halloween 2008

It was quite a Halloween this year. We went to a great party just down the street, hosted by a couple of our friends. If you want the whole boring story of how it came to pass, it's below. But, with no further ado: my Halloween 2008 photoset.

          

JR already had a costume planned, since his was a team effort. I, on the other hand, had no idea what I was going to be. Last weekend we tried a costume store in Lower Haight, but it was so crowded and everything was just jumbled up, and since I didn't have a plan, I couldn't pick anything that was right. Anything that did strike my fancy wasn't even near the right size. I saw an incredible Marie Antoinette wig strung with pearls, but they didn't have any matching costumes, so we left. I bought some orange/black striped tights in the hope that I could come up with something simple around that.

By 10am on Thursday, I was really starting to panic. My aunt and uncle were coming in that night, so I'd have zero time to work on a costume the night before. Then JR sent me a link to a costume more my size on buycostumes.com. The clouds parted and a ray of light shined down upon me. They had tons of costumes that would (should) fit, and if I ordered by 3pm, it was guaranteed to arrive by 3pm on Halloween. I can't say enough great things about buycostumes.com. USE THEM!

Then I spent forever trying to decide which costume to go for. They even had some sexy ones, and I was kind of leaning towards that. In the end, I chose two from two different sizing systems, to be sure that if one didn't fit, the other hopefully would. I ended up with a pirate costume, and a Marie Antoinette costume. The catch: they were sold out of decent wigs. They had some really crappy ones that looked like they were made out of the same material they sell for you to stretch all over the place into cobwebs, but no way! I got my order in, and then I had to get back to work. I'd have to leave the wig hunt for Friday.

The package needed to be signed for, so I worked from home, and miracle of miracles, it arrived before 11am. The delivery guy joked about how I was cutting it a little close. No kidding! I tried them both on. Marie fit. Then I tried on the Pirate. Explain this to me: how can an XL be so enormous on top that it won't even stay up, but so tight in the bottom that it won't stay down? Then I put on the wrap-around corset-like middle thing, and it literally wouldn't lace up. That's not very good for the ego, I can tell you that much.

So Marie it was. Now a mad search for a wig. I knew the Haight shop had one the weekend before, but it was doubtful it would still be there, and they'd already set up lines in expectation of the crowds to come. Oh well. Best bet. There was a long line out front, but it went pretty quickly. And they had ONE wig left - the one I fell in love with. We got JR a wig too, and some glasses. And me some tanga pants. And then a gold mask too. We finally got out of there, fully prepared to costume up. Yay!