Halloween is quite possibly my favorite holiday/special day of the year. Christmas is good because you get the sweet smells, delicious treats, and eggnog – but the shopping and the pressure and the crowds take Christmas’ awesomeness down a few notches. Easter is fun because you get the brunches and the pastels, but the religious undertones de-fun the holiday a bit for me (whereas Christmas has nothing to do with religion in my family). Valentine’s Day is good because of the excuses for gift giving and fancy dates, but the overpriced cards and flowers make me a bit stabby.
Halloween, on the other hand, comes with the treats, involves no pressure to shop for overpriced gifts, and includes dressing up as whatever your little heart desires. It truly is all about you on Halloween – whether you’re decorating your house and handing out candy, or decorating your body and getting plastered on cheap beer. Halloween rules.
This year, unfortunately, I managed to catch a horrible cold/flu-type thing three days prior to Halloween. On top of that, my need to save every penny had me rethinking the idea of going out to a party and drinking away my savings. Thus, this Halloween was a wee bit of a bust. On the 31st I went to my parents’ house, carved pumpkins with my Dad, helped my Mom decorate the front foyer, and handed out candy to the cutest little kids I’ve ever seen. It was as though hoards of precious puppies and bunnies and kittens ran up to the door every time I heard “Trick or Treat!”. I could barely contain myself for all of the cute. While we didn’t see that many kids this year (it seems more and more that the kids are going to the mall to trick or treat, which is a shame because then they miss out on the gritty, real Halloween that I remember as a kid), the ones we did see were absolutely adorable. The fuzzy costumes, the confused faces, the tiny voices peeping “thank you”…it was so much fun for me.
After the candy ran out – around 8:00 p.m. – Matt and I had planned to have people over to watch scary movies as a Halloween alternative. It turned out that everyone had other plans – some went to parties, some stayed home, some spent time with their trick or treating children. So Matt and I watched 30 Rock and The Office and were in bed by 10:00 p.m. Perhaps not the most exciting night, but I was happy to get a good sleep.
The next day Meghan and I got together and, after texting back and forth the night before to tell one another about all the awesome costumes we had seen (me, handing out candy, and her, taking her daughter trick or treating), decided to dress up that night for the 10th Anniversary Big Lebowski Costume Jam at the Pyramid. We had been planning on going, but weren’t going to dress up as we hadn’t really gotten costumes together in time. But after seeing everyone else dressed up the night before and getting pumped up about it, we ran around on Saturday afternoon, hitting up Value Village and other second hand stores, putting together costumes.
We both decided to dress as The Dude. I originally wanted to go as Maude Lebowksi, but it was too difficult to find a green robe. Plus, my hair isn’t red, and the red hair is really what makes Maude. Meghan wore a house coat, shorts, and a t-shirt and borrowed slippers from her Mom. I found some Dude-like pants and borrowed a hoody and t-shirt from my brother. He also lent us his Dude-esque sunglasses, and I found a hair clip like the one The Dude uses to keep his hair out of his face when he’s bowling. Our last minute costumes were pretty decent, considering that we only had an afternoon to put them together – and given that it was the day after halloween, so the stores were pretty picked over.
There was a bit of anxiety that afternoon, however, as we decided to start our venture with a joint and some lunch. After consuming both, the thought came to us: what if nobody else was dressed up? What if everyone that goes to the Pyramid already dressed up the night before and didn’t want to schlep around trying to find an appropriate Lebowski-related costume? We were planning on going and not dressing up…what if everyone else thinks the same? It was a panic-stricken few hours, but we decided to suck it up and dress up anyway. When we got to the Pyramid, Meghan peeked inside and exclaimed with a sigh of relief “they’re all in costume!” Thank god.
The Toe
Jesus
The Ringer
It was a really fun night – particularly because we were both so damn comfortable. Wearing pajamas to the bar is pretty much the best thing I’ve ever done, and it’s a wonder neither of us thought to do it sooner. When you don’t have to worry about adjusting clothes or resting your feet, the night goes by much smoother as you can concentrate on actually having a good time. A novel idea, right?! It was awesome. We drank too much and danced like idiots, and the only thing I regretted that night was not listening to Meghan, who tried to get me on stage when they asked people to come up and answer Lebowski trivia questions. I was too shy to go up, but then answered every single question correctly from the audience. Goddamnit, I could have won that bowling pin-shaped pipe! Next time.
Filed under: Awesome | Tagged: booze, family, friends, nightlife, photos
