Time for Something Cold!

Today was the first of many events that will take place over this, my Warrior Year. Associated with this year I have several resolutions that I have put in place that will prove me to be a person worthy of that title. One of these is to live in such a way that I will have cool stories for my grandchildren.

I have realized that the only way to have cool stories for my grandchildren is to have cool adventures. And the only way to have cool adventures is to find them and do them.

Cool adventure number 1: Maryland Polar Bear Plunge

For as long as I knew what it was I have wanted to participate in a polar bear plunge, only I had never gotten around to finding ans signing up for one until I started planning for my Warrior Year. Through my research of fun/crazy things to do I discovered the Maryland State Police Polar Bear Plunge that is held every January at Sandy Point State Park near Annapolis, Maryland. All proceeds from this event go towards helping the Special Olympics. Awesome!

When I found this I thought it's a sweet event AND it helps a worthy cause! Let's go!

As I was preparing for this event I decided that it would be fun to look the part. (This was before I found out that dressing up in silly/crazy outfits is the order of the day for veterans of the Plunge.) I have always thought that the fleece ear hats were cute so for the Plunge I decided to make one. My first attempt was a sad, derpy failure, but my second try was much better.

I gave it eyes and a nose just for fun. :)

Since I had never been to a Plunge before I did not really know what to expect. Aunt Linda was a doll and came with me for moral support.

Due to the fact that the Plunge is held in January in the past the weather has been unpredictable. Two years ago it was held in the middle of the snowstorm that caused Snowmageddon 2010. Wow. I guess I still have good weather karma left over from my European trips with my mother because it was a beautiful day. It was sunny and a steamy 48 degrees. I didn't even need my coat but wore it because it was windy.

There were two plunges scheduled that day, one at 1:00 PM and the second at 3:00 PM. I did not realize how big of an event it was until I got there. There were thousands of people attending and more than half of them were jumping in with me. Thus the need for an organized set of times to plunge.

There were many brave souls that were tramping around the tents and booths wearing nothing but their swimsuits even before the first plunge was called. I was not quite that brave and only stripped down a few minutes before I joined the throng on the beach.

If you ignore the hat and the winter bare trees behind me you could easily believe that it was the middle of the summer. I tramped out into the middle of the huge crowd covering the beach wearing nothing but a swim suit and a rash-guard shirt. Many others wore less than I did, and a lot of women had nothing but bikini's on. Wow.

Only registered plungers were allowed on the beach as indicated by the blue wristbands and all spectators were kept back on the other side of a fence. Aunt Linda took possession of my bag and dry clothes and set up camp by the fence where I could find her later. Deep within the guts of the crowd where the wind was blocked it was almost warm. Although it was cold, I never felt the chill. Perhaps it was the excitement of the moment that warmed me.

I settled myself near a group of people that were kind enough to let me stow my towel by their pile of belongings so I could find it again when I came back. One of the women was even nice enough to offer to take a picture of me with my camera without me asking!

I was only on the beach for a few minutes when the air horn was blown and the plunge was on! Due to the size of the crowd it was less of a stampede and more of a general press towards the water, but once you reached the edge you ran in.

I took a video as I was tromping down into the water (attached at the bottom). In truth once water has reached a certain level of cold you can't really tell the difference between 50 degree water and 30 degree water. It's all COLD. On the Friday before I looked up the water temperature of the Chesapeake Bay so I had an idea what to expect. 40 degrees. When it's that cold your skin goes numb almost the same instant you touch the water. A few seconds later the cold pins-and-needles hit and that's all you feel for the rest of the time you're in the water. I wore my Vibram 5-Finger shoes and so I think I had an advantage of some of the others that went barefoot, though I couldn't feel my toes anymore less than ten seconds after I got in so I guess it wasn't much of an advantage. :)

There was a good deal of screaming and man-yelling going on while I was in the water. The whole time there is this general din of shouts and exclamations. It was rather hilarious to hear the men's voices go up an octave or two when they splashed in bellowing like a charging bull and then had the cold hit them hard.

To make sure that no one went too deep there was a ring of police officers and coast guard officials in dry suits standing in the water about 40 feet out. This limited the depth to about waist high. Most plungers dunked themselves beneath the water to get completely covered. I admit that I did dunk myself, but only to my neck because I didn't want to ruin my hat. (I know its a lame excuse, but I really like my hat!) Beyond the officers were several coast guard boats to make sure no one gets in trouble and behind them were two police helicopters running patrol along the beach. (You can see one of the 'copters in the picture above.)

I stayed in the water probably about 4 or 5 minutes before I trundled out again. I hopped up and down and squealed a bit just for the fun of it and eventually worked up the nerve to dunk myself. While it does not look like I did in the "after" picture I did in fact dip in the water up to my neck. The fabric of the rash-guard shirt I am wearing takes a second or two to soak in water and I was up and out again before it had the chance to fully darken with water.

In the summertime when you climb out of the water the wind often feels cold. Well at the Polar Bear Plunge the wind felt warm after being in the water. I was numb from the waist down and so could not feel if the air temperature anyway until I thawed out again.

There were some people who jumped in once, got out to dry off, then jumped in again. Thinking back I should have done that just to do it, but I wrapped up in my towel and walked back to the fence before I thought to do it. I got my bag from Aunt Linda and changed into dry clothes in the "Women Only" changing tent.

They had set up huge heaters along the walls of the tent so it was pleasantly warm inside. There were no curtains or dividers inside the tent and so it was a replay of all the days I had changing for gym class in middle and high school. I utilized the teeth-towel-hold technique I learned from high school swim team and thus avoided any naked exposure. :D

After changing we went to the Merchant's tent and got some food and a couple small souvenirs. I bought a neat polar bar charm necklace and a beautiful purple dream-catcher. It's hanging on my wall now and I love it!

Doing the Polar Bear Plunge was so much fun! I will totally do it again next year. Perhaps next time I can convince some others to come and TAKE THE PLUNGE with me.

Here is the video of my plunge into the Chesapeake Bay. Sorry its so bumpy, I forgot to keep track of where my camera was pointing for a lot of it so bear with me.

Popcorn Popping

In a bout of spontaneous adventurism, at about noon today I decided to go to the Cherry Blossom Festival in the city. I believe the idea percolated into my mind at about the same time I looked out my window and saw the perfect clear sapphire blue of the sky. So I packed my backpack with a few essentials and set off to answer the sudden flush of wanderlust.

Today (March 26, 2011) was the official first day of the festival. The air was clear, the wind was crisp, and the sun gloriously warm. When I had come last time (in 2009) it was rainy, windy and cold and not nearly as nice. I think having the festival’s beginning coincide with a legitimately nice day upset the precedent of years of past festivals.

You don’t really notice the sheer number of flowering trees there are planted in DC until you come at this particular time of year. Whole forests of them cover random corners of the Mall and around the Tidal Basin in a billowing blanket of pink and white.

Forests of white

All in all it was a merry adventure of the type that leaves you tired but feeling very satisfied with your day. On trips such as these I tend to take an abundance of pictures. Below are some of my favorites.

A yellow daffodil near the Tidal Basin

Playing with the focus

Jefferson Memorial wreathed in blossoms

Pretty and pink

These flowers are actually very tiny, about the size of my pinky fingernail

Standing alone amongst evergreens

The light within

Highway to the sky

Late blossoms, no doubt waiting for the perfect moment to open

"Popcorn popping on the apricot tree..."

The sight between columns of the Jefferson Memorial

Even tinier flowers, these grew in wide patches everywhere in the grass

I am not sure why I like this photo so much (maybe it is the ducks), but it is one of my favorites

A silent bridge with a blanket of dangling flowes

Close up of spring time

Crazy tree on the mall

Illuminated

Tower of light

The moment you have been waiting for...

Yes I know, FINALLY FINISHED. Raarr. :)

Current Music: Show me Love by t.A.T.u

These last few weeks were a bit hectic (an understatement) as I scrambled to add the finishing touches to my costume. I think I can now appreciate what insomnia feels like because I got an average of only 32 hours of sleep a week for nearly the entire month of October. With some nights I would not get to bed until after 3:30 am.

Sort of like going to Times Square for New Years Eve, I am glad that I did it, but I do not know if I ever want to do it again. At least not in the same way. My memory was shot, I had a hard time focusing, and I felt achy and slightly sick all day. But I got numb to it and chugged through anyway. Kids, don’t try this at home!

I made a lot of progress over that time despite my sleep depravity.

I finished the hands. Those claws are nearly three inches long and make it nearly impossible to hold onto anything that is not round. I had to be careful when I was around people so I didn’t claw them on accident.

I scaled the mask over about three days. I attached the ears first so I could be sure they were in the right place and then started on the nose and eyebrow ridges.

I covered the eye holes with pantyhose fabric which allowed me to see without others seeing my eyes. In hind sight, after wearing the mask around for a few hours, I should have chosen a different fabric or at least stretched it more. I was very difficult to see when I was anywhere but in bright light.

Due to the nature of my character I was playing (namely, being of the female persuasion) I covered the cheeks of the mask with white scales painted with pearly paint. (Female dragons in my novel have patches of white scales on their face while males have white stripes). The slight orange cast you see to the scales is due to the orange sharpie I used to trace the scales before cutting them out. I was disappointed by the effect at first but now I think the orange adds a little warmth to the otherwise dark mask.
Here is the mask with the mane and horns attached (more or less) to give an idea of the complete look.
Scaling in progress.

With the face more or less finished from the eyes down.

And here is the mask finished. I think the eyes are the best part of the whole mask. They are kinda arresting and wild.

While scaling the mask I burned myself again. This time on my left hand (thankfully!). It was one of those burns that took the skin with it when I wiped the hot glue off, but unlike my first burn it did not hurt, at least after I got the glue off. Must have fried some nerves this time around.

Here are the wings with the cloth cut out for them. (Kinda looks like a Batman symbol.) When open they are nearly the length of my room. Due to the complexity of the rigging and my inexperience working with metal and hinges and such I had to make a rather sad compromise with the wings and how they would function in relation to the rest of the costume. The original plan was to be able to pull a tab at about my collarbone and have the wings open. I was forced to re-rig the wings to be a bit less technical and more hands on. I ended up with a partial rig for the wings so when I opened them with my hands from a handle on the wrists the fingers of the wings would open on their own. This worked and ultimately it made me much happier because if I had tried the more complex way I would no doubt have broken the wings or been so worried about them malfunctioning that I would not have been able to have fun.

Here are the wings half done. These took me most of the night to finish.

Here are the finished wings, looking nice and pretty hanging on the back of my closet door. The blue part is a bit of exercise tubing jerry-rigged into a figure eight to hold the wings closed and together. Without it the wings would flop open and drag on the ground.

I was able to finally finish the pants after they had sat cold and lonesome under my craft table for more than a month. Of all the multiple parts of this costume, the pants are the most comfortable.
The big black patch there right on the rump is Velcro for the tail. It is less the primary foundation for the tail but as a mode of extra support. Even still, I had to walk very carefully so as not to jostle the tail too much as it bounced off my heels.

I learned a great many lessons when constructing the vest portion of the top. One being never use a shirt that fits you to begin with because once everything is glued on it cannot stretch anymore and therefore does not fit anymore! I had to make some allowances in the straps that held the back closed so that the non-stretchy vest would stay around my waist.
These are the chest panel scales—it was quicker and simpler than covering that same area with my rapidly depleting stock of cut scales and they also hid the offset vest opening. The offset opening allowed me to hide the edges underneath the belly plates. The white portion there is the backside of the plates.

I made the top of the costume in two parts on purpose, and that purpose was the wings. I had mounted the wings on bright white wood blocks that would be best hidden. The arms of the top are a separate shirt and the vest went over it and covered the wing blocks, the raw edges of the wings, and the elastic rigging.


Here is the vest with on the body dummy with the undershirt also. The shirt I used for the vest is long so I had to extend the length of the double to accommodate.

This is the finished vest from the front and the back. The slits in the back of the vest are for the wings. I am rather proud how the scales on the shoulders look.

Once the vest was finished I worked on how the silver scales and blue crystals would attach around the neck. Just to get the configuration right I pinned the scales to the neck first before any gluing happened. It is a good thing I did because the collar snaps of the vest proved to be a challenge when they coincided rather unluckily with the silver scales.


But it ended up all right in the end and I think it looks pretty good. I attached the chains to rings I had pierced through four of the silver scales. Since the rings were silver like the scales you have to look pretty closely in order to see the lines.

And here I am with the vest and sleeves on:


The reason I look like a pear in this picture is that the back of the vest is gaping wide open. Forgetting to factor in the fact that the shirt will not stretch once it has the scales on it I made the securing straps too short and they didn't stay closed without me hiking the vest high and making it bunched up around my waist. In another word: ugly. I fixed the problem with a set of stretchy strap extenders that solved the gaping problem nicely.

And put it all together and ta daa!! Done!

I love this picture. (Mom, Glenn, and me in the middle.)

Current Music: Palladio by Silent Nick