagonist) main love interest and biggest source of concern.

Tied in all of this, is also the prevalence of evangelical religion in El Barrio, and the definition of art, immigration, and Santeria. I mean, Quiñones was nothing if not ambitious and I agree with the importance of all that he tackled - but the way he went about it just didn't quite hit home. I don't know how to explain it, because I can't put my finger on it... I do however recommend y'all read it. See what you think.

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Keeping You A Secret, by Julie Anne Peters

Found this one while browsing the teen fiction section at the bookstore. You must know by now that I love my teen fiction and secretly harbor the desire to write a teen novel, even though I'm quite sure I'll never be able to.

In any case, this one was a very quick read, driven mostly by plot. Here's the plot - not really popular but not social outcast, protagonist girl whose name I've already forgotten notices the new girl in school is a lesbian. And proudly so as she wears many t-shirts mentioning this fact. Soon protagonist finds she can't handle her boyfriend and her friends and family, since she's now obsessed with new girl who shamelessly flirt with protagonist.

Eventually protagonist and new girl kiss and the light bulb goes off and protagonist is ready to scream everywhere that she's a lesbian and happily so but new girl doesn't want her to.

Twist! The out and proud asking the newbie protagonist to remain closeted! Eventually though, the cat gets out the bag and protagonist is met with some homophobia and fear, and her mom ends up kicking her out. Protagonist's life switches - her main concern now is no longer ennui and having to make a decision about college, but about survival.

Here is when the book goes weak - or stronger depending on how you look at it. After going through the motions of getting protagonist a new place to be, new work, new priorities, protagonist confronts new girl only to find out that the secrecy came from fear of having to share the protagonist. We don't deal with protagonist's anger from this, nor do we get a hint as to what'll happen after high school except maybe attending the local college everyone put down. The reader is left to make their own conclusions. It wasn't until now that I realized that Peters is careful not to say "gay is good" or bad for that matters. She speaks if it matter of factly, and does not make the homophobic characters in the book ugly or easily hateable. Quite clever indeed.

Not super amazing literature, but I'm sure looking forward to reading her other work.

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A day with the Muffin

Home and finally able to hang out, Ida and I planned our Saturday together. We began by meeting at the AMC on 42nd to watch Limitless.

It was quite an interesting movie. What if we could access the parts of our brain that sit there asleep and we know nothing about? Would it really push you to clean your apartment because you'll logic out that it's ridiculous to be living in filth? In any case, Bradley Cooper and his blue, blue eyes go through all the motions; super intelligent guy will of course decide to run for president. In order to do so he needs money. In order to do so, he starts with the stock market. After he writes a brilliant novel of course; but the novel won't be published until the next year and that's too far away... At first it seemed that the protagonist's demise was going to be what he himself mentioned during the movie. Mankind's biggest problem is greed. To explain himself he talked about Britain and Pompeii and Germany - all of these countries that were doing great and ruling it all or something - until they decided to invade someone else. I simmered that down  to why not just be happy with what you get? And I wondered about that when our protagonist HAS to get involved with the biggest names in stocks and HAS to manage the biggest merger ever - even though he already has over 2.5 million from just a couple of days of work.

In any case, I was pleasantly surprised by the ending, although there was no real payout - you didn't see it, I was told about it - but it was cute. And made me wonder about that dreaded word we all live with: potential. Yuck.

After the movies, we walked around the West Side, and had coffee at this little spot I found years ago, when I used to walk around Hell's Kitchen, just looking at buildings, Ruby et Violette. I enjoyed some tea while Ida enjoyed coffee. It's in the middle of the block, and not a lot of people walk by, much less walk in. They're not helped by the fact that they don't serve drip coffee, but hey, they know what they do, I assume.

An hour or longer later we made our way to the East Side, but first stopping by New World Stages and purchasing two student tickets to Naked Boys Singing. From there, we walked to the Sony Wonder Lab Museum, which is a cool interesting place. It's a lot more interesting when there are less children, so I suggest you visit during the weekday.

The rest of the day was smooth and went this way. Searched for dinner, settled for Brazilian at Viva Brasil.
Enter a Caipirinha

and the national Brazilian meat dish

which comes with fries

and white rice

and black beans

Afterwards, it was too early for the show so we stopped by the Hibernia Bar to have a Smithwick

Until it was finally time for 

Let me begin by saying, that they really are naked! The "show" if you want to call it that, has no plot nor tying idea, except for the fact that all performers are naked, naked, naked. They sang some fun songs, most having to do with the male genitalia, and about the fact that they were naked, and even one about masturbation and tom peeping. Plus the ever enjoyable one about scoping other gays at the gym. There were a lot of "helicopter" motions with the penises, which were funny. I have to say I've never seen so much meat before, and it was quite hard to look at the performers faces when they sang. BUT it was fun, specially considering we only paid the student tickets price, so it's all good. 

We finished the night by having yet another beer before realizing that we were pooped and taking our trains home. Ah yes, a day in New York City with one of my favorite girls. I'm happy. 

Hint of Spring

Friday morning was glorious - a delicious hint of Spring was in the air and I was off from work. After doing some last minute work things (you can be off from work but work still needs to get done!), Cesar drove by to pick me up. First we hunted Latino Music Stores searching for an Olga Tañon CD, but no luck. We were starving, so we met up with his mom for lunch at an Ecuadorian restaurant in Queens. I unfortunately did not jot down the name.
They gave us some roasted peanuts to begin the meal

Then we shared some Fish Tamal

Which came with lots of onions

and white rice

I actually had a delicious grilled chicken salad, and tostones, but I was so excited to eat them, that I forgot to take a picture of them!
I did however, take a picture of Cesar's dessert, a slice of tres leches cake

Afterwards, we (as in I!) drove to the Home Depot to pick up some tulips, turf builder, pots and perennials and what not, because we decided to garden. Since neither Cesar nor I know anything about that, we picked up Mami and got to work.

Cesar, his mom and Bruce were very impressed with Mami's knowledge and speed. I tried my best to do what I was told. Hopefully the garden will grow beautiful and Mami will be able to visit and enjoy working on it some more. Here's the finished product:

and a close up

Afterwards, we finished the day with a good glass of red

and Carmen cooked for us all - pasta salad and breaded chicken cutlets. But no pictures of that. All in all, a great day.

Thursdays are made of this

Although still trying my hardest to save money, decided to go for lunch at work after flying in from Indiana. Mostly because that's about the only way I can guarantee I actually take the full lunch hour and not start working while I eat or something. Gaspar and I chose to stop by National Thai. I know, I know, Thai food again! But, I at least chose to eat something different. Pad Pak Thai, which is essentially tofu and veggies in a yummy sauce

Come night time, I joined Cesar for a small, small dinner party. This time I actually helped with the preparing of the meals! We had sausages and french bread toast

and many more delicious things: Corned beef and cabbage with roasted vegetables (potatoes, carrots, broccoli and what not, all tossed with a creamy substance I don't remember the name of). Then there was  the Irish Soda Bread, olives, mushrooms and canolis for dessert.

Here's the table set for the guests

I did not take pictures of the finished meal because I was too busy eating and having a good time. Wake up in Indianapolis, lunch in Brooklyn and Dinner in Queens... not bad for a day's work.

2.5 Seconds in Indianapolis

After we finished our recording day in Fishers, we drove to Indianapolis in order to make sure we'd be close to the airport come morning. We drove to the downtown area searching for some food and settled for India Garden. I challenged myself to order something different and thus, the night's menu:

First, we had some garlic naan - 

also, Bangien Bharta, which is roasted eggplant, then sauteed with chopped onions and tomatoes.

plus jasmine rice

The complete look

The meal was quite reasonably priced, and the eggplant was more than awesome. Naomi actually took the leftovers home and enjoyed it for lunch the next day. Yum yum. 

Afterwards we decided to just chill in our respective hotel rooms, considering that it was already 9pm and we had to be up and at 'em the next day by 5am. We didn't get to really enjoy the city except for our drive through, but the downtown area was nice. Maybe some other time there'll be more enjoyment. 

Somewhere on the Prairie

Made it to Fishers, Indiana! Have to admit, not many choices outside of chains in the town, but tomorrow we'll spend the night in Indianapolis proper and so I'm hoping that there'll be more to eat.
But last night was great, regardless! We had (guess what?) Thai! Yes! Enter Jasmine Thai Restaurant, stuck in the middle of a strip mall area

We began the evening with Salad Rolls with peanut sauce

I followed that with Tofu/Vegetable Pad Win Sen, which was spicy glass noodles with eggs and garlic, broccoli, carrots and what not.

Even though there was a yogurt shop next to the Thai place, dessert was taken care of by one of my participants, who earlier in the day after their interview and after she had left, came back to bring me a lemon bar!

If you think the picture does not look appetizing, let me disabuse you of the notion right quick.

On the way back to the room, I had fun looking at the license plates around me. Indiana has many, MANY designs for their license plates, when it seems like most States have two. This license plate "garnish" however, won the game.

In case you can't see it: the holders say "Burger" on top and "In-N-Out" on the bottom. Winning!

Friday Night In

So I leave tomorrow for Fishers, IN, and I had no desire to spend any money, so Friday night found me at home, ready to start packing and eating some of my Mami's home cooked meals. It was a pretty chill night - I enjoyed some Fringe late in the evening after I finished packing, but first I sat to enjoy Mami's version of a grilled chicken salad:

Your eyes are feasting on grilled chicken, of course, broccoli, chopped tomatoes, chopped raw white onions, parsley, pepper, salt, oil and vinegar.

Simple and super delicioso. Living with Mami definitely has its perks.

Of Rainy Days With Tons Of Food

Thursday found me working in the Chinatown area of Flushing in Queens, NY. Although I had packed my Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich, it felt like a crime to be there and not have some Chinese food, so during lunch hour Carolina and I walked a couple of blocks til we found Sunway.

The place was very clear and spacious, with Ikea like furniture. The menu was HUGE. The only hard part about it is that even though all items were in English  (and I have no idea if it was Mandarin, Cantonese, what) there were no descriptions of the dishes. I latched unto the idea of Soupy Noodles (they have a whole section) and basically just asked the waitress if there was anything with thin noodles in soup with tofu and vegetables. She hooked me up with some fried tofu dumped in soupy noodles and veggies and this is what I got:

Ah yes, I forgot to mention, you also got complimentary tea with every meal, which was perfect on a rainy day. The soup was huge and delicious and it was hard not to inhale the entire thing. My co-worker had some un-soupy noodles that were to die for as well.

We finished the meal by having pan-fried vegetarian dumplings for dessert

They were perfect. And Hot. And I kinda liked that they brought things as they were ready - the soup and the noodles were done first, and the dumplings last.

Later, after the workday was done and I braved the madness that was the 7 and the E trains during the evening rush hour, I found my way to another part of Queens: Forest Hills. There I visited sweet Cesar, who in true Gay Fashion was holding a dinner party.

Since we were all busy having fun eating and joking with each other, I forgot to take pictures of the food. We had, however, short grain rice with gandules, and pernil with a green salad. It was a very simple yet delicious meal. Afterwards we helped our hosts flip their mattress (I'm not kidding) since the thing was a gazillion pounds and it took about 5 of us to carry it. Having worked off our meal we retired to the living room to enjoy the fire and the company of Idina Menzel, Cesar's puppy.

Eventually it was time to head home and Cesar was kind enough to give three of us a ride. However we took a detour on our way to Bed-Stuy, and stopped by Japanese Restaurant Miyako in Williamsburg for some dessert. My flash wasn't working so I'm sorry for the picture darkness. We had red bean and green bean fried ice cream with tea

and deep fried banana with whipped cream

I was very proud of me in that I only had a taste of each. They were tasty, though!

Rain and all, the day was pretty great. It makes me wish I had a car - despite the traffic in the city, it's kinda great to go home and not have to wait for trains and get to enjoy some loud music as we drive.

I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore

So, Mi Cariño and I saw this movie a couple of weeks ago. I enjoyed it, as it is quite right up my alley, and upon finding out it was based on a book, (and after me salivating in front of said book) Mi Cariño gave it to me as a gift. Huzzah!

First things: Pittacus Lore, the "author," follows the vein of Lemony Snicket in that he is a part of the story. Let me phrase this in English; I Am Number Four it's supposed to be the account of Number Four, an extraterrestrial being here on Earth. The story, even though it's told in the first person narrative (i.e. from Number Four's perspective) is written by Pittacus Lore, who claims he is an Elder from the same planet Number Four is from. I chose to overlook that little detail; perhaps Pittacus Lore, as a 2,000 year-old Elder has the ability to read minds or something! The point, however, is that the story's author, although a part of the story, is not a part of the story. Kinda like I know there'd be no sex in Twilight because of Stephenie Meyers religious views, but in reverse. Pittacus Lore, the character, claims to be a man. In reality the book may be authored by a woman! Who knows. In any case, into the book!

We all know I love me some SciFi, and some youth novels, so this was perfect just for that. The book is easy reading, and I have to say, much better written than any of the Twilight series, but there were parts that were reminiscent of it. I Am Number Four is also part of a series, The Lorien Series. (Let's put aside the fact that this book is a Series already, when it is ONLY THE FIRST BOOK. But whatev's). As I said before, the story is a first person narrative by Number Four. The reason he, and his Cepan (or guardian) are in this planet is because a second Alien race, the Mogadorians, went all cray-cray on Number Four's planet, Lorien, and destroyed everything. The Loriens went ahead and sent 9 gifted children and their guardians to Earth to hide until they are strong enough to fight the Mogadorians and reclaim their planet.

Cool premise, no? In the meantime you get 9 moody teenagers with super powers, and whomever the author is gets at least 9 promising novels. Or 6 as the case may be, because three of these children are already dead - and that's how we meet Number Four. Due to some magic something or other, the kids can only be killed in sequence... and Number Four's next!

Alright, now that you know what it's about let's talk about the book. Since I saw the movie first, I spent most of my time comparing them with each other. Things like Number Four's relationship with his Cepan in the book is definitely more compelling. I like Number Four in the book better as well - he's more vulnerable, in the sense that he reminded me of Harry (Potter, that is.) A kid who has some abilities, gets saved a lot by other people, but whose heart is in the right place. I also wondered if the author was really a woman, because even though Number Four's musing about his love interest are nowhere near the nauseating amount we're showered with in Twilight, the quality of it made me think female. I don't know. Do you think male and female writers create differently? I sort of do.

This is a very convoluted review. Let's just say that I thoroughly enjoyed this, so much so that I'm considering shipping a copy of it to my Nephew in Texas. The next installment on the Series comes out in August, and I can't wait!

Party at The Four Deuces

So there was a party at The Four Deuces, right? Only that The Four Deuces was Marley's place, and the whole thing was a Murder Mystery party set in the 1920's. It was quite the interesting affair... sometime around Thursday it dawned on me that I didn't have a costume and that I wanted to look authentic, so I went all over the place looking for something to wear. I didn't just wanna wear any regular flapper dress, so I looked online for inspiration, considering that I have at home a most gifted seamstress. In the meantime, on Friday, I stopped by Party City where I got myself a bob wig, and borrowed some gloves and jewelry from Rose. Mami helped out by buying two modern dresses to butcher. So here's the process! I showed Mami this picture (which I do not own and I found in a roaring 1920's blog):

And then I showed her this picture (which I also do not own):

and with inspiration taken care of, Mami went to work! First we decided that I wanted solid black and she figured the material and a little something something to spice up the ensemble.

She butchered the first dress by cutting up the top part, and the second dress, since it was a floor length full sleeved number, she made shorter and cut off the sleeves and a new neckline to match the times. 

From Rose, I borrowed a bracelet, a ring, a cigarette holder (that I ended up not using since I had so many things in my hands already), black gloves. I walked all of Knickerbocker in order to find the fake pearls.

The rest of the costume was taken care of by rummaging through the house. A notebook handbag (white), the killer shoes had a higher heel than I wanted (since women usually wore the two inchers back then), but they were the only closed toes sandals I had hiding in my closet, and they had a buckle diamond embellishment that went well with the diamond embellishment Mami had sewn into the dress. I added some white stockings to complete the black and white theme and Presto! You can call me Penny Cheatum. Yay Mami! 

I have to admit though, that getting ready was the most fun part of the whole deal. The party in itself? It was okay - I only knew about 5 to 6 people in the room, and having to walk around making up stories and small talk about fake people and fake events can be draining. Murders kept happening but I don't think my mind was really into figuring out whodunit. (It was the money hungry daughter who done did it, by the way.)

Afterwards, however, Mi Cariño (who was Scoops Jennings, a female journalist that dressed like a boy in order to be a journalist) and I were ready for some food, and so we made our way to what we're trying to make "our Diner" - for the next few months at least.

I had me a grilled cheese sandwich under a mountain shoestring fries.

which was a perfect way to say see you later Roaring '20s! I had a blast!