They say you can't go home again...

... but I did.

From 1979 to 1982, I attended my 4th, 5th, and 6th grade classes at the Warren Point School in Fair Lawn, NJ.

Then I went on to junior high and Fair Lawn High School... and from there to college and law school.  I really only went back to Warren Point to pick up my sister when she was a student there.

Until yesterday.

About a month ago, I got an email from a woman who was on a Fair Lawn school PTA, looking for a face painter to work at their "welcome back to school" carnival.  When she told me the town, I had a feeling... so I asked which school... and it was mine!  I was inordinately excited about going back to my old stomping grounds.

I mean, I used to play handball on that same blacktop!

There were some changes.  A new wing, for instance, and the seesaws and swings were gone (what have they done with seesaws?) and this was in its place.

OK, so that's pretty cool, even if my seesaws are gone.

The best thing was being able to tell the kids that I was a student there too... about a thousand years ago.  And, of course, to paint them.  I think I did about 8,000 butterflies and 7,000 tigers in the four hours I was there.

I did so many of those two designs that I think at first the kids thought that was all I was offering!  It just so happened those were the first two requested and it stuck.  There's always the "hot" design at any event that just gets a million requests.  I did finally hear someone farther back on the line mention the word "bear," though, so I took the opportunity to suggest a brown bear or panda.  It resulted in two pandas, one "real" and one green.



I also ended up with a lot of puppies because at the end when I had to cut the line, I gave a choice of "butterflies, snakes, or puppies, that's it!"  I didn't get any photos of those, though, because I was racing by then.  I did get some randoms throughout the afternoon...

(Yay, Fair Lawn!)

I only kinda wish Mrs. Sandler (my grammar school art teacher) was still teaching there and had been at the event.  How funny would that be?

Normally, when I cut a line, that's that.  I don't take any "just one more"s because it's just not fair to the kids I've already turned away.  Yesterday was no exception... almost.

As I was painting the second-to-last customer, a little girl came up and asked me, "May I please have a face painting?"  I told her I couldn't do it, and explained why, but thanked her for asking so politely and saying "please."  She was with her mom watching me as I got to the last customer, a little boy who was the brother of the girl I'd been painting a minute before.  When it was time for him to get in my chair, he chickened out.  His mom asked me to take the polite girl in his stead, since I now had room for one more and she'd asked so nicely.  It was the one time I've made an exception, but I loved being able to teach her that being polite gets her places.

And the PTA took photos too!

Wow.

Several years ago, when I was a much newer face painter, I hired by the mom to work at a birthday party at Anna's Chocolates in Tappan, NY.  It was a great place, where the kids got to make their own chocolate candies and lollipops as part of the party.  I remember the party well, as I was impressed with the shop and wanted to maybe have one of my own birthday parties there... and also because it was a crazy situation where I was hired for "10" kids and 25 showed up.  I had one hour in which to paint 'em, so I really had to race.

And then it left my mind.

Fast forward to last month, when I got a call from a woman named Anna.  Of Anna's chocolates.  It was now 4 years later, Anna no longer had the chocolate shop, but she did have a daughter turning 3.  And the daughter wanted a face painter.

She hadn't kept my card.

She wracked her brain for a day, thinking about it, and actually remembered my name and found me online.  Crazy, no?  Crazy, I tell you.  Wow.  I honestly don't know whether to be more flattered or impressed.  I'm kind of both.

So last weekend, I did face painting and glitter tattoos and face painting at the kiddo's party.  No photos, sorry.  It was fun, though, very nice kids.  And the great idea of having two pinatas, one princess one and one pirate.  Very cool.

Picnic!

Every summer, the community theater to which I belong, Bergen County Players, hosts a picnic for the members, friends, and family, and every year Eric and I go.  Since it's something I can offer to my fellow theater people, I bring the face paints and glitter tats.

I'm generally a hit.  This year didn't get off to an auspicious start, though, when I asked a little girl I didn't know if she wanted to be painted.  She said yes, her mother said yes.  She wanted a butterfly, and pink was her color of choice... but as soon as the sponge reached her face, she got really upset.  Glitter, which she'd already asked for before I started, just added to her misery.  Looking in the mirror was even worse, and she didn't stop crying until we washed her face off.  I'm glad Snazaroo, which I was using, will come off with just a paper towel and a little water.  I felt so bad!  Face painting's supposed to be fun, after all.

When her mom tried getting painted to show her it was ok, she got upset all over again... and then again when her brother got a glitter tattoo on each arm.  She's very protective of her family, it seems.

After that, though, hilarity ensued.

First, what I did.

What you're seeing there are my first ever beagle and squirrel!  I love getting challenges!  The fish was just something out of my head, an "artist's choice," but Eric told me I'd done a pineapple fish.  Behold...

Weird, right?  I'd never heard of or seen this fish before!  Hmm...

While I was working, though, my young friend Messalina (isn't that a great name?) asked to use my paints and join me.  I never let anyone do that, but it is tradition that Messalina paints me, so I let her paint our friend Kenny, who was oddly agreeable yesterday.  I do note that he's never let me paint him and plan to remedy that, especially since he has such a terrific canvas.

I think I should hire her!

108?!

Wow, not cool.  And I mean that both figuratively and literally, since weather.com says it hit 108 here in NJ yesterday.  A record high, from the prior 105.

I'm not fond of 3-digit temperatures.  If I was, I'd go live in Arizona.

Even in the dark of night, at 1 a.m., it was near 90 degrees.  So you get the idea.  And where was I from 5:30 - 830 p.m.?  With 4 fellow crazy face painters, at the Bergen County Zoo in Van Saun Park in Paramus.  Face painting.  Outdoors.  In that heat.

Crazier than we were may have been the people who got painted.  More power to 'em!  Because of them, I got to do some fun stuff.  Like these butterflies.

Mike Tyson's tribal... which is probably a tad easier with a shaved head.

And yeah, I looked it up.  All hail the smartphone!  Speaking of the smartphone and finding images, I got my first toucan request and decided to give it a go once I found one online.

Good job, if I do say so myself!

I was surprised at the people who wanted full face designs in the heat, but if they were willing, I was willing.  Hence the crocodile and ladybug.

It was kind of fun to make the ladybug smile when she smiled, and it was a surprising popular design.  Another face painting "trick" is to make parts disappear.  This boy was really happy at the snake apparently slithering through his hair.

Unsurprisingly, we did get a lot of arm art.

The best design of the day, though?  Or at least the funniest... check out these guys.

Love it!

A Happy 4th!

I painted on Monday at the Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, at their annual party.  It was a great bunch of kids, and we had fun.  This year, Angry Birds were the most popular face by far, a fad begun by this young lady, with my first ever Angry Bird face painting.


 Of course, butterflies.

A dragon.

A patriotic kiddo.

An evil clown.

And a bunch more firsts... a rocket and a smilie.

An owl that I wish was a better photo.

And a cute porcupine!