whoo! that was one of the best halloweens. good parties, good costumes. it's worth chronological.

started early like a friday (the end of daylight savings makes getting up to take a train at 7 more bearable) at shhs where they are not allowed to wear costumes. isn't that ridiculous? i saw a bunch of kids with striped socks, and stephanie had a witch dress, but very few actual costumes. the kids were much more enthusiastic and involved than they have been, probably buzzing holiday energy. in my 'real' class, our learning from las vegas discussion was predictably mediocre (i did about a third of the talking,) but whatever, it's the freakin' weekend.

i did some domesticity, then met rebecca in the shop to start getting serious about costumery. i borrowed several things, of which i ended up using a green unitard (i'm not entirely sure that it wasn't one of the ones made infamous by kim a.), some yellow biker shorts, long shiny green gloves and some excellent shiny olive green fabric for a cape. went out into the world with herr von bisno for further ingredients, and although i didn't find anything, it was fun to poke around in the mall finding wifebeaters and earrings for adam to be eminem, and a sheet for angela to be a ghost. meanwhile, rebecca was failing to find any candy corn at genuardi's. but we figured we'd have our party anyway.

and so, the flat got cleaner than it's been since we've lived here (!) my room straightened and swept and posters and lights hung; the living room finally in a nice arrangement, complete with working albeit kinda tinny speakers, integration of the porch, and oramel ("she's not a peacock, she's more of an emblem.") at the other end, we removed the recycling, hung more lights, mulled cider, and bowled snax. and had dinner. and amazing, we were even ready well before start time. an almost entirely nostress endeavor, and it continued that way too.

what a turnout!! we had hef flanked by bunnies, two sexy greek philosophers, herself in high school, corduroy chaplin, the french blob, a flapper, a semi-scandalous tie rack, a bonafide swat cheerleader and entourage, a chicago murderess, a truly terrifying s&m duo, consciousness-raising girl! with alice cooper, em as mentioned, a wood nymph and her surprise cousin, a princess, a whole host of harry potter characters, best of which was the heir of slytherin (i thought there were two hermiones, but i guess one was actually part of the buffy bunch), a trio of beatle girls (rita, pam, lucy w/ one real diamond), d. versace, some russian grammar weirdness, a bunch of in-jokes and bad puns, and even more things that i can't remember or didn't comprehend at the time. rebecca and i spent much of the party assembling our own outfits (our hosting obligations were mostly to help other folks find costume pieces among our stuff, and mix the occasional drink.) she was characteristically amazing as clockwork alex, a very inventive and detailed costume. as for me, i started with the unitard, shorts, gloves and cape as mentioned, added sparkly eyelashes and blue corkscrewed pipecleaner antennae to the big green fauxkleys i got on 14th street (a la sager last year - in fact they were the selfsame pipecleaners), gelled my hair with a pair of molded, upsticking pigtail bumps, spiritgummed an olive beetle insignia to my chest (designed by one of the bunnies who doubles as a "budding entymologist"), and finally painted my face and neck with some swirlies and dividing lines. i was a bug superhero, and impressively i was never really called on to explain it beyond that; to delineate my superpowers or anything. in fact, most people got "bug superhero" without being told. basically, the costumes at our party were almost uniformly excellent.

the 'official' halloween party was no slouch either. we headed over with the remaining guests around 11:30, through the lovely evening into the broiling basement. i couldn't see very much through my sunglasses (so i danced a lot with them just above or below the bridge of my nose), which kind of made it a more holistic sensory experience. for some reason i really enjoyed the music. i got to dance with an old friend for "c'mon eileen." at some point i collapsed next to zoe, with my stomach a little upset (too much whiskey'n'lemonade?), and stopped enjoying the party as actively, but it was still nice. walked home legal, and fell asleep with playthroughs, blue lights, and my big clean room.

if you want me for your girl
all you have to do is see
that you're not the boy for me