Glittery dares

In which I get glitter thrown at me, moustaches drawn on me

and hashtags written on my chest

I left Karin cleaning up after the second class and took off for the third one on my own.  It was going to be held at a private residence near Gorebridge and I had timed it very carefully.  I knew that I could get there by car in about half an hour, so I'd booked a taxi.

I was paranoid about the details, though.  Earlier that day, I called up the firm to make sure that they knew all the details.  The person I spoke to rattled them off to me over the 'phone - pickup time, pickup point, destination, the whole lot.  That sort of efficiency can really calm the nerves.  When I stepped out of the City Cafe, the driver was already there, waiting for me.

It worried me slightly that he was using a 'phone as a satnav, although I figured he knew what he was doing.  But I still dug out my own 'phone and used the satnav on that one too, so I could follow the route.  Just in case.

And I'm glad I did.  Twice, the driver took a wrong turn and then seemed to quietly freeze up.  Like he couldn't figure out how to cope when his technology failed him.  Both times, I got him to back up and take an alternative route.  The second time that happened, I could see his panic was fading and he was getting a bit irritated instead.  He drove straight past the entrance to Kirkhill Mansion, we went under a bridge and ended up in a dead end.  I looked at my satnav again, then made him turn round,  retrace the route and take a sharp left.  In fairness to him, it was a very small road and easily missed.  But just for a moment, I thought he was going to refuse to attempt the turn.

We still got to Kirkhill Mansion with nearly ten minutes to spare, though.  That's not quite enough for my own peace of mind; I prefer a bit longer than that to set everything up.  But I was running on adrenaline by then and sailed through the whole process.  I kicked over a tub of charcoal in my haste, but still managed to get everything ready in record time.

A lot of the girls knew what was going on, but some were still in the dark.  When I announced that the room was ready, they took a few minutes to filter through.  But finally, all the worries about timing and schedules were completely taken care of.  I was doing the final class of the day and had no need to keep an eye on the clock any more.  I was able to just relax and enjoy myself.  I made sure that the girls had no time restrictions going on, then I told them that we would just settle in and have fun without worrying about the time.

 It seems that summer is definitely the theme this weekend.  This is the second group to have flowers in their hair.  They all had headbands that they'd each individually created.  They also had identical shoes with pompoms on them and little cards hanging round their necks.

I asked about the cards and was told they were dares.  I was going to ask about the dares, but one of the girls beat me to it, by trying to fulfil one of hers.  I posed for a picture with her, then as she was sitting down I noticed that she'd put  a sticker on my side.  It was a failed dare, though, because I wasn't supposed to notice it was there.

I've had groups with dares before, though.  And I always think it's fun to offer bonus points to any girl who will carry her dare out during the class.  And I wasn't about to break that pattern, today.

So three more dares were fulfilled...

One of the girls put glue on me, then threw glitter onto the glue.  It was a lot harder to get rid of that glitter than I anticipated.  But even despite that, I think that it might be a fun extra element to future classes.  I should add some glue and glitter to my bag of props. 

Another girl wrote a hashtag on my chest.  She was really worried that she might hurt me with the charcoal and was afraid to press too hard.

Another one drew a moustache on my face.  And that contributed to some really cool pictures.  If I thought I could genuinely look that good with a real moustache, I'd probably grow one.

The Make-A-Giant-Man pose resulted in four penises, this time.  And they were great penises.  Beautifully drawn.  None of them won that challenge, though.  Because one of the girls also drew my right hand.  I announced that one to be the winner, though, because - and my logic was sound - what good is having four penises if I don't also have one good hand?

I loved that hand, though.  In the entire history of these classes, only two people have drawn my right hand with enough detail to include the damaged little finger - and both those pictures have happened within weeks of each other.  The previous one was almost exactly one month ago.  I wrote about it in a posting called Punk cock cake. 

Once the class was finished, I called for a taxi to take me home again, then I was invited to sit in the kitchen and wait for it.  I was given a beer and sat at the kitchen table, while some of the girls cleaned up around me.  It suddenly occurred to me that for the entire duration of the art class, I was completely comfortable standing naked in a room full of strangers - chatting, flirting, posing, setting up challenges, deducting points, letting them draw on me and throw glitter at me.  And then, when it was all over, I felt self-conscious and shy.  All my charm (such as it is) had deserted me and I'd completely  run out of things to say.

I found that quietly amusing, though.  I appreciated the irony of it.