Halloween: Oh Homie....

It appears that Montreal will be spared the worst of Hurricane Sandy's wrath, although 90 kph winds and rain will likely spoil Halloween trick or treating activities on Wednesday. I feel bad for the kiddies. I know it's such a privileged way of thinking, "Forget Hurricane devastation to poor countries, how will our children go door to door for free candy?!?" but I still can't help hoping that Sandy will pass before the big night. As a child, Halloween was my favourite day of the year, even more exciting than my own birthday. I mean, come on! Getting to dress up in costume and getting tons of free candy??

This past weekend, I attended a good friend's annual Halloween party. Costumes were mandatory, and I had a sneaking suspicion there would be free candy. I really, really wanted to make my own mummy costume (think Daft Punk's Around the world video) but found the effort to be too cumbersome and costly, so instead I went to Halloween Depot to pick a store bought costume. It's really no surprise at this point, but I was still pretty appalled to see the percentage of women's costumes that started with the word "Sexy". Sexy nun, sexy nurse, sexy Pocahontas, sexy Snow White, the list goes on and on. Sassy is also a new way of saying the costume is sexy; it translates to short and worn with fishnets & a push up bra. Honestly, I don't think of myself as a prude but at this age I have enough self esteem to not need such an attention seeking costume, especially when you are attending a small party consisting of friends. So, back to the Halloween Depot.... I gathered 6 or so costumes that I deemed demure enough to try on. I narrowed down my selection to a Mexican day of the dead bride, Sally from a Nightmare before Christmas and Marge from the Simpsons. Sally was cute despite being a 'sassy' version; it could be worn demurely enough with the right accessories but unfortunately the wig was so incredibly cheap, with very few strands of red yarn and many gaps in the scalp. I decided it was a no go. I also eliminated the day of the dead outfit because it was so flimsy for the price and I predicted that I would smear the sugar skull makeup all over myself within minutes of application. This meant that the Marge costume won by default, but to be fair, the costume had some great qualities. The wig was surprisingly well made; it was huge, full of volume and no gaps around the scalp. Not to mention it was two feet high! I generally try to go for scary costumes (it is Halloween after all) but this one just seemed to fun to pass up on.

I won second place in the best costume contest (yay, bragging rights!), losing first place to a gender bending Dolly Parton. I can't complain, in the unwritten rules of costume parties I believe it's near impossible to beat a cross dressing male, especially one in pantyhose, tight skirt, blond wig and enormous falsies...guess my nixing of the sexy costume didn't pay off!!