Dragon*Con might only be once a year, but I try to get my weird kicks in whenever I can.  Halloween‘s an obvious choice, but Durham–being its fun, funky self–provides plenty of opportunities to nerd out a bit.  This past weekend my college friend Nora was visiting, and I did my best to show her all the quirks that Durham had to offer.  Luckily the Scrap Exchange, our local non-profit creative re-use center that provides aisle after aisle of stuff that you can turn into crafty fun, was having its annual Scrap a Go-Go benefit at Motorco, and the theme was 60s science fiction and space.  The night promised food trucks, bands, a make and take station, and a silent auction.  Also, costumes were encouraged.  I’m a huge fan of Scrap Exchange (sort of a crafter’s dream, really), and also space, and also food trucks, so to Scrap a Go-Go we went!

None of us really had any costumes, so I just threw on some green eyemakeup and green lipstick and a Star Trek pin and loaned some Star Trek earrings to Nora.  We figured we’d make some space accessories once we got to Motorco.

The Scrap Exchange had set up a number of tables and barrels with tin foil, plastic lab equipments, cut up pool noodles, scissors, tape and many other weird, “spacey” things with which one could make a space accessory.  Nora made a space bonnet of awesomeness, Jon made these rocket shoulder things that at one point ended up on his head.  I just made a head band because I am bad at crafting things like this and also I had green lip stick, so I felt like I was representing.  We spent an inordinate amount of time crafting, because making things is awesome.

We spent much of the night wandering around in our awesome space costumes, listening to the bands, working on more costumes, eating food truck food, watching Awesome White People Dancing, and generally reveling in the goodness that is Durham.

Since Nora and I bonded in our wild and crazy college days, we have many photos that are look like the ones below–just, minus the green alien makeup.

See, told you they ended up on his head.

And of course, some fantastic people watching.  Because this is Durham, after all.

A great night: some Durham, some costumes, some weirdness, some non-profit support.  I bid on a Crossfit package at the silent auction and I won it, so it looks like I’ll be boot camping soon enough oi vey.

What do y’all do to get your costume/nerdy kicks when you aren’t at Dragon*Con?  It is a looooooong year, and we all have to have our ways of coping!  Let me know how you cope in the comments.