Notes on last night's gig (long)


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Posted by Nick on August 24, 2001 at 14:53:26:

Well, last night i had my first bridal henna party!
I didn't do the bride... the artist who hired me did her. But i did
the wedding party and a couple other guests. I was well prepared with
terped up henna. When we got there 45 minutes late (stuck in
traffic!) they weren't even ready for us... apparently they had
relatives from all over the place, and they had booked the whole
hotel for the purpose. There were flower decorations and statues
everywhere! So when we walked in, there was a mad rush by the Groom's
mother to gather folks to be hennaed... We started right away, and I
didn't stop once for the next 3 hours! Everybody was having both
hands done, and i was working lightning speed. I did 12 hands total,
which is more than i've ever done in one sitting.
About halfway through, this one girl who had started her own henna
asked me to finish it... "what the heck" i thought, and finished it
for her. She wasn't in the wedding party, so she wasn't on the
priority list though. She had complex designs too, with cuffs and
everything. She even grabbed the bottle once to 'fix' the design! I
finally finished it, but then she wanted me to do the other hand! I
made up some excuse, like i didn't have enough henna or something,
and found myself someone else to work on. But she kept badgering. I
HAD to finish the bride and groom's mothers, so i really could not
stop do do her other hand! Every time i finished another hand, she
would say, 'oh, i'll go next ok?' like she was telling me, not asking
me. Eventually i just had to talk to the other artist i was working
with, who was really in charge. She just said do it and be done with
it, and you'll still get paid for it. So i just did a crappy job, so
the skill didn't match the other hand. It wasn't too bad, but
sloppier than the others. BUT But but-- she wanted the backs of her
hands too! Now i was really aggravated, so i just said "look, i have
to finish the wedding party." and promptly hennaed the Groom's
mother.
I was surprised, because normally i would have been totally useless
after working so long, but i was fine. My thumb wasn't ready to fall
off from squeezing the bottle for 2 and a half hours! yay!
There was so much going on the whole time, and i didn't look up for
one second of it! There were so many people walking around, sitting
on cushions on the floor, and cracking up every so often. Eventually
they put on some loud indian pop music, which was very interesting
because every song had some bit of an American pop song mixed in! It
was weird to hear "blue" by Eifel 65 in Hindi!
Eventually i had to leave, around 8:45. The other artist was just
starting the bride's hands, having worked on her feet and a few other
guests for the rest of the time.
We took plenty of pictures, so i'll post some on my website when they
get developed!
~Nick, who hopes he didn't leave anything out....

 


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