New Jersey / New York City

10/8/2016 - Sightseeing in Manhattan, Jersey City Art Studio Tour (JCAST) featuring Janet La Valley, Liberty State Park, Costume Party

We woke up at around 9 o'clock and had coffee with Jared and Dave (and of course Sylvia). Craig stopped drinking caffeine when he had his MS attack 3 years ago, since it makes him feel a bit jumpy. But when we travel, and he needs an extra boost of energy, he partakes in a single cup.

We got ready for a day of adventures in Manhattan and Jersey City. Unfortunately, Dave had to work and couldn't join us, but we would be seeing him tonight at their friends' costume party.

It was overcast and Jared brought some umbrellas just in case it started to rain. We crossed from Jersey to NYC via the Lincoln Tunnel. Approaching it, we could see the iconic openings of the Lincoln Tunnel in front of us. As we passed through, we were surprised at how shiny clean the interior of the tunnel was. Thus began a frenzy of photo snapping from my front seat on the passenger side.

We passed the current New York Times building on Eighth Avenue, which was opened in 2007. We drove through Columbus Circle, and passed Carnegie Hall and the Carnegie Deli (which had a long line down the sidewalk as it recently announced its impending closure). We parked on the street at 7th Ave and West 51st near the Winter Garden Theater. Jared paid for parking (instead of parking meters, they had automated kiosks).

We walked down 7th Avenue to the heart of Times Square. They were setting up for an outdoor Alicia Keys concert the following night. The New Year's Eve ball is now on display year-round at One Times Square, so we were able to see it in all of its Waterford crystal glory. We took the obligatory Times Square photographs.

Jared had warned us about the "entertainers". They dress up (or are in various stages of undress) in costumes and pose with tourists. They could be very assertive / aggressive towards tourists, so regulations were put in place where they are no longer able to step outside of certain blue painted rectangles on the sidewalk. This way they can't follow tourists around harrassing them.

The costumes are of varying quality. We saw a Minion, Minnie Mouse, several Statues of Liberty in stilts, asnd several Elmos. We didn't see the famous Naked Cowboy, but we did see the "painted ladies", women with body paint over their boobs, wearing thongs with "NY" painted on their butt cheeks. I tried to sneak a few surreptitious photos of the scene without causing anyone to solicit a tip from me. I snapped photos without really looking. When I got home and looked through them, I found a gem: the perspective makes it look as though one of the Elmos is leering lasciviously at a painted lady's butt. I laughed and said to Jared, "I thought they cleaned up Times Square!"

Jared had originally thought he would take us to the The Park restaurant on the High Line for lunch, but once we were in Times Square, he decided it might be better to find someplace around here to eat. We walked to Rockefeller Center, passing many familiar landmarks that I had only ever seen on TV or in the movies, such as Radio City Music Hall and the marquees for the Rainbow Room and the Tonight Show. We walked over to the lower plaza to view the skating rink, which had just opened for its 80th anniversary season today. The rink was smaller than we had envisioned from seeing it on TV, and accommodates 150 skaters at a time. This early in the season, it was not very crowded at all.

We enjoyed watching people skate, and seeing the iconic gilded Prometheus statue, created by Paul Manship in 1934. It started to sprinkle rain. Right next to the rink, on the lower plaza level, was the Rock Center Cafe. That was very convenient. We perused the brunch menu, and decided that this would be a good place to eat.

We got a table with a view of the Prometheus statue and the skating rink. Andy Warhol prints adorned the walls. I ordered sangria, and the guys had iced tea. Craig and I each got the cinnamon brioche French toast with macerated strawberries, amaretto mascarpone cheese, and sausage. Yum! It was delicious, and so much food that Craig couldn't even finish it! (He was still feeling full from last night's delicious meat loaf). It was a very enjoyable experience. We enjoyed watching the ice skaters, whose ability levels ranged from a man doing jumps and spins to people who could barely stand up and hung on to the rails for dear life.

By the time we had finished eating, it had started actually raining. The rink basically cleared out except for the skilled jumper/spinner. If it hadn't been raining, I probably would have taken the opportunity to skate. I haven't been on skates since college, when I took lessons for PE credit. It would have been an awesome tourist experience, but maybe next time!

We had mentioned to Jared that we had wanted to get a birds' eye view of the city (especially to send photos to our foreign Godchildrem, who were quite envious when we told them that we were going to iconic NYC). We told him that we had been shocked by the prices of the Empire State Building observation deck. Jared commiserated, and said that it also takes hours of waiting to gain access to the observation decks. Despite the fact that entrance fees have continued to rise, demand has not lessened. There is always a long wait. Both Jared and Craig had been up to the Empire State Building observation decks before, and as much as I would have liked to, it was too expensive and time-consuming.

We were resigned to forego our panoramic view, but then Jared suggested the Top of the Rock, the observation deck at the top of 30 Rockefeller Center (30 Rock). Jared had never been to Top of the Rock before, but he knew that it was less expensive and less crowded. And it was literally right here. Jared used his phone to check the wait times, and found out that there was no wait.

This was now a no-brainer. So after finishing eating, we walked through the indoor concourse to the ticket office. We purchased three tickets and were able to enter immediately (2:15 p.m.) We went up an elevator to security, where our bags were scanned and we walked through a metal detector. The waiting area had exbibits from the history of the building. There was a large print of the iconic photograph of steelworkers eating lunch sitting on an I-beam. We hadn't realized that this photo (Lunchtime atop a Skyscraper by Charles C. Ebbets) was taken during the construction of 30 Rock in 1932 during the construction of the 69th floor. These workers were nonchalantly eating lunch and smoking cigarettes; they could have been anywhere - but in fact were 840 feet above the ground. This photo captured the imagination of pop culture at the time, and inspired many cartooon sequences that we are familiar with from our childhoods.

Lunchtime atop a Skyscraper, Charles C. Ebbets, 1932

We stood in a short queue to get our photo taken sitting on an I-beam. It was hokey and touristy and I knew that I wasn't going to spend money on this photo, but we played along anyway. There was a small area where they were showing three short films about the history of the building, but since we wanted to be on our weay to Jersey CIty soon, we decided to skip them and instead got into the elevator to go to the observation deck. The Top of the Rock first opened in 1933, but was closed from 1986-2005.

We got into the elevator. As soon as it started hurtling upward, the opaque ceiling turned transparent and we could see blue lighting in the elevator shaft above us. Images from the history of the building were projected on the ceiling as an audio montage played over a dance soundtrack and lights flashed. We felt our ears pop. As we reached the 67th floor, the lights came on and we heard "Welcome to the Top of the Rock."

As we exited the elevator, we noticed that there were walls made of triangle-shaped quartz crystal panels which reflected the light. This is called the "Radiance" crystal geode wall, and is made by Swarovski. There was a large indoor observation deck. We could see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island in the fog on the Hudson river. Jared saw an interesting mosaic on the top of a building. He had never noticed it before from street level. It turned out to be the Fred W. French Building on 5th Avenue. It is 38 stories tall and was built in the Art Deco style in 1927.

Since it was raining, there were raindrops on the windows of the 67th floor observation deck. We proceeded up an escalator and popped out on a red-tiled patio of the 69th floor. (This was the floor being constructed in the I-beam photo)/ There were large sheets of plate glass to prevent anyone or anything from falling over the edge. However, there were gaps of a couple of inches in between, so we were able to position our camera lenses such that we could get unobstructed photos. The rain had lightened up, so we weren't getting very wet up there. Obviously, the weather made the view less optimal than on a sunny day, but on the bright side, it wasn't crowded at all.

They had the old-school coin-operated binoculars for 50 cents a view. There was a tile compass rose on the floor to orient yourself. Jared said that he thought that this was actually a better view than the Empire State Building. One advantage is that you actually get to see the Empire State Building itself. We also could see One Times Square and the New Year's Eve ball on the southwest side of the building. We could see the WWII Aircraft Carrier Intrepid (Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum) on the Hudson River.

We went up one final escalator to the top (70th) floor. From here, we got a totally unemcumbered view. To the northeast we saw Central Park. I was amazed by the sheer scale of it. Craig had told me that you had to see it to believe it, based on his prior visit to the Empire State Building. He wasn't kidding! I realized that I had no conception of its size from seeing it in the media. How amazing that such a large green space has been maintained for so long in the middle of the Big Apple! Jared told us an anecdote about when he and Kysa had attended a free concert in Central Park. They didn't know exactly where it was being held, but figured it couldn't be that difficult to find a million people congregating. The park is so big that it took them an hour to find the concert!

Craig started to feel a little bit of vertigo as we looked down at the park from the 70th floor. There is no glass in front of you here...just chest-high concrete ornamentation. We turned around and looked off the opposite wall. This didn't bother him at all. I suspect it is because the view down is broken up on that side by the lower outdoor observation deck. You are looking down, but not straight down. If you fell off, it would "only" be about 20 feet. On the park side, we were at the very edge of the building. It was an 872 foot drop!

30 Rock is 400 feet shorter than the Empire State Building, but we still felt like we were on top of the world! After taking a few more photos, we took the escalators down to the 67th floor. There, we waited in line to get the elevator back down to the lobby. After two cycles, we got to enter the elevator. The ride down was similar to the ride up, except watching us descend through the transparent ceiling made me a little bit motion sick. let alone Craig who was still feeling the effects of vertigo from the top of the building. The ride down was definitely less enjoyable than the ride down. But the ride lasts less than a minute, so the feeling soon passed.

When we exited the elevator, some employees were trying to convince everyone to look at the photographs they had taken when we came in. If they had taken our photo on the observation deck with the cityscape in the background, I might have considered it. (Apparently they usually do this, but perhaps the weather had prevented it today). But since this had only been a photo of us in front of a backdrop inside the building, I knew I didn't want to pay whatever they were charging. We were taking plenty of our own photos.

However, I did still want to buy some small souvenirs from our trip to NYC. So we went to the gift shop and bough a Christmas ornament (a 3-D representation of the Lunchtime atop a Skyscraper photo), a Rockefeller Center fridge magnet, and a funky Top of the Rock T-shirt for me.

It was now 3 o'clock, and raining very lightly. We walked up a flight of stairs to exit on the Sixth Avenue side. Jared offered to get the car and pick us up to prevent Craig from having to walk too far. It was really thoughtful of him, but Craig said that he was ok to walk. The distance wasn't too far, and soon we were back at the car. Unfortunately, when Jared had paid via the kiosk when we arrived, he had assumed that we would only be there for a short time. But once we added brunch and Top of the Rock to the agenda, we overstayed our time. Unfortunately, Jared got a parking ticket.

Next we would be heading to Jersey City to see Janet La Valley as part of the Jersey City Art Studio Tour (JCAST). Jared was once again a great tour guide as we headed out of Times Square through various neighborhoods on our way to the Holland Tunnel.

I noticed the gilded entrance to the Brill Building, the center for songwriting and publishing in the 1950's and '60's. It was the heir to the legacy of Tin Pan Alley (West 28th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenue, which held the same doistinction from the 1880's - 1930's). The Brill building was constructed in 1931, and in its heyday housed offices for songwriters including Carole King, Neil Diamond, Neil Sedaka, and Burt Bacharach. Jared had not known the history of the building, but said that it made perfect since, since until recently there had been a sheet music store on the ground floor. The industry of the Brill Building toppled in the late '60's, with the rise of singer/songwriters like Bob Dylan and the Beatles. Artists began writing their own songs, and the demand for commercial songwriters lessened.

We drove through Hell's Kitchen. As we drove through the West Villlage, I noticed a streetsign for Bleecker St, familiar from the Paul Simon song of the same name. Jared pointed out the general area where the Freewheelin' Bob Dylan album cover was photographed. We could see One World Trade, the tallest building in the city (not to mention the western hemisphere), peeking above the surrounding buildings.

We were behind a van whose logo was a pair of men's undies. "Clean underwear on Demand" was painted on the back doors. "We need drivers" was printed below it. Can't imagine why!

The Holland Tunnel was quite backed up, and we were stuck in traffic for a long time. But it was fun just to be able to catch up with Jared. And of course there was plenty to see to keep us entertained. Comicon was going on. We saw many people in costumes, and weren't sure if they were dressed for Halloween or "cosplay" related to Comicon.

Jared directed our attention to a piece of street art to our left. Between the second floor windows of a check cashing store at 224 Varick Street, there was a white speech bubble with a red pixelated Space Invaders video game character. Jared said that the street artist who creates these goes by the pseudonym Invader. Jared said that he was profiled in Banksy's Exit Through the Gift Shop, and is the cousin of fellow street artist Mr. Brainwash. Invader started "Project Space Invader" in 1998 in Paris, and now has installed his art worldwide, as well as on the International Space Station.

We passed City Winery NYC, which is an intimate concert venue in addition to being a functional winery. We have watched performances from there on the internet for performers such as Kristin Hersh and Johnette Napolitano. (Rumor has it that one will be opening in Boston near North Station next year). We finally got through the Holland Tunnel and popped out in Jersey City.

About five minutes later, we reached the Powerhouse Arts District. Jared found a place to park, and we walked the short distance to Janet's building. It was raining. We signed in in the lobby, and then took the elevator up to Janet's floor. The building contains sizeable lofts which are used as live/work spaces of artists of all types. We saw the listing of all of the open studios, and there were a wide variety of offerings, from visual arts to music, yoga, and electronic media services. It was shortly after 4:30 p.m., and the open studio ran until 6 o'clock.

We made a bee-line to Janet's studio. It seemed surreal to see a cute hand-drawn nameplate on the door: Janet La Valley Multimedia Collage. She knew that we were going to come today, but we hadn't specified a time, knowing that we would be playing things by ear in the city.

We walked in the door and there stood Janet, looking as fabulous and rock star chic as she had twenty-one years ago, the last time we saw her in concert. She saw us and greeted us with a big smile and open arms. "You made it!" She was incredibly friendly, gave us some wine (I had red and the boys had white), and introduced us to her friends. She remembered Jared and the exact piece of art which he had purchased from her last year.

To thank her for the lovely piece of custom art that she had made for us, we had brought her a pashmina that we had purchased in India. It was black with subtle metallic paisley designs on the ends. She said that it's perfect because it's black, and she draped it over her shoulders. It looked great with her Victorian/goth outfit. She showed it off to her friends, who were drinking wine and watching Psycho in high def black and white on TV.

She gave us a little tour of her loft, which was a very nice corner unit with windows on two walls. She had a birdcage with several parakeets (she told Craig that she usually lets them fly around, but obviously couldn't do so with her front door open all day). Next to the cage was a photograph of the carousel horse from the cover of Tribe's Abort album. This is what had tipped Jared off to Janet's Tribe connection when he randomly visited her studio last year as part of this same JCAST event. She pointed past a room divider and we got a peek into "where the magic happens", her art space.

We looked at all of the art that she had on display. "I don't usually hang my own work on my walls," she explained, laughing. "It's just for the show." She was incredibly down-to-earth and her art was very interesting and cool. The majority of her collage art was macabre and incorporated images from vintage Victorian photographs. Some were labeled as post-mortem images. I asked her about the history of the custom. She said that during the advent of photography, people would often photograph loved ones after they passed away. They often had no other photos of the person, so they wanted it as a memento. Sometimes the bodies are posed in a particular position for the photo. Though it may seem rather morbid today, it was not viewed that way back then. It was seen as a tribute.

This reminded me of our friend Frank (B.B. King's former bus driver). He was from Mobile, Alabama. His photo albums contained pictures of deceased loved ones in their caskets. When we went down to Mobile for his own funeral, family members were taking photos of Frank in his casket, looking as handsome and dapper as ever, at his "homegoing celebration." I honored this custom and got a photo as well, and many people back home thought that it was a morbid thing to do. I mentioned this to Janet. giving her a brief explanation of our relationship with Frank and how it dovetailed with our love of blues. She said that if we were blues fans, we should check out her neighbor Eliza Neals, a Detroit blueswoman, down the hall before we left.

We looked at and discussed more of Janet's art. Some of the other Victorian photography collages involved hair photography. Women would grow their hair very long, and then cut it and sell it to people who would make artwork out of the hair fibers. There were also examples of sister rituals: photos of twin sisters which Janet multiplied to give a recursive effect. She also had a zombie-fied Barbie doll that looked straight out of a horror movie. In the kitchen was a large series of images from Whatever Happened to Baby Jane. Some collages contained a portrait of Edgar Allen Poe. Janet remarked on how she loved Poe, and gestured to a bunch of Poe books on her bookshelf. "Romeo Poe," said Craig, the title of a Tribe song which Janet also performed solo. She smiled. "This one's called Romeo Poe!" She gestured to one of the collages which was indeed marked with that title.

There was some more light-hearted subject matter as well. There were collages of a bunny on a surfboard catching a water color wave, and owls collecting and hoarding electric guitars. Collages of vintage typewriters, gramophones, and film projectors lended a slight steampunk feel.

Janet encouraged us to check out some of the other studios of her talented neightbors, and made us promise to come back to say goodbye before leaving. We visited some of the other lofts on her floor. We went into New Record Studios, and met owner Rubin Nizri. It was a very cool studio with gold and platinum records on the walls, as well as photos of him with various clients (The Police, etc.) He also had amazing wildlife photographs on display from a recent African safari (including a monkey stealing his breakfast).

We went to another studio which had very vivid cut paper collages on display, as well as some artsy photographs and ephemera. Another studio had amazing photographs of white horses in motion.

We heard music and followed it to Eliza Neals' loft. She was displaying denim fashion, but each day at 5 p.m. she would do a blues set, solo, at her baby grand. We had timed it just right. We stepped in to the darkened space. A man in the kitchen was serving wine and beer for donations. I could immediately tell that I liked Eliza's performing style, and I put a tip in the jar. The guy desperately tried to give us a drink, but I gestured that it was a tip.

We could barely see the petite woman belting out the blues behind the piano with her blonde hair draped over her eyes, but they were projecting video from previous live performances on the wall, so it was a cool audiovisual experience. It was a great mini-concert, and we are grateful to Janet for pointing us to it! We have since bought 3 of Eliza's albums, and they are fantastic!

Next we went into a studio where I noticed that the black and white illustrations were covered with hand-scrawled medical terminology. I read various terms abnd joked to Craig and Jared, "Maybe they have one about MS!" The artist (Jonathan Wolf) overheard me and explained that he is a nurse, and that his artwork is actually notes that he took during nursing school. He drew sketches and interspersed them with words as a way to leverage art history and medicine into a mnemonic. I found this fascinating, partially because I love words, and partially because I work in medical content management, and this sort of organization of information was very compelling. I chose a print with text describing brain tumors, accompanied by sketches of a reclining Rubensesque woman, and a study containing a couch, a fishbowl, a chair, and a model of the brain.

It was getting close to closing time, so we headed back to Janet's studio to thank her and say goodnight. She was happy that we returned, and we told her that we loved Eliza Neals and Jonathan Wolf's work. She asked what we were doing tonight, and we told her that we were going to a costume party at Jared and Dave's friends' house. We told her that we planned to go to Corona Park, Flushing Meadows tomorrow to see the World's Fair remnants. She said that she had never been therem, and Jared told her a bit about it. I mentioned the Simpsons episode when Homer has to go to the bathroom, and a bus bound for Flushing Meadows triggers a fantasy sequance of Homer frolicking on a grassy field surrounded by toilets. Janet recalled that episode as well.

In addition to her framed collages, Janet had a variety of Halloween cards for sale. These were Victorian-themed collages on brown paper with Happy Halloween hand-written on the back. We wanted to buy something for Tyson, who is a fellow Tribe fan, and who collects vintage Halloween items. We chose Creepy Bat Party, which depicts women in fancy bustled Victorian gowns beseiged by bats. It is black and white, outlined in silver, featuring drops of red "blood." Janet matted it for us and attached a hand-made business card to the back.

It was time to go, and I asked Janet if we could get a photo with her before we left. She said sure, and then disappeared for a moment to style her scarf (which she was still wearing). She emerged from behind the room divider with a triumphant "Ta-da!" gesture, and she stood between us for a photo. We thanked her for everything, promised to stay in touch, and said goodnight. The visit was laid back. friendly, and comfortable. It was nice to get to thank Janet in person for the lovely artwork she had made us, and for the music that had brought us together as a couple 22 years ago (!)

We were all pretty thirsty (it had been warm in the building), so we stopped at the Warehouse Cafe for a drink. Craig got iced organic lemongrass green tea with jasmine blossoms, and I got iced organic ginger plum tea. It was quite tasty and refreshing.

It was now fully dark and fully raining. Jared stopped at Liberty State Park to give us a view of the Statue of Liberty. Jared had brought umbrellas for each of us, and we parked in an empty lot and walked toward the river. The Empty Sky New Jersey 9/11 Memorial had an eerie glow to it. It is aligned with where the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center were visible from the Jersey side of the river.

Twin walls transect a gently sloped mound anchored by a granite path that is directed toward Ground Zero. The length of each wall is exactly equal to one side of the former World Trade Center Towers as the height of the wall reflects proportion of the former buildings if they were lying on their side. The seven hundred and forty nine (749) victims’ names from the State of New Jersey face one another on the interior elevations of the twin brushed stainless steel walls within easy reach. The walls channel visitors to the location in the Manhattan skyline where the former World Trade Center towers once stood.

- NJ 9/11 Memorial Empty Sky web site

There were 2 I-beams from the World Trade Center with their rivets. It was amazing how heavy-duty they were! There was an elctronic kiosk where you could query names which are engraved upon the memorial. Jared and I recalled an acquiantance who graduated a couple of years ahead of us from our small high school, Kevin Szocik, who lost his life when Two World Trade Center collapsed. His name was not represented here, as he actually lived in NY rather than NJ, but it was still quite somber to recall him while walking through the memorial alone in the rain.

When we emerged from the channel at the banks of the Hudson River, we could see Manhattan's skyline twinkling in the night. One World Trade, the sleek skyscraper which is now the tallest in the western hemisphere at a significant 1776 feet tall (it is the 6th tallest building in the world).

Jared pointed out the terminal for the Central Railroad of New Jersey, which allowed new immigrants to fan out across the country. This was a very timely visit, at a point in time when immigration is a hot button issue. With the exception of Native Americans, we are all immigrants. This was a nice reminder.

We could see the back of the Statue of Liberty. We were talking about how she faces out to sea to welcome the arriving immigrants face to face. I made a sarcastic comment about the fact that if a certain he-who-shall-not-be-named is elected President, he would probably order that the statue be physically turned 180 degrees so that our country can quite literally turn its back on those who need our help.

Ellis Island is not lit at night, so we could only see its silhouette against the lights on the other side of the river. We saw some ferries going by, as well as some boats that looked like Chinese junks.

Jared drove us back to the house, arriving at around 8:30. Jared had to go to the store to buy some food and wine to bring to the party, and we stayed home and entertained Sylvia. Dave was still at work and would be meeting us at the party later. Sylvia thinks that she is a lap dog even though she weighs over 50 pounds. She was eager to sit on Craig's lap, and she licked him in the ear. Then she came over to me and licked my eyeball. Luckily, my contact lens stayed in!

I knew that it had been a very long day for Craig. We had been on our feet a lot. I worried that he might be too tired to go to the party, and I asked if he wanted to stay home instead. He admitted that he was quite tired, but he still wanted to go for Jared and Dave.

When Jared got home from the store, we all got ready for the party. Jared played Tribe's Abort album as we all got dressed. Craig and I are not really "costume people." We like dressing up, but often lack the creativity / ability to put something together. When Jared had told us about this party, I suggested that we do a Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) theme. It is a cultural tradition that interests us. We both already had black clothes which would work just fine. I already had some sugar skull jewelry. I went on Amazon and found some masks that would work. I also ordered a "Spanish hat" for Craig and a cheap black veil for me. I got some fingerless gloves at a Halloween shop, and I got some sugar skull bling stickers to put on the top of Craig's hat.

I used white pancake make-up on the lower half of our faces, to match up with the mask, and I put black grease makeup around our eyes. Some red lipstick and mascara for me, and we were ready to go. We met Jared downstairs, where he was sporting his 1920's-era swimming costume, complete with hat and cane. We took some photographs in front of the fireplace, and then drove over to the party.

We met their friends John and Alen, the hosts of the party. They have a vintage home similar to Jared and Dave's, and the decorations were intense. There were cobwebs everywhere, and a dummy of a long haired woman was in a corner with its back turned toward us. It reminded me of a cross between Janet's Victorian hair maiden art and the final scene of the Blair Witch Project. Very creepy! We were still quite full from our large brunch, but we sampled the large spread of food and drank a lemon alcoholic punch which was labeled as "bat pee." Dave arrived after work. Everyone at the party was extremely friendly and we enjoyed chatting with them. We settled on the back deck. It was no longer raining and the weather was warm enough that we were comfortable without jackets. Craig was tired and found himself dozing a bit in his chair, but he wasn't the only one. Other guests were nodding off as well as it got later, although everyone's masks made it diffult to tell!

Whern it was time to go, we said our goodnights and Jared drove us back to the house at 12:45 a.m. Craig was exhausted after a very long day, but we still had to go through the process of makeup removal. I had brought cold cream wipes, so that made it easier. Of course, I somehow managed to touch Craig's eyeball with it, so it was not a painless process (sorry, Craig!) By the time we got to bed, it was around 1:30 a.m. My brain had a hard time disengaging and letting me sleep. It had been such a fun day with such a wide variety of activities. Eventually I succumbed to sleep.