SCREAM

Yesterday I started out Halloween with an appointment at my private practice; afterward my friend Hachiko picked me up and helped me run some errands. She took me home and we worked on costumes and such for a while. Then she and Sunrise and I went to McMenamins theatre to see ParaNorman; it was cute. :)
We then had a late lunch at Noi (the new Thai place downtown), which was fantastic!
After lunch we went home to finalize costumes and apply makeup (just Hachiko and me, obviously :) )

Last night was the screaming contest, which was the Halloween event I was most excited about this year.

We showed up at Silver Moon around 7:45, I think. There wasn't much going on. Sunrise and I had beers and Hachi didn't end up having anything! The opening band for the Moon Mountain Ramblers was a bit grating, so we ended up leaving and going to McMenamins for hot cocktails and pumpkin brûlée. We went back to Silver Moon around 10:15 or so, and after a few songs from the MMR (who were much more enjoyable than the openers AND they did their own version of MJ's Thriller!! ) the screaming contest started. We were told to shoot for "terrifying and LOUD". The audience was told to judge us by screaming back for the screamer they liked the best.
As the first few screamers did their thing, I was thinking, "Oh, I've got this in the bag!" They were all doing "woohoo"s, like you would at a rock show or something. They were more like cheers than screams. I let mine rip, and it was pretty damn terrifying and loud. I was too short to use the microphone that everyone else was using, even. Hachiko said that the people around her all looked blown away. Which is why they forgot to scream back. All the screamers after me were, again, cheering rather than really screaming. When the band announced the winners, I was shocked and disappointed when they didn't call my name for 1st place... or 2nd... or 3rd!?
It really wasn't fair.
I put SO MUCH into that scream. Before I screamed, I thought about when I was raped.
I screamed so hard that I peed myself.* (Luckily the black pants I was wearing were made of a fabric that you can't tell when it's wet!!)
When the screaming contest was over, we left. Leaving Silver Moon, a car passed us on the street and let out a "woohoo". I responded with another REAL scream; I was frustrated and angry and sad. I just wanted to keep screaming. Anyway, someone else who was leaving Silver Moon was about half a block ahead of us and he turned around and said, "Will you stop being murdered?"
And there was my proof.
I'm the only one that really screamed, and I guess people were just freaked out by the sincerity of it.
Fuck 'em.

I should have won.


*I warned you that sometimes this blog would contain TMI!