Freaks Come Out At Night

Halloween has always been my favorite holiday so I'm thrilled it's almost here. It's just the most carefree, liberating holiday there is, with none of the pressure associated with those like Valentine's, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. You can whip some felt into puppy ears and tail, put your blue eyeshadow on your lips and throw on some tin foil to go for a futuristic vibe, or do a million other painless, last-minute, half-assed things and you're participating with little effort or money expended. And as dark and scary as the connotations of Halloween may suggest, it's got to be the most upbeat, feel-good one of them all. I mean, when else can you consume your weight in candy, dress up as whatever fantasy character your heart desires, or ask your neighbors to feed you without people looking at you funny?

There's no threat of getting coal in your stocking, and even if you hate children and refuse to rot their teeth with candy or dress up, good luck not even cracking a grin seeing just how creative and smart some people can get with their costumes. I mean, look that this picture of someone who made herself into a low-resolution pixelated image:

Homegirl's a genius.

Two years ago I was on a major Hitchcock kick, watching Vertigo enough times to give me vertigo. I found this amazeballs costume of the Melanie Daniels character from The Birds and had to get it-I mean it had a giant crow pecking your head on a headband. I'm a fail though, because this is my only picture. Mark got his not very P.C. costume because the gun holster was replaced with a tequila bottle holster, with shot glasses held in the belt instead of  bullets. Working in a bar, it was the most apropos choice that wasn't bulky and was (shockingly, haha) still available on October 28th.

Last year was the first time since the first night we ever talked (on Halloween!) that Mark's had the holiday off of work so I wanted us to dress as a couple since it's such a rarity. I was still on that Hitchcock kick so we went as Marion Crane and Norman Bates as his mother from Psycho. I had Mark shave his beard to look more baby-faced (so freaky-who knew he looked like Michael Douglas with a little chin cleft under there?) and made our costumes, of which mine promptly fell apart as soon as we started dancing at Micky's. Thankfully we had plenty of time to wade through the Santa Monica Blvd. parade beforehand and see all of the crazy costumes, so it wasn't a total nightmare-even if I almost showed my boobs to an apathetic male crowd at a gay club about forty times.

This year, the mister has the night off again, for the last time in years, so I want us to go the couples thing again while we can but am totally lost for inspiration. Bonnie and Clyde? 80's prom dates? Tobias and Lindsay Funke?

I'm also thinking about forgoing the couples crap and going as a Lichtenstein painting since I think the makeup would be fun as hell and I already own the whole early 60's pencil skirt, secretaryish clothes needed. Really it's just because I don't really want to buy anything and Mark doesn't seem to want to dress up at all. Whomp whomp. Help!


First image from the now-defuct blog at kindacarsick.com