What an experience!

Wow.

Friday night was opening night of the show I'm in, and everyone went out after, so I got home late.  And then of course I was wide awake and couldn't sleep right away.

I got up on Saturday at around 9 a.m., leaving for Tribeca at 10, to get to the Film Fesival. 

I found my place in Washington Market Park, and set up while Eric went to find parking - it took him an hour!  Tha'ts how crazy and huge the fetival was. It makes sense on such a gorgeous day.  The high was 88, and it was just partly cloudy.  Perfect for this sort of thing, really, and I was in an area shaded by trees, so it was even more attractive.

Well, on the first trip, people saw me put stuff by the table with the "face painting" sign, and started to line up.  As usual, people started getting on line for painting while I was still setting up.  I set up fast, and got going... and going... and going.

I painted nonstop for 5 hours, barely taking a break for a swig of SmartWater.

The kids were freakin' awesome, EVERY.  SINGLE.  ONE. Not exaggerating.  Polite, sweet, fun.  Laughed at my bad jokes, and I did a zillion butterflies but most let me match colors to their outfits!  And most of the parents and guardians were also freakin' awesome. Seriously, I was thanked for doing the painting, thanked for making the kids happy, repeatedly told what a great artist I was, and thanked some more. They thanked me for even just being a face painter!

It feels so grear to be appreciated, it really does.  This is the kind of event that makes the heat, the lugging and carrying, the practice, the investment, the shore shoulders and backs - all of it - worthwhile.

I heard that people were waiting on line for me for TWO HOURS and were STILL nice to me.  I'm pretty sure that says something about their character.

People were so disappointed when I had to leave at 4; next year I will definitely not audition for the May show at the theater so I can spend the whole day painting.  It's worth it.

While there, though, I got to do my second ever panda!  And third, but I didn't get a photo of that one.

I loved this brother and sister too, a kitty that originally wanted to be a bird, and a robot!  My robot requests are very infrequent, but a challenge is always welcome.

I also got to design my first mouse!  This girl was such a cutie, and luckily, we got video and a photo of the final result.

That night, I was back on stage for a great show, as was I on Sunday afternoon!

After that, I came home to an email from the project manager of the Festival, letting me know that the "official" estimate was that they had over 300,000 attendees and thanking me for "helping to make it such a very special day for everyone who attended."

She commented that she'd wanted to say hi as she passed a few times, but didn’t want to interrupt me "while [I was] busy transforming faces into artistic beauty," that everyone seemed so pleased with my work, and that it was a pleasure to have me with them.  It was definitely mutual!