The 3rd annual Halloween party--October 27, 2001--Olney, IL.
This time around for the Halloween party was a little more intimate of a setting. Attendance was a little more sparse this year due to the fact that we had just moved to Olney and didn't really know anyone here yet. In 2000, we had nineteen people show up at various times in the night in costume (no more than twelve ever at any one time though). In 2001, we had ten total people show up, all of which were there together for about one hour before people started leaving to make their drives home. (That was probably a good thing, though, because the one main room we have for entertaining was barely big enough for those ten folks.)
But still it was a pretty fun time, at least for Sarah and me. The Halloween party is something I always plan for weeks in advance and of course this year, despite being miles away and in a smaller apartment, was no exception. I sent out invitations early (mid-September), got confirmation notices on those coming and sent them maps to ease their travel a few weeks later, provided hotel information for folks, re-confirmed those who were going to come and what times they were arriving about a week before the party, and bought tons of snacks and candy to give away (not just at the party but to trick-or-treaters--of which we had NONE, not even my young cousins who live in Olney!)
And then of course there were the costumes. In years past, when I was making my own costumes of obscure comic book characters, months of planning was a necessity due to the scarcity of some items. I bought the supplies for my V for Vendetta mask about two months before the first party in 1999. Rorschach too was planned out well in advance for the 2000 party, because I had to figure out a way to be able to see through the ink blot on the mask.
Well for the 2001 party I was again planning on coming as an obscure comic book character (I won't tell you who because I'm going to try to come as him for the next party) and I wasn't having much luck. Admittedly, I wasn't doing much looking either, but still...
Around that time (about two months before the party), Sarah and I were shopping in St. Louis at the Galleria. Sarah and I go into the Disney Store there and what does she see but the Tigger costume she is wearing at right. Now it should come to no surprise to you if you know Sarah or have read this site in years past that Sarah is a huge Tigger fan. She wanted to come as Tigger the previous year (the 2000 party) and kept scouring eBay for costumes, but it was much too late by then. The pickings were slim and when she did find something it was always way out of her price range. But this year we just happened to wander into the Disney Store on a whim and there it was. It cost 50 dollars but was well worth it to her. (You really should have seen the look on her face when she first tried it on there in the store; she was ecstatic.)
And while she's frantically tearing through the racks trying to find one in her size, I happened upon the Jack Skellington costume I'm wearing in the picture above. Question: what movie did we watch as part of an early party drinking game at the 2000 party? Answer: Nightmate before Christmas. A perfect find, and I was very happy with it (although I did feel like I was cheating a bit since Jack Skellington was neither a homemade costume nor was he an obscure comic book character).
So I broke tradition in a few ways but stuck with tradition in others: yeat another masked character! This one was easy to see out of and had a huge opening for me to put things in my mouth (not just a straw but FOOD too). However it came with bulky gloves that made it hard to pick up things, and the mask was still hot as hell. Plus, the costume was clearly made for someone with much longer legs than me; if you look at the picture above, the material is clearly bunching up down at the bottom. But it was still pretty cool.
So on the actual day of the party people started showing up EARLY for once, mostly due to the extremely long drives they had. Jared drove about two hours from Carbondale to Olney, and the Cape bunch a little over three hours. Jared came as Lennie from Memento, which was the only way I allowed him into the party shirtless yet again. The tattoos were done some with special tattoo pencil, some with make-up. (The most visible tattoo of course is the one in the center--FIND HIM AND KILL HIM. But others are there too, the one on top reading in backwards letters "John G raped and murdered my wife" and of course the infamous one on the hand, "Remember Sammy Jankis." By the way, if you haven't seen Memento yet, you really should. A great great movie.)
Soon after Jared arrived, Marc, Danielle and Progger all showed up, having carpooled up from Cape together. Marc and Danielle had rented a room at the Holiday in town, while Progger was planning on sleeping on the couch. (Jared had originally planned to go home that night but we talked him into staying eventually.)
So, as in years past, the first activity of the evening is to watch a scary/gory movie. This year our selection was the wonderful Peter Jackson movie Dead Alive. Of course it starts kinda slow so those there from the very beginning of the film got kind of bored early on. But about midway through the movie, my brother Nate showed up and he seemed to enjoy the movie a lot since he missed all the exposition and got to just enjoy the carnage. I think Marc ended up liking the movie in the end, since during the party scene the zombies get out and all hell breaks loose (Dead Alive's yet another movie you should go rent right away) but Danielle and Sarah I think were pretty grossed out by it all.
Nate was the only person whose picture I didn't get, unfortunately. He came as a grocery boy, wearing his old IGA apron and a dressy shirt, and with an IGA grocery bag full of food as a prop. The food was supposed to go home with him when he left, but I kept the cereal that he had brought (Cocoa Krispies), which made Dad kind of mad when he found out because he had bought them for himself.
Here are Marc and Danielle in their costumes, by the way. Marc came as Ash from Army of Darkness, which is one of his two favorite movies. Danielle came as a Medusa woman; she had little plastic snakes stuck in her hair. Marc and Danielle weren't at the 2000 party but they did come in 1999 as Austin Powers-style hipsters--Austin Powers being the other of Marc's two favorite movies. (This picture by the way was clearly taken at the very very beginning of the party, since instead of Dead Alive being on the TV screen, we apparently have Wheel of Fortune.)
So other events of the evening of course included the playing of a little bit of Nintendo, Dr. Mario being the main game of choice, and I had to go easy on the newbies. And then some of us also ended up going out on a brief excursion to get some fast food, for reasons that should be obvious if you look at the photo below.
Yes, Progger came to the party as Colonel Sanders and again would clearly have won the prize for best costume had I given one this year (meant to but it slipped my mind). His costume was absolutely perfect, so we decided early on in the party that, after Dead Alive ended, we would have to put in an appearance at Kentucky Fried Chicken.
We made Jared don a shirt and drive me and Progger there. So we go into the restaurant and there I am in my Jack Skellington costume and Progger dressed as Colonel Sanders, ordering french fries and sodas. A little kid who was apparently a fan of Nightmare before Christmas came up and shook my hand nervously (not scared but sort of awestruck--it was pretty cool), but of course the real star was Progger. We got all the employees to come around from in back and have their picture taken with him. I was freaking out because that second girl on the left was one of my students in Comp I at the time, and I was afraid she'd recognize me and see what a fool I was, but apparently she didn't. We got our food without having any problems, got to be the center of attention at KFC for a little while, and had a few laughs. Quite possibly the highlight of the party.
BJ, Nora and Nora's sister Diana were the last folks to arrive and also the first folks to leave; they drove all the way back to Cape that night, only staying at our party for at MOST two hours. BJ came as a pimp, with Nora as his ho, while Diana came as a medieval wench. The problem with Diana's costume was that she sat on the floor while we played Buzz and showed way too much cleavage every time she leaned over to pick up a card. After they left, everyone in the room talked about how afraid they were she was going to pop out of her dress. My comment at the time: "I kept trying to NOT look down her shirt, but any time I looked at her side of the room there they were. It was unavoidable." But luckily (or unluckily maybe) we managed to maintain our record of having no nudity at any of our parties.
Apart from Buzz, we also played Celebrities for a while, which was a bit rough since BJ and Nora kept using chefs from the Food Network as if they were celebrities. The evening wrapped up, and everyone either went home, to their hotels, or crashed on our floor. In the morning those who remained (Marc, Danielle, Progger, Jared, Sarah and me) all went out for breakfast before they made their ways back home. And even then the topic of conversation was still Di's boobs. :)
As I said in the beginning, a more intimate party with a smaller group, but still tons of fun. Can't wait until next year!
Yes, Progger came to the party as Colonel Sanders and again would clearly have won the prize for best costume had I given one this year (meant to but it slipped my mind). His costume was absolutely perfect, so we decided early on in the party that, after Dead Alive ended, we would have to put in an appearance at Kentucky Fried Chicken.
