Closet Exhibition…..ism
So I’m backing up a few weeks ~ I’ve been in and out of town, trying to enjoy the last few weeks of freedom before I’m “grounded” due to the imminent arrival of baby #2.
I spent my little sister’s birthday weekend with her in Atlanta. Just the two of us – the kind of trip that hasn’t happened in years due to school, family, kids. The last trip we took alone was a Caribbean cruise in March of ‘08 – it was her senior year spring break and I was pregnant with my first son. She is a whole decade younger than me, just turning 20! But we’ve been inseparable since her birth. Our relationship has been a variety of things…sister/sister, mother/daughter, babysitter/babysittee, therapist/client, fashion coordinator/client (the last two have gone both ways)…
So, needless to say, we were both quite excited about this rendez-vous! Shopping, neat little restaurants, just planning our days as we went and not having to worry about the precious toddler I usually have with me when I’m visiting her in Hot-lanta.
Now another bit of background for you – and I’ll try to keep this short. I’m an art major, and I did a few strange projects while in my major…some were more like social experiments and I altered my behavior to elicit certain reactions, some were more personally risque – using my entire body as a paint brush and wallowing on a 9′x13′ canvas, which I did do in the privacy of my own school studio, but then showed my technique by wrapping my naked painted self in bubble wrap for my walk from my studio (in a campus dorm) to the art building. And not that this had to do with my classes, but senior year I enjoyed a near-weekly Friday night outing to see and participate in the Rocky Horror Picture Show at a local movie theater. It was such an odd thrill to dress up in lingerie, gaudy (but impeccably applied) make-up and the tallest hooker shoes I could find that I was still able to walk in – and present myself to others like me who not only enjoyed the movie, but the act of preparing for it as well. My mom asked my favorite professor at some point if he could “put me back in my box, just a little”.
Well, the last live Rocky Horror show I went to was the night before my college graduation in May of 2002. I’ve thought fondly of those shows often, but not having a nearby local group that presents the live part made me figure it was pretty much a thing of my youth. Until I realized where my sister & I would be – in ATLANTA – and that I would be toddler-less! And as a bonus, it was not only her birthday weekend, but it would be her first live viewing! And I’d heard great things about some of the Atlanta rocky troupes…so after a brief internet search, and a few phone calls just to confirm information, I decided that our Friday night activity would be Rocky Horror live!
I know, seems weird to do something like that with your little sister, but she seemed to like the idea very much, and we spent part of our shopping time looking for the perfect debut outfit for her. She is taller than me by a few inches, extremely slender and fair, and with something like Rocky – the sluttier the better, but we were sure to pick “tasteful” whore clothing – she was fully covered, but looked HOT in her black corset, ruffle boy shorts & fishnets. Her hot pink wig and matching boa, added to our amazing make-up work made it all just perfect.
Being humongously pregnant didn’t stop me from dressing up, it just stopped me from wearing lingerie as none of my former Rocky outfits fit right now. We sliced up a black tank top of mine and found iron on rhinestone lettering to insinuate that I was carrying Frankenfurter’s baby, which in itself amused the crap out of me. And after procuring an awesome lavender colored wig for myself, and a fabulous little top hat and purple boa to accompany it, we were set. We began make-up application at 10 pm, and with our effortless & time-saving wigs (thank you Craig at Junkman’s Daughter!!) , we were out the door at 11:15 to make it to our movie date!
It was a full theater that evening, and my little “birthday virgin” looked smashing. She and two other birthday viewers had the audience sing to them before the naughty pre-movie games and prizes. We Time Warped with everyone in the aisles, shouted obscenities at the screen, while trying to take in the cast & crew’s fairly awesome props and costumes, and we thanked the cast as we left for such an elating, bizarre, fabulous experience! for Elizabeth’s “first time” I wouldn’t have changed a thing! We had a ball. A weird ball, slutting it up together for a Rocky Whore-er evening.
Now I just sigh and count the years until I can do it again….
