Costumes

I believe in dressing appropriately for the occasion. If there is a color associated with a holiday, I believe in wearing it. That means green on St. Patrick's Day. Harvest colors for Thanksgiving. Red and/or green for Christmas. I believe in wearing something nice to a wedding. I believe in dressing up for the symphony or the opera. I don't think sweat pants are suitable for the Thanksgiving table.

I believe in costumes.

Trick-or-Treat

When I was younger, my sister, Amy, and I made sure that we plowed through all the neighborhoods, reaping as much candy as possible. We hit every house from the minute the porch lights turned on until past scheduled end time, until every porch light was turned off. We collected pillow cases of candy (though not as much as some of our more ambitious peers). And when we got home, we dumped it all into a giant, collective bowl. The bowl: big, yellow and plastic. It emptied of the good candies first, the chocolates and candy bars, then the licorice and gum drops until finally, the only thing left were those black and orange peanut butter things and the suckers.

We grumbled about putting our candy together, but my mom insisted. Even though Brad and obviously, Mackenzie, couldn't keep up with our feverish pace and didn't collect nearly enough. It didn't seem right that we had to put in all our hard earned candy, when they had only a few suckers to contribute.

That is, we grumbled up until we were too old to participate in Trick-or-Treating. And then we greedily looked forward to the giant yellow communal bowl filled to the brim with the earnings of our younger siblings. Free candy, and we didn't even have to work for it! YES!!!!!!!

Of course, that was the same time my mom decided that the communal bowl didn't have a place in our home anymore. Mark, Brad and Mackenzie all got to take their pillow cases and hide them in their closets, under their beds and in the cupboards.

Amy and I had to beg, bribe and steal the candy. My younger siblings are not often the most generous of kiddos, and after all, they had earned the candy while we had done.... what did we do during high school Halloweens?Anyway, it became a kind of game of how to win the candy from the younger siblings. And a point in our protests against the ill-treatment we suffered being the experimental group of kids. Why did you change your ruling at so (in)convenient a time, Mom? Why?


Now that I'm grown, I can buy candy whenever I want. The bags of trick-or-treating booty have somewhat lost their appeal. In fact, I have a box at work that is filled to the brim, most days, with the good candy, anyway.

Zombie Song

A friend of mine posted this on his blog today, and I've been obsessed with it ever since. It's the best, most catchy, most awesome Halloween/Zombie song of all time.

Masquerade

I'm sad that they didn't play Masquerade at all while I was there! That's a classic, and honestly, the song that I've had in my head every time I've discussed the upcoming masquerade... They should have played it every hour on the hour!

In books and movies and drama pieces everywhere, masquerades are scenes set where chaos, intrigue and basically anything can happen under the ruse of a simple party. The masks give people the anonymity necessary to act upon their passions, create mischief, etc. Masquerades have always seemed to me elaborate and full of pomp and circumstance.

Which is probably why I always thought I wanted to go.

So when Megan invited me to a Masquerade, I said "YES!", and then as my energy levels plummeted throughout the week, I began to wonder what I had agreed to. Plus, the part of the masquerade that has always appealed to me is the romantic side of it, and since we were inviting boys to come with us (because really, there are few boys of my acquaintances that would want to attend) I wasn't sure if I was ready for what I signed up for.

We did find a friend who decided he would come with us; luckily Peter was also the one who found my mask for the evening.

The mask made it difficult to smile, so I looked pissed off most the evening. I wasn't though.

When we first arrived, I was very concerned. We were there almost an hour after it started, and there was hardly anyone there. There were several people who went all out. They were wearing Napoleonic war costumes with masks and Renaissance costumes and I thought, "This is just the event to showcase all the weird people in Provo." (I ignored the fact that if I weren't as worried about appearances, I might just become such a one as them.)

After about a half hour or so, more people started to arrive and the party really started going. We even added people to our group with friends from the ward. The music wasn't horrible (though there was a LOT of Kei$ha, or whatever her name is, and Lady Gaga, and I have a hard time supporting them). And so we danced for most the night.

The masks aren't exactly absorbent. So imagine perspiring while dancing (totally) natural, but with no where for the sweat to go. It collects on the resin of the mask, and you literally feel like your face is melting. You can feel the beads of moisture start from your forehead and then somehow lodge between your brow or the tip of your nose, and there's not place for it to do. It's really, really gross. And hot. And uncomfortable. If I wear the mask -- or considering the price of it, when I wear the mask -- again, I will line it first with something more absorbent than the straight resin that was rubbing against the face all night.

Once the party got started, it was pretty fun. I did spend a lot of time missing my one-song dance party friends, though.

After the dance, we headed over for a little IHOP. I don't think there is another place in Provo/Orem I would rather be late at night when you are extending your evening fun. It's like a ritual. I do wish I had more connections there, though.

Thanks, Megan, for inviting me to tag along and giving me a reason to finally dress up! I think this is my Halloween excursion for the year.

I Love Halloween

The idea came to me out of the blue.

"I want to be a drag queen for Halloween."

Drag queens get to wear crazy make up, crazy clothes, crazy accessories. Really, anything goes and I wanted a part of it. I didn't know how I was going to go about it, and I didn't know who I was going to be going out with - my Halloween cohort from the past two years has been out of the country - but I was going to do it. So I suggested to my roommate Matti... and she ran with the idea.

We spent a couple of weekends watching movies like Victor Victoria and Connie and Carla. Matti watched youtube.com videos demonstrating how to do the make up and we carefully planned out our outfits.

The week of Halloween is usually filled with parties. Everyone wants to throw a party, and they want people to attend their parties and so they throw them on different nights. Our stake combined with a few others and we had a dance at the institute building.

Matti was the resident make-up artist, and since she didn't get off work until 8 p.m., and it takes about an hour to do a full on drag face (at least), we were running a bit late. But that's OK. As I've mentioned before, stake dances aren't really my thing.

Making your eyebrows disappear is not an easy task.

I should have practiced my drag facial expressions. Amy and Matti had it down.

We looked fabulous.

 

Savannah, Matti, Amy and me.

I'm pretty sure Savannah was going crazy. Fajita was not amused.

We got home late, stayed up later... and Saturday, it was hard to get out of bed at all. We were seriously considering bagging the whole party hopping thing for a second night, but in the end, we decided that we better just go.

We had more time to get ready on Saturday, so more thoughts about outfits, and some laziness had us changing up our costumes. Amy had to work.

We met up with my friend Brooke and hit up three parties (and stayed for about 20 minutes at each).

Brooke getting in some Risky Business (she got more comments on her costume than anyone).

Dance party at Lori, Leica and Em's.

Cleopatra and Fajita

Probably the manliest face I managed to pull off.

Margaret, Brooke and Matti. We got to this party just after it had been broken up by the cops!

Probably the best costumes - or the funniest - was this guy and his "companion" who were dressed like sister missionaries. They looked better in drag than we did... then again, it was probably because they looked still so manly.

At the end of the night, Margaret showed her true heroism and tried to stop University Parking from towing away this car. Everyone around Provo hates University Parking, and we were all dying at Margaret's antics and sheer determination. She went as far as sitting on the trunk of the car, but the guy was relentless. He was either going to tow the car with her on the back or call the cops. She finally gave up. But it was the funniest, most awesome part of the evening.

Another trip to Ihop, and this weekend was complete!

Quick Post

I haven't had a lot of time to blog lately, which makes me sad...but despite being very busy, I haven't really had a lot to blog about. My days consist of work...and more work...and then usually some church activity where I am trying to integrate myself in the "new" ward (and have been unsuccessful thus far) or doing stats.

I have taken my first stats test.And I have not checked my score yet.

[Pause, because I've finally remembered to check my score while sitting at the computer...]

Never mind, it looks like there isn't a way to check that on the one of twenty-two (only three) sites that they give you to do this dumb course. Don't worry though, I've emailed the "stattutor" to ask. I really want to know. Well, there is a part of me that doesn't care, but whatever. I am now advancing into a part of the course where I really won't understand anything. William has his work cut out for him.

In other news, now that November is nigh upon us, NEW MOON is as well. Everything they put out makes me just a little bit more excited for the film. I have embedded a series of clips from the trailers and interviews. It should just be on continuous play, so watch it. You'll see one clip that was just released yesterday. It's pretty good. And I definitely know that New Moon will be SO much better than Twilight.

Speaking of which, the guys at work found out that I sort of like Twilight, and have since been quizzing me everyday. I met Wes' wife and she was telling me how he was asking her for trivia questions and was embarrassed to admit that she knew the books well enough to give the questions, and that she knew them herself. I laugh, because I feel the same way. Ah, well...



Halloween hasn't been the same this year as it was last year. We had a party every night last year and all dressed up like nuns and had an awesome time (I don't think I will ever beat the fun I had dancing at the mental hospital) - but this year, I'm so tired. And I don't have a costume. I've been to three parties already (the one we threw on Wednesday, the lame ward party on Thursday -- lame probably because 1)We missed the main activity 2)I still don't feel comfortable in our ward and 3)Not very many people showed up....Also, the fact that our Bishop likes country music and that was what was playing when we arrived...blech -- and then the Omni party last night. Which was fun.) So tonight there is talk about going to Salt Lake, where 1)I don't know anyone 2)I'm still tired and 3)I have millions of things to do. I guess we will see what happens. I have a feeling I am going to be dragged there. Sigh.

Happy Halloween! Amy, I want to see picutres of my little baby gnome! (And you!) Please send them ASAP.