Halloween

Halloween is by far my favorite holiday. I love that there are no cultural or religious differences that exclude some people or force others to participate. There's nothing one is "supposed to do" and no age where you're expected to stop being silly. Plus, costumes are fun! I love getting dressed up and seeing how creative other people get. So this year I decided to do it up right and go to Ohio University (not to be confused with The Ohio State University of football fame). OU is famous for its Halloween celebration, and the reputation is rightly deserved. The entire little town of Athens, OH, was on its feet and on the street. There was a party in literally every house and apartment building, and thousands of people were crowding the streets talking and dancing to the live bands. Almost everyone was dressed in their Halloween best and most of them were pretty well buzzed. Comparatively, our group was pretty sober, which allowed an even more hilarious perspective on the spectacle.

I was dressed as Waldo from "Where's Waldo?", and it was a fantastic re-creation if I may say so. In addition to the shirt, glasses, and body/face, which I already had, a friend knitted me the beanie hat with the poof on top and I made myself a red-and-white striped cane out of a dowel and some shiny spray car paint. I really enjoyed the unanticipated "audience participation" aspect of the costume, where about every 20 feet someone would get all excited and yell "I FOUND YOU!" My costume made a lot of people happy that night. The friend I was visiting (only one guest per OU student to try and contain the revelry) was dressed as Poison Ivy a la Uma Thurman in "Batman Forever." She put some thought and work into it; her costume was hand-made and pretty intricately detailed. Many of the men and several groups had similarly original ideas. My favorites were:

Dudes: (1) AIM Buddy Icon, (2) Rubik's Cube, (3) Optimus Prime, (4) Keg (with the tap coming out of a silver helmet), (5) "Shamed" Guy (who looked like he just woke up after a rough night of drinking to find his friends had written all over his face. Also hilarious for a spot-on Matt Foley impression.)

Groups (mixed gender): (1) Beer Pong Game (garbage cans turned into Solo cups, and a ping-pong ball), (2) Tetris Game (with all the different shape blocks), (3) HANK Squad (from the Starbucks commercial where the band follows a guy around singing his name to "Eye of the Tiger" to get him pumped up in the morning. They all had "HANK" T-Shirts, signs and sang along with a boombox. Got the crowd involved too!), (4) Pirate Ship (standard pirate costumes, but all traveling together in a giant cardboard ship!)

For the women, however, the general rule seemed to be "it doesn't matter what your costume is, as long as you look like a ho!" Other than one Audrey Hepburn and my friend Poison Ivy, I was disappointed with the general lack of creativity here. But hey, I'm not here to judge. If I was a state-school chica I'd probably have fun showing it all off once a year too.

Women (most common): (1) Angel (slutty), (2) Army gear (slutty) aka "GI Ho", (3) Other typically male figure (policeman, fireman, construction worker, referee with annoying whistle) (also slutty)

Ladies of refinement, all, I assure you. Not surprisingly, there were also police thoroughly peppering the town. Some of them got dressed up too!

Police (most common): (1) Plainclothes ("just a cool parent hanging out!"), (2) on horseback, (3) on foot in uniform, (4) in/around car

All around it was a fabulous time. If you get a chance while you are still of an age where you can inconspicuously be amongst thousands of drunk college kids, you should check it out. One final note: Natural Light, perhaps the most famous of cheap and awful beers, did some serious business in Athens this weekend.