Murder Mystery Party

Our famous humidity was in full force this morning during my four-mile walk with Kristey. Seven-thirty in the morning was oppressive. Ugh. Barring the discomfort from heat and encountering a snake on the walk, we made it through okay.

I stopped at the craft store for some last minute items for my costume, namely feathers. Dan's St. Valentine's Day Murder Mystery party was set in the Roaring 20s AKA the age of the flappers, gangsters and Prohibition. Flappers wore feathers on their heads. I also bought a stencil set and blow pens that mimic spray paint with an exhale of air into the tubes. I needed to make signs for the prop boxes of booze I wanted to have on the scene.

Prop boxes were hiding a fog machine.


Outlining Dan's body for the murder scene on his floor was one of the most fun times I've had setting up an event. It took about 15 minutes of me giggling and bumbling around Dan's awkwardly posed body to complete using blue painter's tape. I had to add the weird bump on his bum because he really doesn't have one and it would prove a source of fun by other guests later.



The party was in nine rounds of clues and questioning with breaks in between to let the clues sink in and time for noshing party fare and refilling wine glasses. No one knew if they were the killer until the first round of paper given to their characters. The revealing to everyone was at Round 9.

Ant (as Al Kohol) rented his Zoot Suit.


Ant's wife Rebecca was the quintessential flapper girl Brandy Chaser.


I forgot to take pics during the party so this is only crowd shot I liked of the two I snapped.


Gil T. Azell (Dan) and Al Kohol (Ant) during a break.


More props were on table to set the birthday party of murdered mobster Tommy Gunn (fedora hat, fake cash, poker chips and a cheap cigar...and curlicue sprinkles!).


Ten guests...and the murder(ess) was dancer/singer Roxanne Redlight! She was also a contract killer paid by The Illinois Temperance Society. They wanted to start a gangster war in which they all killed each other.

My self-portrait in the guest bathroom at the end of the night wasn't as flattering as I would have liked it. It looked wilted -- the headband was barely on my head so no feather included, just the ones from the boa. Sigh. Here are the stylized versions anyway.

Let me introduce Roxanne Redlight...


Everyone had great fun in dressing up and playing their characters. We truly played the game for about four hours which went by very quickly. Playing the game was a unique party idea and I highly recommend planning your own Murder Mystery Party. There are already a few themes being bandied about for late June.
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Murder Mystery Party

Serendipitous

Switching telecommute days from Thursday to Wednesday this week for an inspection was freaking me out. In my mind it was already tomorrow. Thankfully, the apartment inspection occurred before lunchtime. Cabal never barked so I know the two men entering my home were okay. I don't like uninvited guests I don't know putting their energy in my sanctuary. I'm sensitive like that...or was that paranoid?

Wouldn't you know the day I work from home, freakish things happened at work? One of the guys from the help desk IM'ed me about a user needing my input on something which required multiple applications open on my end. My new laptop hasn't been configured yet so this was attempted on my aging laptop and on a wireless connection. At some point I had to give the user my personal cell phone number to contact me so I wouldn't have to keep updating her ticket and waiting for an e-mail response a few minutes later. (I don't have a regular phone at home because it would be superfluous at the moment.) All my other troubleshooting almost ran into my time to leave to meet Myrna and Kristey at Maggiano's for Myrna's birthday dinner.

Everything else in the evening seemed serendipitous. I had no problems in rush hour traffic. Driving was super smooth as was the ideal parking spot that became available as I navigated into the car park...Dinner was great with the gals...We walked around the mall later and I found an appropriate black dress for Dan's party on Saturday including a pair of Spanx hosiery that all the celebrities have been touting to smooth down muffin tops and hide visible panty lines on their red carpet figure. Well, I don't have close to a red carpet figure yet. It was the last dress, about a half size too big and needed something extra for a knockout look. The accessories I have picked out from my own closet for the roaring 20's theme will go nicely (pink feather boa and long strand pearl necklace). Dan is renting a tux and I figured I should make a better effort. Oh and the thing about this dress: I loved it the moment I put it on which never happens and it was on sale.

Cabal scared me later in the evening. He couldn't get up and I thought he was having a seizure. Rather than engage in full fledged panic, I called Tawny and asked if she could come over with no details as to why. By the time she walked through my door, I had Cabal on his side and was petting him. As soon as he saw Tawny, he got up and wanted to play. OMG -- I wanted to kill him. Little faker. I mean, it could have been legitimate earlier as he is getting on in years, but give me a break! It was a bizarre excuse to catch up with Tawny and for him to get more lovin'. Damn dog.
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Serendipitous

Testy Tuesday

My workout buddy's under-the-weather feeling lingered today so it was to be me and the other crazy hamsters. I looked forward to the time away from my two flat screens . This excitement lasted until I walked into the locker room. Something was amiss and the feeling magnified when I walked into the gym where I expected to be the only one or at least the only female. No, a more mature lady was already on an elliptical machine who normally comes in much later.

The room didn't have the right feeling even as the other hamsters trickled in. I weathered the weird vibe and rushed back to my cube to eat my lunch. Of course, news that my department's seating arrangement was to be uprooted again in two weeks to make room for the marketing department from the other building didn't help any. Yeah...loud Marketing and quiet Finance, a marriage made in heaven. Sigh.

Myrna picked me up for dinner so we could catch up a little and uplift both our spirits with laughter...When I checked my e-mail after, I had received an invitation to a St. Valentine's Murder Mystery party from my friend Dan. The guests are assigned characters and recommended costumes. It is set to be in the Roaring 20's during Prohibition to include gangsters and flappers. Should be fun in two weekends to play the part of Roxanne Redlight.
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Testy Tuesday