Fashion Knockoff

Saturday was interesting. The weird downstairs tenant spoke to me, smiled even.

Having moved in quietly dead of night back in March, the tenant underneath me is a recluse who made it clear she wants nothing to do with any of us when she pointedly strongly emphasis added told me the one and only time I’ve actually seen her outside her unit and introduced myself that, “I.don’t.like.people!” 

Heard.

All is mostly quiet downstairs, blinds always shut, windows never open, I’m not even sure she’s home or even still alive most of the time, except for when I hear her yelling at someone in the unit with her, or it may be someone over the phone, or it may be an imaginary friend. I don’t know. It’s all very weird.

At any rate, I was on the patio Saturday, looking through the costume container I’d hauled out of the patio storage area, to see what I could put together for the Halloween Potluck – that is IF I wear a costume, as I’m now going back and forth on the Halloween event.

While digging through the container, I saw out the corner of my eye that she’d exited her unit and was heading down the pathway. Honoring her request to be left alone, I didn’t shout out a greeting, didn’t even look at her. My mind just registered for a second that she was out of her unit, but then the next second I’d completely forgotten about her and was focused on what I was pulling out of the container. All of a sudden, I heard a cheery voice say, “Hello up there”. I turned to look and it was she, actually looking up and smiling at me.

I’ll be darn, this is a first, I thought as I greeted her back.

But then I began to wonder if I should be concerned, because her smile and cheery greeting were so out of character. It sorta reminded me of the demonic smile my abusive ex-husband would display just before he went off.

If she EVER knocks on my door for a supposed cup of sugar, or anything else, I won’t be opening it.

As to a costume … I do love cosplay, and have like a dozen costumes to choose from, including a Wonder Woman tutu I made a few years back for the Girls-On-The-Go 5K, when a group of us went as the female Justice League (Wonder Woman, Bat Girl, Spider Girl), and Wonder Woman is what I ended up pulling from the container, along with the WW socks and Lasso of Truth.

But wearing a costume is no fun when I’m the only one, so I’m thinking I’ll go down to the Community Room first to scope out the scene. If I see others in costume, I’ll go back to my unit, dress and go back down. If not, I’ll skip the event entirely.

Also on the weekend, I knocked out two Gluttee Wraps – one for myself, one for daughter.

It was surprisingly easy to make a pattern without disassembling the original and, inasmuch as the ties on the original don’t cover my poochie stomach, I modified my knockoff version to longer ties.

Original Gluttee Wrap

Kente Cloth Knockoff

It's going to drive the kiosk workers nuts when they see me rocking their product in the mall, but not in a pattern they produce. Maybe they'll take the hint and do a couple in kente cloth as I've made it clear to daughter that if her friends in the gym want one, and they will, I'm not making any other than the two cause I don't care to be involved in a legal action.

So that was my productive weekend. On to whatever comes next.