Boo!

So the picture I have up on Facebook today for Throw Back Thursday is the Halloween costume I wore my sophomore year of high school. Much to the chagrin of my locker mate. "Why are you dressed up?" was how she greeted me that morning, "Because it's Halloween, why aren't you?" was my reply.

We weren't locker mates for much longer after that. The friendship had already suffered more hits than it could really sustain. I was just not going to be who she needed me to be and had proven over and over again that I had no use in trying. Although we actually did keep a lower key friendship of sorts up, and she is the only person to have signed my yearbook all four years. I think there was a part of her that felt like maybe I could still be saved. The problem was I didn't really feel like I was lost at the time.

The year before I had worn a French Maid Costume and my best friend had worn a black cat one. We got them at a ballet studio. You could get the base parts cheaply there and just add them to leotards and tights and a few handmade extras and BOOM! costume. Which for us was the important part, not a lot of money. The one in the picture was similar. The collar you can see and the jester's hat were the costume. I made a matching skirt and shoes and wore it all over a green leotard and white tights. Cheap costume.

A few years later I discovered the joys of Goodwill for costumes. Senior year when I was a vampire I bought a black dress that was, let's say a little snug up top, cut some slits in the front and paired that with an inexpensive cloak and a band of lace to cover up a bit of the running over cups. Added some white makeup and red marks for the neck and Ta Da! Costume. We even made a grand entrance with me in a coffin and my best friend dressed as Morgana who would be "raising the dead", we had a whole theme. (drama kids)

See a week before the boy I was interested in had dressed as a vampire for a party he was going to. He stopped by another party I was at before heading to his costume party, we spent a little bit of time together, he left. So for this one I was going to be a newly made vampire. Rocking enough cleavage to finally snag the boy in vampire costume. Except he didn't show up. He went to the Entertainer's party instead of the Drama party. So I spent the night alone pining...or I moved on to a new victim. It was one of those.

Though I did end up snagging the vampire a few weeks later and he got to see the dress from the costume when it was re-purposed into a sorceress the next year. And we used the cape for a variety of costumes over the next few years. Undead love never dies?

We did a few parties as adults, had a few places of work where you dressed up for the holiday, but mostly it shifted over the years to being about C and what he was going to be, and taking him trick-or-treating. I used to decorate the house pretty heavily. Did outside spppoooookkkyyy stuff and even played music to greet the kids when they would come. I love seeing the little ones in their costumes! But now we don't get a lot of kids in our neighborhood. Maybe a dozen in a good year and I got tired of chasing my decorations down when the wind would carry them away so I stopped. And then I pared down to just the few decorations I really love inside the house. And costumes for us have gone the way to a few pairs of festive earrings. It's just something that has been put aside.

We could get dressed up and go out but I don't think Brent wants to risk me lecturing someone dressed as a sexy girl scout as to how inappropriate that costume is and how fucking creepy any dude who thinks 7 year old fetish wear is...so for the most part we aren't big Halloween people anymore. Which is so weird. I would never have guessed that I would be the one to pass on Halloween. But the holiday has changed. Sure you still see some people who do something creative and I still LOVE that. But mostly you get people who buy completely pre-made costumes and don't add a bit to them to make them better or more interesting. You get women who dress like fairy tale hookers, men who find new and odd ways to make you look at their fake dicks and everyone drinks way too much. It's not about creativity and fun anymore. It's about dressing trashy and getting trashed. The holiday has changed. Or maybe I just have.

I guess my locker mate just needed to wait a few decades...