Lucy's Buzz : Scary Night!

Dressed and ready to go birthday party shoot at one of the 5-star hotels in Colombo, I’m wearing a fancy denim shirt and a cotton skirt. Doesn’t sound like a warm outfit, but at 32C (90F) it’s pretty toasty. Waiting in AC is not so bad. Waiting in the heat is like giving childbirth. Can’t wait to get it over with!

Why am I waiting? Lipton was at a meeting and came out to find the car’s tire flatter than my desktop, if my desk were tidy.

Waiting is not my favorite thing to do. I’m anxious to get with the crowd of kiddies and capture their adorable little faces on my monster SLR camera. Loaded with wigs, masks, cool sunglasses and beads for them to dress up in, I just can’t wait, wait, wait!

Hopefully Lipton will arrive before I’m done writing this Lucy’s Buzz and before the party starts and all will be well.

The birthday girl is 11. Almost a teenager. That age group works so hard to be cool. Until they get in front of our camera with their wigs on, and slick shades. Then they go wild. And that’s a good thing. Too many people see a camera and freeze up, stand like a soldier at attention. Young girls need no prompting to get silly, which makes birthday party photography a fun thing! Worth the wait.

Postscript: The birthday girl turned 13. Big difference between 11 and 13. Decades of difference! There were both girls and boys attending. Boys added an air of testosterone that crowded the room like raging bulls.

The theme was Spooky Night. Everyone was dressed in black. I’d never seen a group of 13-year-old boys so up close before and they fit the theme – pretty spooky; with their caps turned at angles, with hand-held devices, fist bumping, too cool! All went well until a prize was offered for the first kid to find it. Kids ran around looking under and over everything like crazed maniacs. Thank goodness a boy found it pretty quickly; a skeleton mask.

The Karaoke style music heightened the madness. It was so loud my body was assaulted by the sound waves. Girls screamed when their favorite songs came on like they were at a rock concert. Dancing was manic.

I remember going to a birthday party when I was 13; the boys were on one side of the room and the girls on the other. No one danced except a few brave ones. There was nothing timid with this night’s group of kids. They had a blast! Every scary second!