Sunday, October 28, 2012

Going Way Outside My Comfort Zone

Halloween, my favorite holiday!

When my bestest friend J still lived in Maine, we had a blast every Halloween - planning on our costumes, trickORtreating, decorating the house/daycare classrooms, and parties. Oh snap we had fun! 

Then she moved and I went into hermit-mode so I just did Halloween vicariously by watching scary stuff all month, planning out my trickORtreats, and giving out treats the day of.

Then I met my friend L and for the past several years, she's invited me to join her and her circle of friends' Halloween celebrations which has been great! I got to dress up/go to adult parties once again and have a blast with some seriously funny people. One year one of the friends was "hosting" a German bunch of people and they joined right in with the festivities.

This year tho, my friend L was on the fence about celebrating and her circle of friends were all doing separate things, one of which was a pirate-themed party/live band at a local pub. I told L I would go if she did but I was NOT going as a pirate as I already had my costume, really wanted to wear it and wasn't changing. She told me I HAD to be a pirate. I said I did not as my costume was colorful and pirates are colorful and who gives a flyin' F what I wear because it was going to be crowded and everyone would be drunk anyway. She insisted on the pirate costume and ultimately decided against going because 1) she couldn't find or afford a costume and 2) didn't feel like going out. So that meant I wasn't going out because I wasn't going to a pub by myself.

I "vented" about this at work and one of my younger co-workers said "come meet me in Portland at my radio station's big-ass Halloween party!"

Okay - this is so outside my comfort zone- 1) not familiar with where it was and I don't do unfamiliar very well, 2) lots of younger peeps and it's been a VERY long time since I've been out like that, and 3) my co-worker is super pretty and social which are areas I struggle in. But I decided to do it - change my life energy and step outside the Slambo-x and just. do. it. So I did.

I followed my directions, got there on time, parked in the parking garage as trying to find a spot on unfamiliar roads (which meant circling around) was so not happening, met my co-worker A and her friend, got my hand stamped, and swirled right into the beginnings of a party. We had drinks and about an hour later peeps started showing up and man, were there some wild costumes - everything from a Vegas showgirl with massive peacock feathered headdress/tail and rhinestones, all sorts of Disney characters, a Tron made out of cardboard who lit up, a Michael Phelps in only a Speedo and goggles (mmm), a plethora of Zombies (running the gamut to just-thrown-together to movie-worthy), a Hawaiian hula girl under a plastic cover with a hole at the top where she got her drinks delivered to her by her friends, lots of wenches and sluts, a pair of scissors, vampires and werewolves, and a mixed bag for the rest.

I was Japanese anime-like character. I had pounds of blonde fake hair with rainbow colored extensions, rainbow arm-warmers, rainbow leg-warmers, black tutu, major black high heels, and a black top with major cleavage and a rainbow choker. Oh, and fake eye lashes that took me a frickin' half hour to get on right.

I had a good time, I left before my car turned into a pumpkin and I was pooped, my heels tired my ass out. Overall, it was good to go outside my comfort zone. Thanks A!


Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Odd Happening in October

You'd think October, given it's the month of Halloween, couldn't be any weirder than it is.

Well, it got weirder...

I thought animals were supposed to be able to sense when natural events were going to happen or is that an urban, or should I say rural, myth?

So I'm sitting on my couch sort of watching TV with two cats snuggled up on my lap fast asleep.

All of a sudden it's like a huge-ass truck is rumbling by somewhere close coz the house is vibrating on low. Cats = not disturbed.

The vibrating changes to the whole house shaking and this awful noise from the basement like my furnace is preparing to frickin' explode. Cats = finally wake up.

I leap off the couch and like a dumb-ass head for the basement stairs to check on it because IF it was the furnace that would be the place to go. So I basically proved I have to stop yelling at the horror movie chicks because I'm just as dumb-ass as them.

Turned out the furnace is not making the noise, house is still shaking, and the cats = are up and tweaked out because I'm up and tweaked out. Everything stops and my blue glass and other breakables stop rocking in their places.

I throw on some shoes and run over to my next door neighbor's... she's not home, I run across the street and they aren't home... I need to talk to somebody so I run kitty-corner and that neighbor answers the door and we both start talking and saying the same thing at once - "did you feel the shaking, thought it was the furnace, do you think it was an earthquake, I thought I was going crazy" Finally we slow down enough to have a conversation and reassure each other that we are not crazy thinking our furnaces were going to rocket us to the moon.

Later on the news it did say we had a minor one. So much for the animal early warning system in my house.

Cats = not reliable natural disaster predictors.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

My Annual PseudoAuntie Outing

We missed our annual Octoberfestive Outing last year, but this year we made solid plans to go. We had the new farmy place all picked out as our usual place got all big + stuff and went all commercial + touristy and was just no fun anymore. We were all excited and both kiddos had to talk to me on the phone about our outing every time J2 called me with further details.

The Big Day arrived and we were rained out. Slopping two extremely busy kids through the mud and getting soaked in the process was not our idea of a "Day of Fun" so while in the car we immediately switched gears and decided to go to the mecca of Halloweenie-ness!


Come on, LET'S GO!


As you can tell, TJ found some of his kind!


E found a special friend of her own!


J2 got picked on by a ghost!


And I returned the favor!