All Hallows Ball: The Costumes

I wish I had taken photos of more of the costumes. Unfortunately, when you are in a wheelchair, you are somewhat limited. Here are some of the ones that pass a PG rating.

There's an imposter in this trio!

Go Spartans!!!

Debbie and Linda.

A Fairwell to the fans!

All Hallows Ball

The Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center was the site for the 32nd All Hallows Ball. What started as a small house party 32 years ago, has blossomed into a gala event with somewhere near 2,500 attendees. It is by invitation only and I'm told that if you do not attend for two years in a row, you are dropped from the invite list.

Red carpet and all. We were interviewed on the carpet. I thought it was Joan Rivers at first!

This year's theme was Stage and Screen. We went as Jane and Blanche Hudson from "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" It was a blast! I got to ride in the wheel chair all night! Poor Jane had to push me around all night. It wasn't fun trying to get across the dance floor. We ran over a few toes on the way. ("Oops, excuse me, I had a spasm.") And, either you got it or you didn't. Many of the younger people had no idea who we were. But a lot of people yelled at me, "But ya are, Blanche! Ya are in a wheelchair!"

These four guys were dressed as Johnny Depp characters. See all 4 of them?







Towards the end of the evening Baby Jane was exhausted from pushing me around all night.

And by the end of the night I couldn't get Baby Jane off the dance floor. You should have seen her shake her thang!

Watch for my next post of some of the costumed attendees.

I Guess It's Official!!!

Don't know what's funnier...SNL or real life.

If Elected King, I promise to. . .

My credit union has this thing where they crown a king and queen for the year. Several of my co-workers nominated me. We received an email this afternoon with the nominees: 5 for King and 5 for Queen. And, I am one of the 5, for King, that is, not for Queen.

I'm sure I'm not winning this. And, after all, I don't think I really want to have to go to all these ribbon-cutting events. And, c'mon, wearing that red cape with the white fur collar? Not me. Not here in Florida. Maybe if I take a junket up to Albany this winter . . . ?

Go Rays!

WOW! The World Series being played right here! It's cool to see the excitement all around this area. Now if I only had a ticket...

An October Evening

The Florida Orchestra presented a "Pops in the Park" free concert on Saturday night in Vinoy Park. Earlier in the afternoon Wayne and I went to Mazzaro's to get a few things to bring along with us for a picnic. Naturally, we had to have lunch while we were there. Around 5:00 pm we walked from my apartment with beach chairs on our backs. (Nicely designed with straps to carry like backpacks, including a large pouch in the back.)

I was reminded of the Park Playhouse evenings up in Albany during the summers when we used to go to the free plays. And way back, we used to volunteer as ushers and sell 50-50 raffle tickets. The kids used to compete in the "Light up the Park" competition; one year, neon, another red, white and blue: remember, Mia? But I digress...

Yummy selection of olives . . .

There was a very good turnout. The clouds threatened a little, and it even drizzled for a few minutes about an hour before the concert was to begin. But, then it cleared out and was a beautiful evening, although probably a bit cool for many Floridians.

I practiced using the zoom on the new camera. These were taken from the spot where we were seated.

There was a booth that children, and a few adults too, could play various instruments. I made a bee-line for that tambourine, and thought I'd impress Wayne with my "Reflections". Needless to say, he was not impressed!

I caught Wayne relaxing to the following piece.

The Orchestra ended with, what else?, the 1812 Overture and fireworks. It was a nice evening to spend outside in October!

A Trip to Winter Park

Gina was in a concert at her school tonight. The Winter Park High School Performing Arts Department presented "An Evening of Jazz. Wayne and I took a trip over to Orlando after work to attend.


We ran into traffic going thru Tampa and again thru Orlando, but made it in time to get a quick bite to eat at the nearby Whole Foods market.

The concert was excellent! Winter Park has an excellent music program based on what we saw tonight and a lot of very talented students.



Gina sang one of the solos in Java Jive. The clip is attached below.






We had a wonderful evening! After the concert we headed up the street to the Starbucks for coffee, hot chocolate, and desserts!