Wendy Watson - The Middle Man (Utility Belt Fiasco)
Well... the remaining tasks list is gone! There is still some that technically needs to be done to the belt, but omfg what a fiasco... Let me start off by saying that as excited as I am for this shoot tomorrow, I will be glad to be able to breathe on Sunday after the *unbelievable* occurrences of last night's fruitless endeavor. I am not discouraged, but rather more pointedly challenged. I think life has a way of forcing you to earn the rights of your success by testing you and waiting to see if you will roll over or rise to the challenge. I suppose life failed to get the memo that I am not accustomed to following the habit of giving up...
A smidgen of back story if you will allow it. One or two sentences really. ;) My motorcycle has been in a sad state of disrepair for a while because some one apparently needed my brakes more than I did... So I am effectively without a vehicle as it has been my only mode of transportation for some four years now. As a result of this I made sure I had my room mate's car secured to borrow for the day as I had a few more imperative errands to run before tomorrow's shoot. He agrees and all is settled. Or is it?...
I get a call around 5pm. It's my room mate. He left his car keys in his friend's purse (for *whatever* reason they were there in the first place when he wasn't even driving his car) and she is at work for the day. Essentially I get the "S.O.L. Speech". I immediately begin procuring another car for when I get of work at 6pm and with a bit of difficulty am able to find a friend to pick me up from work and rush me around town for a bit. Unfortunately, said friend drives to my *old* work location and we lose about an hour.
Wanting to prepare as much as possible I had printed out location directions on Google Maps (because MapQuest has this uncanny way of repeatedly failing me) and was ready to fare the course! We rush off to the first location, which was supposed to have been the Tandy Leather Factory. Needless to say I was a little more than shocked when I was lead to a Chiropractic Office... Not having time to stress and thinking at about a mile a minute I decide to abandon what should have been Tandy's in favor of the Army/Navy Surplus Store. I am a capable, creative, tenacious individual and figure I can find something to make due with there.
We follow the directions for the Surplus Store and find ourselves instead sitting in front of some residential house at the end of a private coule du sac no less... Obviously this will not do. Not even saying a word, I whip out my phone and dial 411 to be connected to the store so I can just *ask* for directions and the operator connects me. The line rings and rings and then puts me through... to some stranger's cell phone?.... Huh?.... Just to be sure I call 411 back and the same thing happens. Okay... Time to try for Tandy again. I make a third 411 call and the operator connects me. Again it goes through, but this time to an entirely *different* arbitrary cell phone.
What exactly is going on here?....
Realizing it is now approaching 7:30pm and both stores are likely closed and/or closing (not to mention I don't even know where this places are supposed to *exist* at this point) I make a judgment call to go to JoAnn's because I know for a fact where it is located and that it closes at 9pm. My logic tells me that stretching my creative design abilities and finding anything I can to work with is far better than giving up and going home with nothing to work on. 'Cause seriously... bollucks to *that*.
Well... the only thing even remotely close to suitable for making ammo belts that they have is elastic. And, of course, it's not even in the right color... I get more than enough and pick up two types of dye in case one fails me. I am taking *no* chances at this point. I grab my supplies and head home. I used brown Rit Dye to dye the elastic, but it came out too light so I pulled out my backup method to use in conjunction with the dying. At least it served as a nice base color to improve upon. For the second round of dying I used a spray on fabric paint, which worked splendidly so I let it dry and moved on to locating anything at all in my room from my own personal collection that I would be able to use. At this point I am more than willing to modify my own collection to make this a success.
I find myself in the possession of the following items:
Not much to work from, but far better than absolutely nothing in my opinion. So without the ammo belt I figure attaching the AK-47 bullets would be the next best thing so I drilled three holes into the belt, found the correct placing and got those puppies on there. Next I decided to forfeit my MGS3 Holster in favor of Wendy Watson because it is a more pressing matter and I can always replace EVA's at a later date. No biggie. I take my fabric paint and holster out to the painting area I designated on my patio and quickly realized that it is water repellent and is in no way going to take to the dye. Curses. Here is what the belt looks like in it's current state.
Tonight I am *still* without a vehicle because even though roomie regained access to his car keys, he is using his car to go to work. I live in an area where I am within walking distance of a few small shopping centers so I am picking out the ones that I think I will have the most luck at and high-tailing it over there to be able to hit up as many resources as I can get to before places begin to close. Anyways, I have a few ideas and *always* have a few tricks up my sleeves so I am confident that despite the universe conspiring against me, I will be able to live true to my phoenix nature and rise up from the ashes. So sit back and watch me go, kids. I have this miraculous way of looking setbacks in the face and staring them down. I'm sure I'll have a bajillion things to write about later tonight and/or early tomorrow morning.
A smidgen of back story if you will allow it. One or two sentences really. ;) My motorcycle has been in a sad state of disrepair for a while because some one apparently needed my brakes more than I did... So I am effectively without a vehicle as it has been my only mode of transportation for some four years now. As a result of this I made sure I had my room mate's car secured to borrow for the day as I had a few more imperative errands to run before tomorrow's shoot. He agrees and all is settled. Or is it?...
I get a call around 5pm. It's my room mate. He left his car keys in his friend's purse (for *whatever* reason they were there in the first place when he wasn't even driving his car) and she is at work for the day. Essentially I get the "S.O.L. Speech". I immediately begin procuring another car for when I get of work at 6pm and with a bit of difficulty am able to find a friend to pick me up from work and rush me around town for a bit. Unfortunately, said friend drives to my *old* work location and we lose about an hour.
Wanting to prepare as much as possible I had printed out location directions on Google Maps (because MapQuest has this uncanny way of repeatedly failing me) and was ready to fare the course! We rush off to the first location, which was supposed to have been the Tandy Leather Factory. Needless to say I was a little more than shocked when I was lead to a Chiropractic Office... Not having time to stress and thinking at about a mile a minute I decide to abandon what should have been Tandy's in favor of the Army/Navy Surplus Store. I am a capable, creative, tenacious individual and figure I can find something to make due with there.
We follow the directions for the Surplus Store and find ourselves instead sitting in front of some residential house at the end of a private coule du sac no less... Obviously this will not do. Not even saying a word, I whip out my phone and dial 411 to be connected to the store so I can just *ask* for directions and the operator connects me. The line rings and rings and then puts me through... to some stranger's cell phone?.... Huh?.... Just to be sure I call 411 back and the same thing happens. Okay... Time to try for Tandy again. I make a third 411 call and the operator connects me. Again it goes through, but this time to an entirely *different* arbitrary cell phone.
What exactly is going on here?....
Realizing it is now approaching 7:30pm and both stores are likely closed and/or closing (not to mention I don't even know where this places are supposed to *exist* at this point) I make a judgment call to go to JoAnn's because I know for a fact where it is located and that it closes at 9pm. My logic tells me that stretching my creative design abilities and finding anything I can to work with is far better than giving up and going home with nothing to work on. 'Cause seriously... bollucks to *that*.
I find myself in the possession of the following items:
- a standard and too light brown belt
- my AK-47 Bullet Belt
- An ID Badge Holder from work
- A Black Gun Holster (From MGS3 EVA cosplay)
Tonight I am *still* without a vehicle because even though roomie regained access to his car keys, he is using his car to go to work. I live in an area where I am within walking distance of a few small shopping centers so I am picking out the ones that I think I will have the most luck at and high-tailing it over there to be able to hit up as many resources as I can get to before places begin to close. Anyways, I have a few ideas and *always* have a few tricks up my sleeves so I am confident that despite the universe conspiring against me, I will be able to live true to my phoenix nature and rise up from the ashes. So sit back and watch me go, kids. I have this miraculous way of looking setbacks in the face and staring them down. I'm sure I'll have a bajillion things to write about later tonight and/or early tomorrow morning.
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