Feeling: disappointed
Listening to: Sarah McLachlan - Push
Reading/Watching: murr

Halloween, my favorite holiday, was unusually nondescript.

Normally I choose a costume, put it together, augment what I own with what I need, decorate the apartment, invite a bunch of friends to a party, make lots of food (including orange-and-black jello shots), carve a jack-o-lantern, buy candy to give little kids, the works.

This year, I dressed up twice to go see Rocky Horror (first as Magenta, then the second time, when the zipper on the french maid costume broke five minutes before heading out the door, I used my old Katiebug costume, which is essentially a short black skirt, ladybug wings, and antennae). On the actual day of October 31, I planned to be Elphaba from Wicked (I figured, working in a bookstore, that most people would get the reference to the best-selling novel by Gregory Maguire). So I put on black from wrists to ankles, braided my hair back from my face, and woke up an hour early to paint my face, neck, and arms up to the elbows bright green (I was school-days-Elphy, because I didn't feel like dealing with the hat on top of everything else). The makeup proved to be more problematic than expected, even using a lime-green for highlighting and brown for shadow to make it more natural-looking, and lining my eyebrows with black so that they showed up. I was 2 minutes late for work (instead of five minutes early), still unsatisfied with the shade I wound up being.

Here's an indicator: two guys thought I was supposed to be a She-Hulk. Yay for sexiness points. I also quickly went to the bathroom to wash the paint off the palms of my hands so I didn't turn people's merchandise green. And the bonus? I was working nine hours straight, and I couldn't scratch my nose or touch my face in any way. But at least three customers looked at me and recognized who I was supposed to be. That made me happy- one girl even asked me if I sang, and I laughed and told her, "Idina's got nothing on me." Then we chatted about Wicked coming to show in Texas until another customer walked up.

So by the end of the day, the green had faithfully endured in all places except key places (tip of my nose, bottom of my chin, and the corners of my eyes where they teared up a bit from the makeup). I rushed home to wash it off, which luckily didn't take too long, and arrived late to rehearsal, finally de-greenified and able to scratch whichever itches I pleased.

Before you ask, I did not get a picture. I wasn't happy with the too-dark color I had, and I washed it off too quickly to commemorate the look. But my boss at work took two pictures, so perhaps she can e-mail one to me.

In the end, I worked from 9 to 6, then rehearsed until after 10, and was too tired to drive North for Lynne's party (besides, like the character, my verdigris had melted in water). There was no pumpkin, no party, no trick-or-treaters, although they had plenty of candy and goodies in the break room at work: one manager made a creamy jello-mold of a brain, realistically colored, which she liked to "spank" with a spoon so that it jiggled revoltingly.

I vow that next year, I will do Halloween right.

Comments? 1 so far...
Not a Diaryland member? Sign the Guestbook.