We went to a party in Salem Saturday night. There are no words for how crazy-awesome this experience was. Going to Salem around Halloween by itself is memorable; going to this event while on cold medicine is mind-blowing.
I don't know if I'd approach the general Salem/Peabody area around this time of year ever again. That said, I am happy and thankful for the opportunity this year, because I can now say that I've experienced a Salem Halloween, despite my fear of crowds and being an utter horror sissypants. Every New England person should do this once.
Saw some pretty amazing costumes. Our favorites included a running Forrest Gump, a couple of Waldoes, Wesley from "The Princess Bride", Darkness from "Legend", some awesome dragons, a startlingly accurate Michael Jackson, the witches from "Hocus Pocus", and a refreshing shortage of Snookies. There were a couple of Neytiris whose costumes were better than the official costumes, a bunch of very good looking pirates and princesses, some terrific takes on Disney characters -- you know, it might be easier at this point to say that the friends of our friends who hosted the party are mostly theater people. I learned this year that theater people are good to know on Halloween.
I also learned some things regarding costumes (like Jack Skellington, I have a wealth of plans for *next* Halloween, a year early):
1) If you learn that you are attending a party in Salem, you must assume you will be parading through town. So if you learn this exactly seven hours before you will be attending said party and parading around the town, show your creativity the door and spring for a store-bought costume. Trust me when I say, it may be expensive but it's worth it. Go for something unusual if you must, but go store-bought.
2) If you ignore this advice, you will experience the joys and wonders of having to explain to everyone what you are, after spending those seven hours recycling an old sweatsuit into, say, a Robot Unicorn Attack costume.
So I think, in order to prepare for such a situation next year, I will try to hit up the sales today. I've noticed -and this is something that has been happening to me since college at least- the more effort I get to put into a costume, the (a) less likely I will get to show it off and/or (b) the more people will have no idea who/what I am AND/or (c) the more likely it is that I will be the only person who spent more than five minutes of effort on their costume. Now, thankfully, this didn't happen this year. Instead, I had the opposite problem that I also often suffer: great party, crappy and/or incomprehensible costume. (To be fair, the one time in college where I thought it would be genius to show up in the shabby, shedding, grass-stained retired version of my high school's mascot costume still wins.)
Yes, this is rambling. I don't call these posts holiday/convention hangovers for nothing.
So continuing the Halloween things I learned this year:
3) Couples costumes can backfire. Badly. This is directly proportionate to how easy it is to understand your costume if your mate isn't around. See the first Halloween episode of "South Park" for a demonstration.
4) Pandora (the customizable online radio thingie) can be a crapshoot. Add "Thriller" and she'll assume you want a Michael Jackson marathon. Add "Halloween" by the Misfits and you'll be assumed to want a punk mix. Add "Monster Mash" and... you know what, don't add "Monster Mash". Otherwise you will learn about all the lovely "Monster Mash" cash-ins. There is a reason why you didn't know about them.
5) You can just buy pumpkin seeds. I know. My mind is blown too.
6) Avoid glitter. Also, from an unrelated craft project that I worked on earlier, avoid feathers and doll hair. And any project that combines the two.
7) Having done a mini-marathon via Netflix instant watch, I need to do a retrospective "Invader Zim" appreciation post. Given my track record, you should expect it, say, around Easter.
8) Cats enjoy playing with unicorn tails.
I hope everyone had a safe and happy Halloween. Now, I think it's time to get behind my moody sewing machine...
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Sketch of the Day! Sketchy memories!
