Tag Archives: costumes

Another Low-Key Halloween (or Still Doing Punny Costumes)

Posted on November 8, 2023 | Comments Off on Another Low-Key Halloween (or Still Doing Punny Costumes)

I’m always so grateful that not only do I have a fun group of friends to celebrate Halloween with each year, but the party is always both low-key and creative. Some people go all out with their costumes and it’s so fun to see what people come up with. But not everyone does that so if you go without a costume or in a simple costume, you don’t stand out too much. So it’s perfect no matter what your mood might be with a costume.

I usually do a simple costume since I have a bit of a drive to get to the party. I know I could wear regular clothes to drive and then change when I get there, but I like having something that is easy to put together when I get to the party and to remove when it’s time to drive home. Since I do simpler costumes, I tend to have a costume that has some pun to it. I have a fun time figuring out what to be and how to accomplish it. Sometimes it’s easier to make a plan than others, but I always enjoy what costume I come up with.

This year, I was stuck for a bit with what I should do for Halloween. Nothing was really jumping out at me or inspiring me, so I just kept looking online to see what I would connect with. It took a bit of time, but I found the perfect punny costume. I dressed as a third wheel.

I actually don’t remember how the person dressed that I was inspired by online. I just remember that their version of the costume wasn’t something I could do or wanted to do. So I had to think of my own version of it and I was pretty happy with what I came up with.

It’s not super easy to tell from the photo, but what I did was print out a picture of a wheel and attach it to a headband with a zip tie. Then I made little stickers of different celebrity couples and I put those all over my shirt when I got to the party. I liked how it turned out and I was happy with what I was able to create. Especially since I didn’t have to buy anything for the costume so it was nice to save money.

The only downside to my costume was that not everyone got it right away. I guess it was an easier costume to guess when you knew what it was. But I got some interesting guesses from friends when they didn’t know what I was. The one I got the most was the paparazzi. I guess I can see how the wheel looked a bit like a flash and I had photos of celebrities on me. But it was funny how many people guessed that. Once I said what I was, everyone thought it was really clever.

As always with these parties, the main focus while I was there was catching up with my friends. I saw most of them at my birthday party, so it hadn’t been that long since we had a chance to hang out. But it also seemed like so many people had a lot of things that happened in the last month or two. I’m glad I was able to be there and catch up face-to-face instead of just online. I know I’ve always appreciated the time I’ve been able to spend with my friends in person, but I appreciate it even more now after the isolation of the worst of the pandemic. And I try to take advantage of the time that I do get with my friends more because I never know if something will happen where we won’t be able to be together in person for a while. I never thought like that before, but now it’s something I think about quite a bit.

Normally, I’m at the Halloween party for the costume contest to see who wins. I know I won’t place since other people have much better costumes, but I like to see how my friends vote. But this year, things were a bit later than normal because a lot of the people who go to the party were in a play that was happening that night. So they weren’t going to be able to be at the party until after the show was done. I wanted to stick around as late as I could to see everyone and see the costume contest, but I got really tired at the time I normally leave and had to head home before I was too tired to drive. I’m sad I didn’t get to see everyone or see who had the best costumes, but I’m glad I got to see some of my friends and have a fun night out!

And now, I have about a year to think of my next funny and punny costume to wear to a Halloween party. And hopefully, that costume will be one that will be easier for other people to guess.

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Default ThumbnailLow-Key Halloween (or A Work In Progress) Default ThumbnailLow Key Halloween (or Costume Flashback) Default ThumbnailHaving To Explain My Costume (or An Almost Normal Halloween) Default ThumbnailBeing A Word Nerd (or A More Normal Halloween Celebration) Default ThumbnailA Halloween Outing (or Dressing Up As Me) Default ThumbnailOscar Night (or A Very Low-Key Award Show)

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Having To Explain My Costume (or An Almost Normal Halloween)

Posted on November 3, 2021 | Comments Off on Having To Explain My Costume (or An Almost Normal Halloween)

Last year for Halloween, I only celebrated over Zoom. I did try to have a bit of a costume by making a fun Zoom background, but it really wasn’t the same as seeing my friends. I knew this was how we had to celebrate so we could all be safe, but it was just another reminder of what we were missing out on during the pandemic.

This year, things are a little different but they are still not as safe as they were before. So while I would have loved to be at a big party with all of my friends, I knew again this wouldn’t be possible. Fortunately, I was invited to a small party with a few friends who only had vaccinated people there so I was able to enjoy Halloween with other people again this year.

I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do for my costumes, so I tried to see what would inspire me. Like so many people, I joined TikTok to entertain me this year. And there are a lot of accounts I follow that are just silly. And one of those is Noodle the Dog. Noodle is a 13-year old pug and each day as his owner tries to get him up from bed he will either stand up or collapse back into bed. So the saying is that he either has bones or no bones and that determines what the day will be like. I know it’s silly, but we all just need silly things these days.

So I decided that a fun and silly costume would be to go as a No Bones Day. I wore all black, made a pug mask from a photo online, and emptied out a dog bone container (I had to buy dog bones but I’ll be giving them to my parents’ dog). Not a super fancy or elaborate costume, but I think it did a good job representing things. And I got confirmation of that when I posted it on Instagram and tagged the Noodle account and they shared it on their Instagram too!

I’m aware it’s also a bit creepy since I had a very realistic looking photo for my mask.

When I got to the party, most people had no clue who I was so I had to show them the TikTok account so they could get what I was supposed to be. There were other people there who also had low-key costumes like I did, so I didn’t feel too out of place. And I think the focus for a lot of us was about being around other people and not the costumes. It’s still so rare to get to be around friends, so I am enjoying whatever chances I get. And we did try to make sure things were as safe as they could be. We were all outside and I know everyone was vaccinated. And not going to a big party was probably smart too.

This was much closer to my normal Halloween than what I did last year, but it still wasn’t what I was used to. I remember thinking last year that of course things would be normal again by Halloween. I think it’s still surprising to me that by this Halloween they still aren’t. But as tired as I am about having to always be careful, I do know this is what we need to do to get past this. And maybe by Halloween next year, we will be 100% back to normal and I will be at a crazy costume party surrounded by my friends again.

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Default ThumbnailStill Celebrating Halloween (or A Virtual Costume To Go With A Virtual Party) Default ThumbnailHaving Some Halloween Fun (or Creating A Clever Costume) Default ThumbnailLow Key Halloween (or Costume Flashback) Default ThumbnailLow-Key Halloween (or A Work In Progress) Default ThumbnailFirst Halloween Party Of The Season (or At Least I Made An Appearance) Default ThumbnailA Halloween Outing (or Dressing Up As Me)

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Still Celebrating Halloween (or A Virtual Costume To Go With A Virtual Party)

Posted on November 5, 2020 | Comments Off on Still Celebrating Halloween (or A Virtual Costume To Go With A Virtual Party)

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. Even if I don’t have a great costume, I love dressing up a bit and being creative with a costume. And I especially love seeing the costumes that my friends come up with. The party that Marie and Chris throw every year is such an incredible Halloween party, and I look forward to it every year. When the pandemic started, I don’t think anyone thought we’d still be staying home by Halloween. I mean, I remember thinking that we’d all be able to be together for the 4th of July. But here we are, almost 8 months later and still staying home.

But being at home didn’t mean that Marie and Chris weren’t going to throw a Halloween party. I had a feeling they would do a virtual party, and that’s exactly what they did! I was running a Netflix Party group that night, but I was able to time it out so I didn’t miss too much of the party. They had teased that there was going to be something special at 6:30 and I figured out how to make the Netflix Party work so that I was done at 6:25!

Since the party was virtual, I thought it would be funny to do a virtual costume. I knew I wanted to do something fun with my Zoom background, but I wasn’t sure what to do until I saw a post in a Facebook group that inspired me. The post was about funny ideas for Halloween decorations and it was a bunch of crosses in a yard with the names of guys that have ghosted women. I loved that idea, but I had to make it work in a Zoom background. So I found an image of a graveyard and I added text on it to have some nicknames of guys I’ve gone out with and the dates we were texting or seeing each other before they ghosted me. I did a test with the background before the party and even though you couldn’t see one of the tombstones, I think it looked pretty funny!

It was a little hard for the tombstones to be read, but I was ok with that. I knew I’d have to explain the “costume” no matter what. So I just planned on explaining it and reading to everyone what I wrote.

I made it to the virtual party before 6:30 so I was able to chat with my friends for a few minutes before the guest arrived. And the guest wasn’t as much of a guest as it was a puzzle and mystery for us all to solve! Marie and Chris had a video of them as skeletons saying their souls were stolen and needed our help to get them back. It was so clever and creative and all of us were enjoying it so much while watching the video!

We were told that we could work together as a group or solve it alone. The thing from the video was about solving a riddle, so I figured I could solve that alone and I did that and followed the instructions to give them the answer. After I did that, I got a crossword puzzle in return. That’s when all of us at the party decided to work together. I was the designated answer writer since I printed out the crossword. We quickly were able to get all the answers and I submitted that for the next clue.

And the next clue was a pattern of lines that was an overlay to put over the crossword. Then we wrote down all the words that were under the lines to get the next clue. That took us to Facebook and a specific photo they had posted. If you zoomed into the photo, there was a tiny.url listed and we realized we had to go there. That led to an unlisted YouTube video that mentioned a series of numbers. Someone in the group realized those numbers could be a Zoom meeting code and password, and they were right! After we entered the new Zoom meeting, that became the full party!

It was so much fun working through all the clues and puzzles we had to do to get to the party. It made things feel much more like we were together and not just a bunch of people looking at each other on screens. And we were able to get through the puzzles relatively quickly because we had worked together. So it was a nice moment for us to bond as a group since there were some people in the party that I hadn’t met before.

Once we were in the second party, it was like the other Zoom parties Marie and Chris have done. Some people were in costumes and some people were not. And a few had fun Zoom backgrounds like haunted houses and things like that. There wasn’t a costume parade, but I still liked to see what people dressed as and it was nice that we were trying to be festive.

And we just all talked about lots of random and fun things. We discussed random movies and Halloween stuff. Marie and Chris even had trivia questions so we could do little trivia games where we competed against each other. I only got 1 trivia question right, but I still had so much fun.

I wanted to be able to stay at the virtual party as late as possible since I didn’t have to drive home after it and I was able to sleep in the next day. But it seems like being on Zoom hangouts takes it out of me more than I would expect. I just felt so tired after being on there for a few hours. I think by the time I was saying goodnight to everyone, I was in the party for about 3 hours. I also had been on the computer almost the entire day without a break, so that might have been part of it too. I didn’t want to say goodnight to everyone, but I needed to so I could get some sleep.

Of course, having a party in person would have been the best and would have made all of us so happy, but there just isn’t a way to do that right now and be safe. And a virtual party is much better than nothing at all. I think all of us just want this pandemic to be under control to the point where we can see each other in person again. And it’s tough when we have no idea when that might happen. The next big party for the group is usually New Year’s Eve, and I’m not sure if things will be any better by then. After that, we have the Oscar party. Maybe by then, we can be together since the Oscars have been pushed back to be a bit later. The Oscar party was the last party that we were able to have this year, so it would be nice if that was the first one back.

I hope that everyone had a good Halloween, even if it wasn’t what you are used to doing. And hopefully by next year, we will all be able to celebrate the way we are used to. I have a feeling that if we can, all of us are going to have epic Halloweens in 2021!

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Default ThumbnailVirtual Memorial Day (or Doing The Best We Can For Now) Default ThumbnailA Busy Halloween (or Dressing As A Box Office Employee) Default ThumbnailLow-Key Halloween (or A Work In Progress) Default ThumbnailHaving Some Halloween Fun (or Creating A Clever Costume) Default ThumbnailLow Key Halloween (or Costume Flashback) Default ThumbnailFirst Halloween Party Of The Season (or At Least I Made An Appearance)

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Making Some Good Guesses (or I Am Not A Cat)

Posted on February 13, 2020 | Comments Off on Making Some Good Guesses (or I Am Not A Cat)

This past weekend was the Oscars, and as always I went to the Oscar party that my friends throw every year. It’s really the best party because I can watch the Oscars the way I want and I can still celebrate with friends. And I love that it is a costume party because that’s always fun. I’m not the best with costumes, but I love seeing what my friends come up with. But this year, I figured out my costume a few months ahead of time.

I have no clue why I thought of this, but I realized I could make a Fox News costume by having some newsprint on my clothes and wearing some fox ears. It was an easy and clever costume so I knew that was the perfect thing to do. And even though Fox News isn’t technically a character in the movie “Bombshell”, it kind of is. Plus, the costume doesn’t have to be an actual character. A costume that represents a movie from the past year is pretty much the only requirement.

I found a newsprint scarf online and some fox ears that also came with a tail. And even though I’m not good at doing makeup, I really wanted to try and see if I could do something. So I looked up a lot of videos on how to do fox makeup and did a very simple version of what I found online. And I have to say I think I did a really great job considering my lack of makeup ability!

It wasn’t super elaborate or fancy, but I felt like it represented a fox. And I was happy with the final result which is what mattered the most to me.

I got to the party earlier than I normally do, but that allowed me to hang out with my friends before the show started. I always watch the Oscars in the quiet room, where we aren’t supposed to talk except during commercials. So while the show is on, I’m not being social. And I knew I wasn’t going to stay super late, so I wanted to get my socializing time in before things got started. And it was nice that I was early and there weren’t a lot of people there because I could get a photo of my full costume plus a photo with my friend Marie.

But one thing I noticed as soon as I got to the party was that everyone thought I was a cat. I totally forgot that “Cats” came out last year and I guess in a way I did look like a cat. Plus, there were a few friends who did come dressed as cats. But I just kept saying “I am not a cat!” whenever that was the guess for my costume. I just wish now that I had thought of this being an issue so I could have worn a shirt that said that.

Once the show started, things were pretty normal in the quiet room. We did have a few moments that were really shocking where we were all yelling, but those were rare. We were quiet for most of the show and that allowed us to really enjoy it and hear every moment of the speeches.

It also helped us track who was winning because there is a contest to be the person who guesses the most winners correctly. I don’t always do great with the guessing, but I was making a real effort. And I was doing amazingly well from the start! I kept guessing them correctly, even the categories where the guesses were complete guesses and I had no reason why I picked one over the others. In the end, I only missed 4 out of 24 awards, which may have been my best one ever.

After the awards were done, we had the costume parade to pick the costume winners. And before we voted on the costumes, we also got a big group photo of everyone there. I don’t think we have gotten a group photo before, but I love that we got one this year.

I knew I wasn’t going to win the costume contest, but I wanted to at least be on the honorable mention list (which means that you got at least one vote). And I did get on that list (and I promise I didn’t vote for myself). The winners were all really amazing costumes that were clever and the ones I expected to win. I don’t mind not winning since my costume was good but not nearly as good as what I knew everyone else would come up with. But I was hoping I might place with guessing the winners.

I knew I’d be in the top few, but it’s the top 2 that win prizes. And it turned out that 2 people did 1 guess better than I did. So I did get 3rd place, but no prize. But I was still proud of myself for how well I did with my guessing!

After all the prizes were given out, I started making my rounds of goodbyes since I wanted to start heading home. I wish I could have stayed longer, but I had an early morning the next day and about a 30-minute drive home. But I was glad I got to spend so much time with my friends and I’m sure the next party will be here before we know it!

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A Halloween Outing (or Dressing Up As Me)

Posted on November 6, 2019 | Comments Off on A Halloween Outing (or Dressing Up As Me)

With Halloween being on a Thursday, I knew the party that I go to wouldn’t be on Halloween night. But because I have to be up early most mornings, I figured that it would be a night that I couldn’t be out late. And when the party was scheduled to be the day after Halloween, I saw I was right. I work early on Saturdays, so I rarely am out late on a Friday night. It also didn’t help that I was already tired from my week. But I was determined to have a fun time at the party even if I was tired.

I try to be fun and clever with my costumes, but I also want to be very comfortable. And this year, I thought of a fun costume that wouldn’t be too hard to make about a month before. I had to make a run to Staples to buy some supplies, but I didn’t have to get too much and I knew I could make it the week of. I ended up having some time right after work the day before Halloween and spent about 20 minutes making this (it took longer than expected because I wanted to make it look good).

I took some paper borders and covered them with white duct tape. And then I added some letter stickers for my name and had to tape some pens on the back for stability. But I made a pretty awesome looking photo frame. And with my name on it, I made a frame for a headshot!

When I get my headshots taken, I usually dress super comfortable on the bottom since you only see the top half of my body. So I dressed in yoga pants and flip flops on the bottom and a nice sweater with full hair and makeup on top. When I got to the party, I could hold up my homemade frame and I went to the party as my headshot!

I was so happy with how my costume turned out and everyone at the party seemed to love it too! When I wasn’t holding up the frame, some people were confused with what I was dressed as, but most of them understood what it was as soon as I held it up.

The party was themed as The Ghosts of Halloweens Past and the backyard had a mix of decorations from old parties and collections of photos from the past several years. I found a few of my old costumes in the photos and loved looking at all the other photos that were decorating the party.

Because I was so tired while at the party, I knew I wasn’t going to make it too long. I hated that I felt this way, but I also didn’t want to force myself to be there late and then feel really bad over the weekend. But I did stay there for a few hours and got to have some great time hanging out with my friends. I loved their costumes and seeing how clever they were. There were a few costumes that I didn’t know what they were, but once I found out they made so much sense. I love seeing how creative all my friends are and I always wonder if I’ll have a costume as impressive as theirs.

Even though I was so proud of my costume and was hoping I might get votes in the costume contest, I wasn’t able to stay out that late. I found out a few days later that the costume contest was much later than it normally is and even if I wasn’t tired I probably would have had to leave before it happened. That made me feel a bit better. And the costumes that won were much better than mine so I know I wouldn’t have won. But it would have been fun to see if I did get votes.

I really had some high expectations for Halloween outings this year, and they ended up not being exactly what I thought they would be due to me being tired so often. It’s frustrating when I know it’s my fault that I’m not able to be as social as I want to be, but I’m always so grateful that I have amazing friends who understand why I can’t make it out or have to go home early. And I did still have a lot of fun even if it wasn’t what I planned it to be. I love going out and seeing the costumes that other people thought of and just spending time with people that I love to be around.

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A Night Of Oscars (or Last Minute Costumes and Enjoying The Show)

Posted on February 27, 2019 | Comments Off on A Night Of Oscars (or Last Minute Costumes and Enjoying The Show)

This past Sunday was the Oscars and as always I went to the party that my friends Marie and Chris have. It’s one of their parties that I look forward to every year and it’s one of the best ones that I think they do. I love seeing people in costume and I love being around amazing people as we watch the awards. The party is the perfect mix of both of those things and that’s what makes it so special to me.

There are some years that I think of my costume for the party way in advance and there are some times that it comes together the week of the party. It just depends if something inspires me. And as soon as I saw “Incredibles 2”, I thought I’d go to the party as Edna. I did that the year the first “Incredibles” came out and I got second place in the costume contest! It was the only time I placed in the costume contest so I thought it would be the perfect repeat costume.

But someone went as Edna to the Halloween party and I decided that I wanted to do something different. I wasn’t sure what I’d do, but I figured I’d think of something. But time flew by and it was the night before the party and I still had no idea on what I wanted to go as. I had an easy idea that night and figured I could easily do it (it mainly involved wearing stickers) and I knew it wouldn’t be anything spectacular.

Then, on Oscar Sunday morning, I was doing my laundry and saw my Disney dog leggings I got a few months ago in my dresser. I remembered that “Isle of Dogs” came out in 2018 (which is the only rule for the costumes) and thought that would be so much better than my original idea. So I was going to wear the leggings and make stickers of pet store aisles to wear on my shirt. The stickers didn’t want to stick on my shirt, so I only put one on and used the others as backups for when that one fell off. It wasn’t my best costume, but it was comfortable and fun and that’s the best combination.

The decorations for the party were all about Mr. Rogers Neighborhood and they had an amazing puppet backdrop to use and they made puppets to go along with it!

There are a couple of different spaces to watch the Oscars, but I always sit in the quiet room. We talk during the commercials, but during the show we are quiet. There is sometimes something said quickly while someone is walking up to the stage, but the point of the quiet room is to be able to watch (the other spaces to watch has people talking throughout the show and the focus is being more social). We usually have the same people each year in the quiet room and we are all good at following the quiet room rules. But we also know each other well enough to be ok with the little whispers and talk that may happen.

And one thing we kept discussing was the show. There was so much in the press about how this show was the first one without a host in a long time and there were people wondering how it was going to go. And we all kept saying how much we were enjoying it without a host. I feel like the presenters had more opportunities to be funny and have little bits and the show still seemed to move quickly. It only ended about 15 minutes late, which isn’t bad compared to other years.

And we also were discussing how happy we were that they didn’t give any of the Oscars during the commercial breaks. Originally, 4 of the awards were going to be done during the commercials so we wouldn’t be seeing them while watching the show. They were going to have them online, but that’s not the same. The Academy reversed their decision and I’m so glad that they did it. I thought it was a bad decision to not air all the awards because everyone equally deserves to be honored the same way when they win.

And honestly, I felt more inspired watching the speeches for some of the awards that were going to be during the commercials than I did for some of the bigger awards. I love seeing people who are truly passionate about what they do be recognized for their hard work. I especially love seeing the winners of the short animated film, short live action, short documentary, and feature length documentary because I know that many times those films are passion projects. They don’t necessarily create these films to try to win an award. They do it because they had a story they wanted to tell and they went out and did it. And when they win you can see the pure joy and excitement on their faces. It’s really amazing to watch and I’m so glad I didn’t have to watch it online later to experience that.

Overall, I felt like the show was a really good one. Going without a host worked well, the winners for the most part were who I wanted and the speeches they gave were good, and I had a great time with my friends. I did get a few votes in the costume contest, but I knew I wasn’t going to win. The winners had really incredible costumes and I can’t compete with those. I was in the top 5 for guessing the winners of all the awards which was better than I expected to do. So many of my guesses were random so it was just lucky I did that well.

I realized while watching the Oscars that there have been a lot of films I missed. I’m trying to find ways to catch up on some of them now, and I’ve already been able to watch the winner of the short documentary on Netflix. There’s no rush for me to catch up on them, but I do want to make an effort to try just so I can see what made all of those projects awesome. It will be some good entertainment between customers when it gets slower at my job later this year.

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Having Some Halloween Fun (or Creating A Clever Costume)

Posted on October 30, 2018 | Comments Off on Having Some Halloween Fun (or Creating A Clever Costume)

This past weekend was the Halloween party that my friends Marie and Chris throw every year. It’s one of the parties I love so much that they throw (and they throw some incredible parties throughout the year) and it’s always so much fun to see what costumes people come up with. This group of friends is pretty competitive when it comes to costumes. We have costume contests for the Halloween party as well as the Oscar party, and I’ve only placed once in the Oscar party about 10 years ago. So I know that if I want to be in the running to win, I must have a great costume.

I was trying to find some inspiration for a costume searching online and nothing was really connecting with me. But then I saw an article from a few years ago of people who created costumes about dating apps, and I thought that was perfect! I had a few different versions that I was trying to figure out with this costume, but I decided to go a bit smaller in scale than some of the ones I saw online. So I used a poster board to look like the Tinder app (and I made the back look like an iPad so it looked like you were using the app on an iPad) and then stalked all my friends who would be at the party on Facebook. I took photos of them, printed them out, laminated them, and then made it so the photos could be swiped left or right. I think it looked pretty great when it was done!

I added the binder clip to hold the photos together at the top because I didn’t want the photos to be swinging around while I was at the party.

When I got to their party, a lot of people were already there. And I loved seeing all the amazing and fun costumes that other people showed up in.

While I had hoped that my costume was going to be good enough to place in the costume contest, as I walked around the party I realized that everyone stepped up their costume game this year and it was going to be even more competitive than it normally is. But I was still having fun showing off my costume and everyone at the party seemed to enjoy swiping through the photos to see if their photo was in there and to swipe left and right on everyone else. Since my photo was on the top, people didn’t realize that all the photos were of people who were expected to be at the party. So as they swiped through, it was a fun surprise for them and I got so many compliments on having a really smart costume and for being really creative.

Marie and Chris always do a theme to their parties, and this year the theme was Day of the Dead. They had so many paper flowers all over the backyard and they added some new string lights that made their yard look more festive than before. and the photo spot was with these skeletons.

I really loved the decorations and thought they were so nice. I know they usually do really crazy things in their yard, but I loved what it looked like this year. And of course almost everything was handmade and that touch makes everything look so special.

I spent most of the party just hanging out with friends. I did a lot of hanging out one on one with people which was nice. I usually am around so many people at a time so getting individual time was nice and allowed me to have more substantial chats with people.

When it came time for the costume contest, I had a feeling I wasn’t going to place. Some of the costumes were just incredible and detailed and others were really good puns. But everyone looked amazing and I had a hard time picking which 3 I wanted to vote for. But I did pick 3 and 2 of them did place in the top 4.

After the costume contest, it was pretty late and I decided to start saying my goodbyes to my friends so I could head home. I would have loved to have stayed longer, but I was starting to get tired and I didn’t want to drive home when I was really tired. But of course, because I had so many friends there, it took over 30 minutes to say my goodbyes to everyone. But it was worth taking the time to do that because it gave me a little more one on one time with my friends.

The next party with this group will probably be the New Year’s Eve party which seems like it’s far away, but it’s really only 2 months. So I know it will be here before I know it!

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Default ThumbnailA Busy Halloween (or Dressing As A Box Office Employee) Default ThumbnailFirst Halloween Party Of The Season (or At Least I Made An Appearance) Default ThumbnailLow Key Halloween (or Costume Flashback) Default ThumbnailHalloween Time In The Daytime (or The Fun Of The Single Rider Line) Default ThumbnailHalloween Hangout (or I’m Just A Regular Puppet) Default ThumbnailHalloween Awesomeness (or I Am Covfefe)

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Halloween Awesomeness (or I Am Covfefe)

Posted on October 31, 2017 | 1 comment

The Halloween party that my friends Marie and Chris throw was this past weekend. As it is with all of their parties, I knew that they would be doing some amazing decorations around their house and I couldn’t want to see what it was going to be. They had been sharing about how hard they had been working on decorations but weren’t giving any clues on what the theme was. So I had no idea what I was in for.

As far as my costume goes, I tend to be a bit lazy with costumes. I wish I was better at them, but it’s just not something that I’m creative with. So when a friend jokingly suggested I could go as covfefe by just wearing a “Hello my name is” name tag, I totally went for it!

I made extra name tags and was thinking that I would be sticking them on other people, on beer bottles, and other things like that. It was a super easy costume, but everyone who saw it seemed to think it was pretty funny.

But while my costume was low-key, the party was anything but! Marie and Chris really outdid themselves this year and they turned their house and backyard into all things Indiana Jones!

And of course, they dressed to fit the theme of the house.

They’ve done some amazing things with decorations before, but this was beyond what any of us expected. I loved the sacrifice pit that was in the middle of their yard.

But I think the greatest thing they made for the party was the golden idol room they had on the side of their yard.

Between the backdrop and the amazing painting work they did and the props that were in the room, this was seriously one of the coolest things I’ve seen! And we all were taking so many photos in there because of how awesome it looked (plus it had some really great lighting).

And I loved getting to see all the creative costumes that my friends did. Everyone always has really fun costumes and this year there seemed to be a lot of family/couple themed costumes. Of course, seeing little kids is costumes is just so cute! But I loved the couples costumes too because they were all really fun and clever. I’m glad that I go into the party not expecting to win the costume contest because the competition is stiff!

But the reason I go to the parties (besides the incredible decorations and awesome costumes) is getting to spend time with amazing friends. And there were so many amazing people at the party. I was able to get there toward the earlier side of things so I got to see a lot of people who had kids but had to leave early to get their kids to bed. But I also stayed later than I normally do so I saw some of the late arrivals too. There were a few people who arrived after I left, but I think I got to see almost everyone that I wanted to.

Some of us took some time to watch the World Series. It was fun because some of the people at the party are die-hard Dodgers fans but there are a lot of people there from Houston so they were rooting for the Astros. But it was all in good fun and I think pretty much everyone was happy to see that the Dodgers won the game that night. And the home run they got toward the end of the game was pretty impressive!

I really tried to be as social as possible at the party. But I had been up since 7am since I worked that morning plus I had a Hell Week workout that afternoon. I was hoping to get a nap in between my workout and the party but that didn’t happen. So I was a bit tired and run down. But it seemed like a lot of people there were feeling a bit low-key too so a lot of the time we were sitting around and talking. There was so much catching up to do at the party and we got the time to do that.

As with all of the parties that Marie and Chris do, I had the best time! They put so much effort into their parties and making sure that we all have so much fun. And we all do! I think their next party will be New Years Eve and I’m already looking forward to it!

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Watching The Oscars (or Costumes and Twitter)

Posted on March 2, 2017 | 2 comments

I’m sure by now you have all seen and read about what happened at the Oscars. If you haven’t here’s a great article about how the wrong film was announced as best picture, how it happened, and what was done to try to correct it. While that is a huge part of what happened at the Oscars, that was only a small time at the party I was at.

I went to Chris and Marie’s house for the Oscars as I have every year for a long time. It’s a great party every year and I’m always looking forward to it. The group of people who go to the party are a mix of those of us who take the Oscars very seriously and those who aren’t super into the awards but love any opportunity to dress up and hang out.

I had an idea for a costume around New Year’s Eve, but it seemed too complicated for me to figure out how to make and I gave up on it. I had another idea for a costume and even went out and bought things for it, but I decided that I wouldn’t be comfortable in the costume. I started researching what movies came out in 2016 (since the only rule for costumes is that it needs to be related to a movie that came out in the past year), and finally found the perfect idea for me!

I went as Anthony Weiner’s twitter account (inspired by the documentary “Weiner”). I had a dry erase board with his twitter profile picture where people could write tweets and I wrote on tape on my body a couple of statements Anthony Weiner had made after his scandals were in the news. It was another easy/lazy costume, but fortunately people at the party found it really clever and fun.

As always, Chris and Marie decorated their house and yard for the party. This year, the theme was Arrival and they did an amazing job making decorations that were exactly like the movie. I especially loved the photo set up they made with the aliens from the movie!

Since there is a mix of people at the party, the viewing areas are split up. There is the quiet room and the regular viewing area. The quiet room used to be much more quiet, but over the years we’ve gotten a bit chattier. We are still very quiet during all the speeches, but we will occasionally talk or say a comment during the show. And of course we are super chatty during the commercials. But my favorite party of the quiet room is that the video is projected onto the wall of a room so we have a giant screen to watch on!

We have ballots to use for the guess the winners contest at the party, but pretty quickly I knew I wasn’t going to do so well with that. While “La La Land” wasn’t my favorite movie of the year, I knew so many critics loved it and I assumed it was going to win more awards than it did. I also hadn’t seen all of the animated, documentary, or short films so for many of those I had to guess. But so many people and films that I wanted to win did and I was really enjoying the show.

Then there was the moment when the wrong movie was announced as Best Picture. I don’t think I’ve heard so much screaming before during the Oscars. We were all so confused (as was probably everyone watching) and we couldn’t believe what was happening. I’m glad that the error was corrected during the show so the producers from “Moonlight” could get up and speak, but I know that it was a moment during the ceremony that will not be forgotten. I know it was an honest mistake, but it was a big mistake.

I think everyone was in shock after the awards were done, but we all headed to the backyard to start the costume contest. We all go around and announce what our costumes are so we can vote. When I announced my costume, I got a bunch of laughs, but I knew that my costume wasn’t going to be a winner. So many people had amazing costumes and I was just happy to see how creative other people can be.

I loved my friend Regan’s Hidden Figures costume (she was with some friends who played other characters from the movie). Their group got first place in the costume contest.

And the funniest costume I saw was actually the costume I was originally thinking of doing! When I went to see Dr. Strange, I immediately thought how cool it would be to go as the cape from the movie. I was trying to figure out how to make a cape look like it was levitating in front of me, but I never could figure out a simple enough solution. But my friend Andy figured out a really easy way to do it and I think his costume looked so much better than anything I could have done!

After the costume winners were announced, the party started to wind down pretty quickly. Most of the people at the party had to work the next morning (I had an early workout the next morning) so a lot of people were trying to get home. I left pretty early too, but since that’s when most people were leaving I didn’t feel like I was missing too much of the party. I went around saying goodbye to all of my friends and walked out to my car.

On a random side note, this was the first party since my car died on New Year’s Eve and it was a little stressful driving home. Even though I have a totally different car, I was still paranoid something would happen on my drive home. I’m sure I’ll feel like that for a while because things like that stick with me. But I got home safely and I’m so glad that I have a car that doesn’t have any problems!

Overall, it was yet another amazing party for the Oscars. I love getting together to watch the show and it makes me feel a part of an amazing community. Most of us know at least one person who works at the Oscars (I know 3 or 4), and we love getting to celebrate movies and be proud of our friends who are there. Hopefully one day I’ll get to attend the show in person, but I know if that happens I’ll probably miss going to the party since that’s what I look forward to each year!

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Low-Key Halloween (or A Work In Progress)

Posted on November 2, 2016 | 1 comment

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, but this past Halloween I was feeling a bit down. While my stomach was pretty much completely better by then, I was still feeling off and the night of my friend’s Halloween party I was pretty exhausted. But even though I was feeling not myself, I wasn’t going to miss what I knew would be an epic Halloween party!

The party was held on Saturday night (so most people didn’t have to work the next morning) and originally I thought I would have to work that night before the party. Since that’s what I though my schedule was like, I planned a costume that would be easy to do going from work. But then the week before, I found out I wasn’t needed anymore that day, so I had all the time I wanted to get ready for the party. I debated changing my costume, but I decided to go with my original idea.

I saw an idea for this costume online, but I changed it up a bit to make it my own. But all it took was some caution construction tape and a hard hat to turn me into a work in progress! It’s not my best costume, but it made me happy and I liked that it wasn’t something that was obvious right away. Plus, I felt cute and that is so important when you aren’t feeling totally like yourself.

halloween-costume

Every year, Marie and Chris make their parties bigger and better. They said that they were going to tone things down a bit this year, but clearly that plan went out the window! As soon as I got to the party, I saw that they turned their back patio area into a huge carnival tent!

circus-tent

Inside of the tent, they had different little rooms set up with seating and lots of old carnival posters.

in-the-tent

And they had a photo set up with a stage advertising a freak show!

freak-show

It was incredible! They put months of work into the party and I know all of us are so grateful that they love to host and do these insane parties! And none of us expected them to go as big as they did this year, so I think everyone was extra surprised when they saw all the work in the backyard.

Because I was feeling a bit low, I spent most of my time sitting down and talking with friends. But that was perfectly fine with me. We got to have a lot of fun conversation about our costumes, we discussed politics (which I love because we can have a polite debate), and several people asked me how I was doing and what was going on with my liver.

And as always, they had amazing food at the party. Most of it was stuff that I knew I shouldn’t have, so I tried to eat before going to the party. But fortunately someone made meatloaf with mashed potatoes on top (it almost looked like a cake) so I was able to eat something and feel like I wasn’t missing out on too much.

I really wanted to be more social than I was especially since there were friends there that I hadn’t seen in a while, but after being at the party for about an hour or so I started to feel a bit worse. I took it easy and tried to relax while sitting down and that helped the odd feeling go away. But I also knew it as a sign that this wasn’t going to be a party that I was going to be at for as long as I would have liked.

I ended up leaving around 10pm (I had been there about 3 hours) and unfortunately I ended up missing the costume contest. But everyone else there had such incredible costumes that I knew there was no way I was going to win or place, so I was ok missing it. I’m just glad that I got to be there for a few hours to see my friends and the super creative costumes that they made!

It was a low-key Halloween party, but it was perfect with me. And as far as what I did on the actual day of Halloween, that will be tomorrow’s post!

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