Dressing Up In Costume

"I knew I would grow up and wear a costume one day,

and that's exactly what happened.

-- Cassandra Peterson

Self portrait 11-2-14

"Every day each of us wakes up,

reaches into drawers and closets,

pulls out a costume for the day 

and proceeds to dress in a style

that can only be called preposterous."

-- Mary Smich

Abe, Charlie, Frank and Hermione 11-2-14

Last night was our neighborhood's trick or treat.

As we do every Halloween, we all dressed up in costumes to pass out candy to the little goblins and ghouls who traipsed around our cul de sac.

I was Charlie Chaplin. My husband was Abe Lincoln. Leo was a Frankenstein's monster. And Mackenna was Hermione Granger.

We didn't get many takers for our treats, but we looked good.

Ridiculous. But good.

Afterwards, Leo, Mackenna and I went to three different stores, in costume, to buy whipped cream and chocolate sauce for our post-Trick or Treat pancake supper.

We drew a few curious looks, but mostly I think people were super jealous that we three had the courage to be having that much fun while they were stuck being boring old regular people.

Actually, courage didn't have a damn thing to do with it.

Even though we were in costumes, we were really just being ourselves.

We just happened to have a good excuse.

Tiny Trick Or Treaters

"Halloween was confusing.

All my life my parents said, 'Never take candy from strangers.'

and then they dressed me up and said, 'Go beg for it.'" 

-- Rita Rudner

Lego mini Stormtrooper and C-3PO trick or treating 10-31-14

"So when I open the door on Halloween, 

I am confronted by three or four imaginary heroes, 

such as G.I. Joe, Conan the Barbarian and Oliver North,

who would look very terrifying except that they are three feet tall

and facing in random directions.

They stand there silently for several seconds

before an adult voice hisses from the darkness behind them:

'Say Trick or treat!'"

-- Dave Barry

Lego mini Stormtrooper and C-3PO trick or treating 10-31-14

"Trick or Treat isn't just some phrase 

you chant mindlessly like The Lord's Prayer.

It's an oral contract."

-- Bart Simpson

Happy Halloween!

Halloween Decorations

"Nature is a Haunted House -- but Art --

a House that tries to be haunted."

-- Emily Dickinson

Bird house with Lego Wicked Witch of the East legs 10-30-14

"Proof of our society's decline 

is that Halloween has become 

a broad daylight event for many."

-- Robert Kirby

I don't decorate for holidays.

Well, barely. I'm not a total Grinch.

At Christmas, I let the guys decorate a tree and hang up the stockings, but I don't help.

For Halloween, we carve pumpkins, but that's it.

Otherwise, nada. Nothing. Zip. Zero. Zilch.

I just don't enjoy decorating my home. I hate the fuss. I hate the clutter. I hate having all that extra shit competing for space. It makes me feel closed in and claustrophobic and anxious in my own house.

Holiday decorating seriously fengs with my shui.

I do enjoy other people's holiday decorations, however. Especially the Halloween kind.

The more elaborate, imaginative, scarier, gorier, spookier, creepier, funnier, cleverer and sillier, the better-er.

Around here, gravestones, skeletons, cobwebs and giant inflatable M&M vampires are becoming as ubiquitous as Christmas lights and Nativity sets.

It always gets me how a house known for its tastefully elegant Christmas displays will, come October, have a full-on grave yard scene on the front lawn, with severed heads and tombstones and empty coffins and bony corpse hands clawing up through the mulch, complete with screams and other haunted house sound effects.

Anyhoo.

Halloween is tomorrow.

I will be in costume.

My home, however, will not.

Carving Pumpkins

"Only the knife knows what goes on 

in the heart of a pumpkin."

-- Simone Schwarz-Bart

Carved pumpkin 10-28-14

I missed out on family pumpkin carving Saturday because I was getting a tattoo.

What kind of mother does that make me?

Anyway, the kids saved one of the pumpkins for me, so I carved mine last night.

This year I went a little non-traditional with my Jack-O-Lantern and instead of just cutting out triangular openings, I scraped off the skin and then carved away the flesh using my clay sculpting tools.

That sounds so violent.

I didn't map out the face first or anything. I just kind free-balled and made it up as I went along.

It was my first time trying this technique. I don't think I did too bad for a rookie. 

Anyway, this is it.