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Community Corner

Totally Out of Character

This year for Halloween, I went as a Slacker

Based on all of the photographs I’m seeing posted on Facebook, I would say this was one of the most creative Halloweens in recent memory. There were so many fantastically surreal and scary characters that if I didn't know better, I could have sworn I was in a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon’s office.

One friend of mine dressed as Cindy Lou Who (she looks just like her) and her husband dressed as the Grinch. My mother dressed as Princess Beatrice wearing her insane fascinator from the royal wedding. An old friend and his girlfriend did professional-quality makeup for their Day of the Dead costumes. Another photo I saw included a couple that dressed as Beyonce and Justin Timberlake, both wearing black leotards and black pumps from their “All the Single Ladies” sketch on Saturday Night Live.

It takes a surprising amount of testosterone to parade around in a leotard and high heels. I totally respect that.

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Even with all of this creativity and enthusiasm for the holiday I just couldn’t get motivated this year, which is unusual because I love Halloween. It is always my favorite holiday because it gives me an excuse to dress up. Not that I need one. The year the Salahis sneaked into the State Dinner, my husband and I dressed as them and went to a Christmas party. Sure, we were the only people dressed in costume at the semi-formal party, but that costume was awesome and it wouldn’t have still been topical the following Halloween.

And it’s not that I didn’t have anything to dress for this year. I had plenty of opportunities to dress and celebrate. Even my company hosted a Halloween party that featured a costume contest and it was still not enough to get me into the spirit. I did, however, muster up enough energy to dress in all black and tell everyone I was “someone mourning her lost youth.”

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Not surprisingly, but somewhat redundantly, being out of character felt completely out of character for me, so after missing all of my opportunities to dress up over the weekend, I finally put on a costume Halloween night, took pictures in it, then, at her urging, traded it for jeans and a sweater to take my Superhero Kitty daughter trick-or-treating.

Which is a shame, because I think trick-or-treating as “Steampunk Mom” would have rocked.

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