Halloween 2008
Let me tell you about my Halloween this year. During college I never really cared about Halloween. I definitely never dressed up. The only two Halloweens I can remember are Boo at the Zoo my Senior year and Carlotta street my Junior year (coincidently, that's my favorite Tom-related story and 4th-to-favorite Grace-related story).
But ever since I started getting into Halloween, I really get into it. Like everything else in my life, I have very strict rules about my costume.
1) It has to be a character. No generic "vampire" or "hobo." I want people to look at my costume and go "Look, it's Chester A. Arthur, our 21st president!" It has to be a specific person/celebtiry/tv character.
2) I want to be the only one with that particular costume. There's a fine line between "unique" and "obscure." You run the risk of not having anyone know who you are (I mean, who really knows what Chester A. Arthur looks like? Or the fact that he was our 21st president? I only know because of Die Hard 3). I want one of those costumes that no one would think of, but the minute they see it they go "I should have thought of that."
So with that in mind I decided on my costume and made it myself. My character wasn't that obscure, but unique enough so that I couldn't buy it in stores. It took about 2 or 3 days a week for 3 weeks to put everything together, but to me it looked bad-ass. I was proud of my costume.
But no one else had seen it. Would they like it? Would they even know who I was supposed to be?
Also, before we went out me and my friends made some predictions. We expected the most popular costumes to be the Joker for guys, and Sarah Palin for girls. Here are the final tallies (by my count), and they came out a little surprising:
18 Jokers, 11 Where's Waldos, 5 Sarah Palins, 4 Snow Whites, and 4 Papa Smurfs (of which one of the members of my group was dressed)
The two biggest surprises were the number of Micheal Phelp's. I counted 16, which I didn't expect at all. The other big surprise concerned one of my friends. He dressed as Quailman (Doug's alter-ego on the cartoon). I thought it was cool, and very original. Turns out I was wrong. There were 9 other Quail-men, at least.
For every one of the people I went with that night, there was a doppleganger. There was a copy of everyone...2 Papa Smurfs, 2 Snow Whites, 2 Abe Lincolns. But there was only 1 of this guy:
I was very proud of my uniqueness. Plus, tons of people recognized me. While I was on Carlotta, every couple minutes someone would shout "Monarch! Duuuude!" or, "Duuude!!! It's the Monarch!" This is in stark contrast of last year when people kept confusing my Riddler costume for the Joker (despite me standing right next to a guy dressed like the Joker.)
So I had a great time. I got to hang out, see some people I hadn't seen in a while, and inflated my ego enough to sustain me for the rest of 2008.
And with that, up up and away!!!
But ever since I started getting into Halloween, I really get into it. Like everything else in my life, I have very strict rules about my costume.
1) It has to be a character. No generic "vampire" or "hobo." I want people to look at my costume and go "Look, it's Chester A. Arthur, our 21st president!" It has to be a specific person/celebtiry/tv character.
2) I want to be the only one with that particular costume. There's a fine line between "unique" and "obscure." You run the risk of not having anyone know who you are (I mean, who really knows what Chester A. Arthur looks like? Or the fact that he was our 21st president? I only know because of Die Hard 3). I want one of those costumes that no one would think of, but the minute they see it they go "I should have thought of that."
So with that in mind I decided on my costume and made it myself. My character wasn't that obscure, but unique enough so that I couldn't buy it in stores. It took about 2 or 3 days a week for 3 weeks to put everything together, but to me it looked bad-ass. I was proud of my costume.
But no one else had seen it. Would they like it? Would they even know who I was supposed to be?
Also, before we went out me and my friends made some predictions. We expected the most popular costumes to be the Joker for guys, and Sarah Palin for girls. Here are the final tallies (by my count), and they came out a little surprising:
18 Jokers, 11 Where's Waldos, 5 Sarah Palins, 4 Snow Whites, and 4 Papa Smurfs (of which one of the members of my group was dressed)
The two biggest surprises were the number of Micheal Phelp's. I counted 16, which I didn't expect at all. The other big surprise concerned one of my friends. He dressed as Quailman (Doug's alter-ego on the cartoon). I thought it was cool, and very original. Turns out I was wrong. There were 9 other Quail-men, at least.
For every one of the people I went with that night, there was a doppleganger. There was a copy of everyone...2 Papa Smurfs, 2 Snow Whites, 2 Abe Lincolns. But there was only 1 of this guy:
I was very proud of my uniqueness. Plus, tons of people recognized me. While I was on Carlotta, every couple minutes someone would shout "Monarch! Duuuude!" or, "Duuude!!! It's the Monarch!" This is in stark contrast of last year when people kept confusing my Riddler costume for the Joker (despite me standing right next to a guy dressed like the Joker.)
So I had a great time. I got to hang out, see some people I hadn't seen in a while, and inflated my ego enough to sustain me for the rest of 2008.
And with that, up up and away!!!