I have never wammed with paint yet, though I did go as far as buying a gallon of red school paint a couple months ago. Just waiting on the right time and place for that to happen. I love so many of the paint pics I see here on the UMD, and I want in on it! A few months ago a co-worker and I were having lunch and talking about all sorts of things. She mentioned a gay bar near us that hosts paint parties a few times a year. She was going to keep me posted so that we could go next time it came around. Sadly, that bar changed owners and any leads I had to a paint party in close proximity to where I lived went cold.

Fast forward to last night... An old college friend that I used to dorm with was in town and we met up with another girl to go bar hopping. The first bar we went to had an awesome live reggae band that mixed in a little dubstep or something, it was dope! A Dead cover band was playing down the road and they wanted to go (I rather dislike the Grateful Dead) but we left to go check it out. One girl mentioned that the club downstairs was hosting a paint party. WHAT!!!! Of course I started asking a million questions. They could see how excited I was and I begged them to go with me but they did not want to. So we split up with plans to meet back in a while at the first bar with the live reggae. If I had known I'd be at a paint party I would have dressed for it but this was completely unexpected and I just had to take advantage of the opportunity and not worry about what I would change into after or that I wasn't wearing any white. I was dressed pretty low-key, wearing a DKNY black hooded zip up that is not heavy enough to be labeled a sweatshirt, not sure what to call it. It is black and has some cool reflective detail that almost glows when car lights flash on it. Also has some shiny black jacket material sewn into the sleeves that goes down the length of each arm. That is the hottest part about it and why I purchased it. Underneath I had on a local band t-shirt, also black with white screen printing. My favorite pair of medium blue denim jeggings that are more cotton than jeans. White socks and, I just have to laugh at the irony of this... sneakers I just got in the mail last week to be used in a custom where I am going to get slimed. They are high-top nike's that are so awesome I've been wearing them every chance I get since I got them. And for a little pizzazz... my fluorescent pink dog chain collar.

After paying my cover and getting my bracelet, I just slowly walked around, scoping the situation. Most people had hardly any paint on them, but a good number had a bunch of splashes on them, and fewer had enough where it was in there hair a bit. This place was packed. The music was actually rather awesome. It was like nice techno club kind of stuff with a hip hop tip to it. I don't think that there were many people over the age of 21. Not saying there is anything wrong with that, but it was definitely a super young crowd. So I'm looking around to see where the paint is. Where is it? I don't see any being thrown around. Eventually, I got closer to the DJ station, and to the right of it there was a table with four tin trays on it. I could see that there was once paint in it, but there was only enough left stuck to the edges to coat your finger if you really tried hard. I saw the residue of really bright pink, a fluorescent yellow, and a pastel purple. So I'm just standing by this paint table, and people are going up to it and then walking away because there is no paint. OK, well I'm the type of girl that likes to make things happen, so I go behind the table and see that underneath there are about six 5 gallon buckets with lids. I bend down to open one up. Some dude came over and asked if I worked there. "No" I replied. He definitely did work there and he said I can't touch the paint. We were both bent down, balancing on our ankles behind the table, shouting into each others ears to try and hear what the other was saying. "Look, this is a paint party, where's the paint?" I asked. "We're running low" he said. "OK, look, I just want to get covered in paint". By this point I had already took the lid of of the bucket closest to me and could see that it was about 1/4 full with bright pink paint. There was some abandoned keg cups half filled with ice on the table top. I poured the ice from one cup into another, leaving an empty cup for me. I showed it to him and asked him if I could just fill it with the paint and pour it over my head. "Sure" he said. So I dipped the cup as far down into the bucket as I could and managed to get it completely filled to the brim. I just looked at him, half smiling, and poured it over the top of my head taking care to get the back of my hair covered and moving the cup around in a slow circle so that the paint also ran down the side of my face. Naturally, the excess of paint on the top of my head started to run down the front of my face and I had to do a finger swipe to clear one of my eyes. It was pretty freaking exhilarating! "Ok, one more". "No!" he said. "C'mon I can't just have one color, I need one more color and then I'll be done I promise". He did not seem to be changing his mind. "You can pour it over my head". So he opens up the next bucket and it was some dark blue paint or something and we both quickly decided it was not the color for me, lol. The next bucket was the fluorescent yellow paint. He took the cup and filled it only half way. Oh well, I'll take it! He quickly poured it over my head and I can't really remember so many details about it. I must have thanked him, and then I was just standing there, watching the dance floor taking it all in. I went to the middle of the floor and could see that everyone was staring, which of course I love! It was really just too crowded and hyper for me there so I retreated and walked around a bit before ducking into the bathroom to see myself in the mirror. Yeah, I was good and covered alright. Definitely the most covered out of everyone in the place, though it was all just concentrated on my head and shoulders. I wiped around the paint on my face to make it a little more attractive looking and ran my fingers through my hair to smooth it out a bit and make it as long and straight as possible. I was quite pleased with myself. I roamed around and by this point they had filled up the tins back up with paint. People were grabbing handfuls and throwing it at each other for the most part. I grabbed a couple handfuls and rubbed it over my jeggings and the front of my hoodie.

I knew it was a bit early and my friends were probably not at our meet up bar yet, but I was kind of done with this scene so took to the streets. Tons of stares and smiles from people. Oh yeah, and I scared the people on line, all pristine and dressed in white, waiting to get into the paint party. "Don't worry, you have to work at it to get this covered" I reassured them as passing by. When I got to the meet up bar, my home base with lots of familiar faces, I was definitely out of place being all covered in paint but everyone was cool about it. A few asked to touch my hair and of course I obliged. One dude was taking as much paint as he could from my locks and was rubbing it into his hair. Good times! Multiple people asked me if I had just seen Gwar or if I was Carrie (from the horror movie) lol. I went back and forth between the three bars and met back up with my friends and found other really good friends that were also out and was having a really great time. Eventually, I got a chill in me from being wet. I t was about 50 degrees out, so not so bad but it was also raining a bit on and off and I was wet. Speaking of wet, the paint I rubbed on my jeggings traveled up to my crotch, as will happen when walking around a bunch. I really couldn't tell if it was the paint that traveled up or if I was just wet from being turned on a bunch. I wound up ducking out to my friend's apartment that lives 2 blocks away to quickly shower. When I took off my clothes you could see that the paint did soak through the cotton of the jeggings. It was bright pink, and the inside of the jeggings is a very light blue and you could see that, yes, in fact, the paint did travel all the way up to my crotch. I got back into my jeggings and t-shirt but my hoodie was way too messed up to put back on so I grabbed my friends Columbia windbreaker which I can't complain about Went back to the reggae bar and continued to hang out for another couple of hours, all cleaned up for the most part. So yeah, that was my first paint party and my first WAM experience with paint at all. I loved the circumstance and the spontaneity of it all. It was wild!