Halloween

Yes, I am wearing socks with my flip-flops. It looks more Japanese, don't you think?

He hates pictures of himself.


I have to say that I'm rather disappointed in myself this Halloween. My costume wasn't that impressive and we didn't really do anything with friends. I was Michaelangelo, the orange ninja turtle, and Tracy was a Brazilian cowboy, a gaucho.

I hate scary things. I refuse to watch scary movies, because even the most innocent of movies have given me nightmares. For example, I had several nightmares about the spiders from Jumanji and the carnivores from the Jurassic Park series. So you'd think that I'd hate Halloween. I will never go to a haunted house, go to a cemetery, or, as I said earlier, watch scary movies. But Halloween isn't all that bad. I like dressing up, being silly, and eating disgusting amounts of candy (I like it, but my stomach does not). When I am coming up with my costume ideas, I try to keep two things in mind: humor and ease.

I like to make people laugh at my costumes, even if it's just for a few seconds. I don't want something I have to explain. These two often are at odds with each other. For example, last year I was a "DEAD manuscript." In the editing field, when the editing changes have been input, the marked up manuscript is no longer new or useful, so we put "DEAD" on it to indicate that it is an old copy. For my costume, I wrote black text and marked over it with red permanent marker and stamped "DEAD" on it. My co-workers laughed, my bosses took pictures, my editing professor proudly showed me off to his colleagues, but I had to explain the joke to everyone else, which killed the joke.

I like to use what I have or spend very little in putting a costume together. While store-bought costumes look more authentic, more time and effort obviously goes into making a costume from scratch or from random pieces. One of my co-workers at the bookstore dressed up as a ghostbuster. Other than the flight suit, he made everything himself: the patches and the pack (made out of an egg carton, vacuum hose, and an old lunch box with a light inside and some green sludge). I think Halloween should be more about creativity and fun than scariness.

On to the next holiday!! Thanksgiving doesn't get neglected in our household!