Halloween: Easy Costuming 101

Halloween comes with the tragedy of trying to find/slash/make a costume. Every year I think that I will find a costume, do this, be that. This year I didn't have to do a lot of thinking. In order to provide some helpful anecdotal information on how to make your halloween spookier here are a few costuming tips followed by phantom tips.

Costume design:

1. Have someone else think of your costume for you.
(This extricates you from needing to be original or putting any thought into it at all. I was happy to see that this step has already been followed in many cases--see "Toad" next post.)
2. Know someone who was this character the year before.
(This is a great way to build on something already great. If you already know people are successfully dressing up as this character, why reinvent?)
3. Find the materials - formulate costume.

Fantastically this deletes any real thought on your part and only up to an hour or so of assembly if needs be. A friend of mine (fellow chemist) realized our access to lab coats made us equally eligible to be scientists. Luckily he further deleted any need for my original thought when he suggested we be Muppet scientists. I was able to complete the rest knowing that a grad student in the class above me had done a variation on the theme the year before. And -- voila!

Dr. Honeydew Bunsen and Assistant Beaker.

The Phantom!

1. Choose a house with many obstacles in the yard. (This will eliminate the opportunity to get phantomed).
2. Go before 9 pm. (This will be more challenging as more folks are at home -- consequently removing guilt from riling them up at a very late hour).

This being my first experience in a highly residential area with small children, I have been enjoying the wonder of my roommates who are not used to the family environment. As I'm sure utah readers are aware, during halloween a tradition including doorbell ditching, a halloween treat and a phantom, is common in many neighborhoods. This phantom (piece of paper with ghost embedded) is to be hung in the window and the deed is to be forwarded to two other non-phantomed houses. This is not novel --but extremely novel to my roommates.

I came home to see the ghost and was not surprised by it. They were very excited; we made cookies (1 working day past the 2 day limit) and found ourselves unfortunately doorbell ditching around 11 pm. Very bad indeed! Regardless, we prowled the neighborhood looking for houses with lights on and good escape routes. I spoke of doorbell ditching, and one asked, why would you run away? I then explained that in this case, we wouldn't have to run very fast because there were cookies, but in other cases, it's not very nice. With amazement, they then both exclaimed that this "door-bell ditching" act was mean, and why would anyone do that? We ended up phantoming a friend (who subsequently was not home) and tapped lightly on anothers door and ran without caring of the outcome.

The point: There isn't one. Except that I'm still a little shocked that traditions so mundane to me from my upbringing in the lovely deseret can be so novel and exciting from my roommates from minnesota. I guess they just don't door bell ditch. Minnesotans have guns.

Two Parties, Two Costumes, Same Sheet

This week and weekend, I went to two Halloween parties. Right up to one hour before the beginning of both of them, I did not really know what I was going to dress up as.

Party the First: I got out of class early, exactly an hour and half before the party started and I callled a buddy of mine, Eddie. He had originally wanted to go as the Three Amigos, an ambitious idea that I didn't think was going to work. I called to ask him if that idea was still on. He told me that he and two other friends, Kurt and Nikki, had been at the store (and D.I.) a few hours before and had decided to go as the Mario brother, Mario and Luigi and Princess Peach (overalls, shirts and hats from D.I. and Nikki's Princess costume, a small $10 dress meant for 8 year olds). He mentioned that he still had the sombreros that we were going to use as the amigos. In a flash of absolute inspiration, I decided that I could complete the Mario Brother's group by going as Toad. I figured I could use the sombrero to make Toad's toadstool hat, and had everything I thought I would need, except for a white sheet that I could use to cover the sombrero.

Counting on the benevolence of my roommate, Russ, I borrowed the white sheet from his bed. The resulting costumes are pictured below. Also of note, we won the group costume contest and became instantly popular and wealthy, except for the wealthy part.
















The (award winning) Mario Brothers costume (the white bed sheet is on my head)


Party the Second: This party, two days later, also required a costume. I'd had to give the Toad sombrero back (and had put my roommate's sheet back). Also, I was going with just one person to this party, not three other people with pre-made Nintendo-oriented costumes. The girl I was going with already had a "dark angel" costume going on: black wings, black halo, black boots, leather jacket etc. Unsure about what to do, and having a can of spray-on silver hair coloring, I decided to go as a "real angel." Once again, this involved using my roommate's bed sheet.

Party II went over really well. And even though part of the second party involved a hay-ride and dinner of soup, punch, and other things capable of staining or sticking to a borrowed bed sheet, that bed sheet came home as spotless as it left (perhaps evidence of my apparent angelic attributes? You be the judge).
















Fallen-angel vs. real angel: The white bed sheet is helping me to look pious (and more like Moroni and less like a biker chick)


The moral of the story: There are more things you can do with a white bed sheet than with almost any other color.
Moral two: Be sure you have really generous roommates.

Back from Arizona

I just got back this morning from a 10 day trip to Arizona. Since I'll be busy trying desperately to catch up with school work for the next while, I thought I would take time right now to update the weekly photo and add a few more photos I took while I was away.



















The snowflake Arizona temple.

















Jamie, a friend in the reflecting fountain in front of the Snowflake temple.

















Two Shetland ponies at a host family's home in Snowflake. Ironically, Snowflake would have been a perfect name for either of them.
















A sunset in Arizona




































Mesa, AZ temple.


Anyway, Arizona is great and at a balmy 80 degrees average temperature, a might nicer than the currently snowy Provo, UT. Where there are plenty of snowflakes that are neither ponies, nor towns.

Pound Puppies and Pictures Galore

Yay! I have finally appeared, single handedly, on our blog. It's true, life is a bit nuts.. but slowly winding down so much more time to talk about the most important things in life: nothing indeed. :)

I just caught myself up with the other posts and had to laugh as I read through them. I was once an avid Ghostwriter fan as well. Seriously, that show was great..or at least as I remember it. Which reminds me of the other great shows we used to have as little kids. Have you watch any of the recent shows they have on now for the lil' ones? I guess as a nanny I get more of a chance than most, but some of them are pretty crazy and it makes me long for the days of Transformers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and of course, My Little Pony. I know they still have most of these shows.. but, those were the good ol' days. hmm.. this all leads to a very good question, what was your favorite toy(s) as a child? Top three, hands down: My Kid Sister, a giant talking Big Bird, and of course Pound Puppies. Loved them!

On Chemically Yours other note, it makes me laugh that you bring up journals, I found some of my old ones the other day. They are great! See, I was never good at keeping a journal so I have a bunch with one or two pages started. But the classics are in my first journal from way back in the day. Every entry includes pictures galore and plenty of misspelled words to describe my fun day mini-golfing or such. I even have a tearful page of when my sister forgot to give me ice cream.

Rich, two thoughts. I love the blog about Alexander. I love it because awhile ago when that movie 300 came out, they were handing out free copies of Alexander with it. I have yet to watch it and now understand why it was such a great deal. Second thought, completely off base was that you mentioned all the problems in Burma that have been going on for over a decade now. It is interesting that you mentioned this because I actually used to work with several refugees from there and have their life stories on a CD. It's pretty interesting and they are awesome people.

Well, I've done my part. . look for much more random entries from me in the future.

Ghostwriter, yes I do remember.

To the request of the other author[s] of this blog, yes in fact, I do remember Ghostwriter. I was a proud (though not at the time) follower of the episodes. I too sometime wished that mysteries would fall into my lap to be solved with the aid of a little dyslexia. Though, I jest. At the time I did love it, all the story line and all the love interest. Whatever happened to good public television. Unfortunately I watch nothing at all now, good public television or bad.

I do remember a lot of things. Unfortunately I don't remember a lot of things. I recently rediscovered that my journal from all my formative high-school years was lost. I discovered this a year ago when I moved from Utah to Michigan, but rediscovered it when I moved again from Michigan to Michigan. The unpacking of stuff reminds me of two things: 1) that I always am reminded that I have too much stuff and 2) there are things that I treasure and things I've misplaced. The things I love most are mostly small; Like the many books I've inherited from my great grandmother, the compass from my dad, the train from my grandpa when I was three. Then there are the journals that are somewhat irreplaceable (place a wary eye on UPS) and the one or two pajama shirts that somehow made it all the way from high school. Then there are the things I've misplaced, the journals provide the largest hole, and the rest, I no longer remember since they are gone. Funny how we tend to keep somewhat seemingly meaningless things, that hold value in the context that they were in at one past time. It's so much easier to remember when you have an artifact of sorts. This is probably the kind of thing they study in anthologies of history, although there is another author who can tell us about that.

Sometimes would it not be nice to have a ghostwriter? Thus all, my memories and journals would be documented in full form. Tomes of my life edited and woven together with sweet prose and emotion or full sarcasm and wit depending on my mood. Only then I could really say, yes I do remember.

Although, then I would need a secretary to keep them for me.
And not to ship through UPS.

Weekly Photos

This was the first Photo of the Week. Wasn't it cool? It was a crane and the sunset in Ukraine, from a trip I took there in 2006. It's a good'n.

This weeks is a sunset on the Mississippi River, near Nauvoo, IL, also in 2006. Enjoy.

Recap of things that were never Capped to begin with

So more than a week ago, I added a feature I titled "Photo of the Week," where I (and the "present in spirit only" other authors) can add cool/funny/interesting photos that we've taken. The ironic fact that in it's first week of existence, "Photo of the Week" wasn't updated until almost two whole weeks later is not lost on me. But the name remains.


Also, if any of the other ghost writers feel like adding photos (and a quick entry to explain them) that would be a cool, easy way to actually participate on this so-called 'group blog' (Tangent: Remember the PBS show "Ghostwriter"? Anyone? Didn't think so.).

Next thing. Over the last few weeks, I've been pretty busy, but several items of interest came up. I probably won't get around to writing them out as much as they deserve, but here, to give you a taste of what might have been, are the names and subjects of some blog entries that, alas, never came to be . . .



"Hold Your End Up,Tiny Dancer!!" - A few Saturdays ago I, Rich D, and a buddy of mine (we'll call him, Rich B.) were hired for a day of moving stage props and scenery for the University Ballet Department. I was told to be ready for some heavy lifting. About 5 other people showed up, one girl ballerina and four guys (ballerinos?). The ballet folks showed up, with one exception, in sandals and shorts even though we'd be clearing out a warehouse full of heavy, dirty and fairly dangerous stage scenery. Result: Rich D and Rich B do most of the work, nearly pull muscles, refrain from yelling at the tiny, tittering ballet dancers, and other hilarity ensues.



"What's in a Name?" - Rich D, listening to one of his favorite Beatles song, "Lady Madonna," decides that "Creeping Like a Nun," would've made an excellent title for this, or any other blog. (Note: he doesn't want you to take that idea. He wants it all for his greedy, little, intellectual-property-grubbing self). Also, just today while talking with "chemically yours", he decided that "For Free or Cookies" (a phrase used to describe what he'd be willing to pay for a physics tutor) would also make an excellent name for a blog and/or a band.


"'The Preachy Letter to the Editor' or 'Pretending to Have My Own Advice Column'" - There was a letter in Daily Universe this week (see here for my documented love of the Daily Universe) that had no purpose other than letting people know that the author of the letter thought that by eating healthy, exercising and avoiding junk food, it was possible to avoid the 'freshman fifteen' (15 lbs. typically gained by new college freshman with unlimited access to cafeteria food and vending machines approximately twelve feet from every entryway on campus). Further reporting would probably show that the author is also a firm believer that breathing helps to extend life and that when released from all means of support, objects suspended in the air tend to fall down (although she's not totally convinced about that second, obvious statement. She'll get back to us). Was it a fairly harmless letter? Yes. Was I going to make fun of it for being pointless and more of a lecture? Heck yeah.


Oh, and I also considered writing more serious observational things about the monks protesting the deplorable government atrocities in Burma and also about the upcoming visit of Sen. Harry Reid to BYU this Tuesday (The Democratic Majority leader deep in Republican territory, also the first visit from a politician since Vice-President Dick Cheney came and was protested during commencement exercises last April. Interesting). Of course, the options were between writing about 1) nothing, 2) funny stuff or 3) serious stuff. So typically serious stuff doesn't hold a candle. I'll keep you posted. Maybe.