today's highlight

Today I had my first taste of fame. Sort of.

I was asked to dress up as Bad Kitty and meet with Bad Kitty's creator Nick Bruel to film some promo footage.

It was a lot of fun and quite surreal. When I was getting into the costume most of the people on the floor got really excited and once I'd donned the head I looked out through the mesh eyes to see a row of people all with huge smiles on their faces aiming iphones at me to snap pix.

I never realized that the life inside a mascot or cartoon character was so interesting. The creative (read dark) part of me was thinking of all sorts of trouble to get into dressed as Bad Kitty but there was something in the way these people's faces radiated that made me realize some people are not that far removed from their inner 5 year old.

Nick told a mascot story. Back in college a friend of his worked as a mascot for a fastfood restaurant. The guy dressed as a lion. A little boy ran up to the lion, grabbed it by the leg and asked: will you eat me?

Now you need to understands its kind of hard to hear inside the costume and mascots don't generally speak, we're left to gesture.

The lion shook his head slowly no. He watched the boy's reaction: his eyes welled up with tears and the boy ran off.

Later someone approached the guy and said that the little boy had asked: do you like me?

I'm telling you the life of a mascot has a dark side.