return to halloween at pcc
Today, I am back to work in costume for Halloween, for the first time since 2010. I took a six-year break.
Shobhit was actually living in New York in 2010, but at the time, in keeping with the family tradition at Dad and Sherri's place in Olympia, Shobhit came home for his birthday and Halloween instead of my traveling to him. I had two separate costumes that year; at work, it was the last of six years in a row in which either Kibby, Shauna and I, or Kibby, Jared and I (three years each between Shauna and Jared) came up with a theme for all three of us. For 2010 we were "Rock, Paper, Scissors." But in Olympia, Shobhit and I dressed up as "Yin and Yang."
By 2011, Shobhit was living in West Hollywood, but we actually came to Olympia again that year -- dressed as "Occupy Halloween" protesters. I kind of forgot about that until just looking it up. If I didn't go to L.A. that year, why did I not dress up at work? Checking my calendar . . . oh, right: Shobhit left his car in L.A. to come visit, so I took both Halloween Day and the day after off, so we could take the train down, leaving Seattle at 9:45 a.m. Now I remember! Actually I take that back, I don't remember it at all, even though there are pictures. I just have pictures and journal entries and my Google Calendar to prove it.
And then! Starting in 2012, that was the start of four out of the next five Halloweens spent in West Hollywood, for the massive West Hollywood Halloween Carnaval. Shobhit and I attended in 2012, skipped 2013, and then went again each year in 2014, 2015 and 2016. After that many times, honestly, that was enough. Anyway, I still spent Shobhit's birthday -- the day before Halloween -- with him in L.A. in 2013, but we both flew out of L.A. on Halloween morning, just to different destinations: he to India, and me to SeaTac, from which I went straight to Olympia instead of going home to Seattle just yet.
All this is to say, that's how and why I was not at work for Halloween, whether I was in L.A. or not, between 2011 and 2016.
I just went back even earlier in my Outlook calendar on my work desktop computer (okay, technically now I have a laptop connected to two monitors, whatever!), and I actually haven't left work early on Halloween day in order to get down to Olympia that evening since 2008 -- when Kibby and Jared and I dressed as "the Good, the Bad and the Ugly" but in Olympia Shobhit and Barbara and I all dress up as three members of KISS. This is because Halloween landed on weekend days in 2009 and 2010. It was on a Monday in 2011, but, as I said, I took that whole day off so Shobhit and I could take the train to Olympia.
Quick aside about that "Good Bad and Ugly" costume: we all knew I obviously had to be "Ugly," as a clear irony since I always think of myself as beautiful. Ironically, I happened to be the heaviest I've ever been that year and thus arguably the least attractive I've been my entire adult life. I kind of hate photos of me then now, when I weighed over 170 lbs. At least I still had the right attitude regardless of my weight.
Anyway! I'm wearing the same costume now that I wore to Jennifer and Eric's Halloween party on the 21st: my red pants, pink shirt (okay the shirt is closer to purple-pink now; the pink one I wore then is still at the dry cleaner); blue fairy wings with a white wig and tiara, with scepter. I didn't assemble it completely until I got to work, but I did put the wig on at home. It was sort of interesting busing to work with this blonde wig on. I don't think it even registered as a wig to most other people out and about.
This tiara and scepter are actually from work, and have been hanging out as one of the many fun knick knacks I've assembled for years. I've had them since at least 2004 (that photo was taken in 2005, but only on January 6), and took a kind of iconic photo of myself with them in 2008. I'm kind of amazed I've waited literally thirteen years before incorporating them into a Halloween costume. I'm still pretty proud of myself, though, that this is the first year ever that I've managed a costume without having to spend a single cent, and using only items I already had laying around. The lucky break this year is the pair of fairy wings, which Shobhit got for free at the Volunteer Park Pride Festival in June.
So anyway, at work I'm also returning to another tradition: hot apple cider and popcorn provided for staff. It's for this reason I skipped breakfast this morning. My weight was already up slightly past 145 lbs this morning -- at least I've taken 5 lbs off since breaking 150 lbs early last week -- and I know I'll be consuming too much today as it is. I do love me some hot apple cider, though.
Another aside: themed costumes with Kibby and Jared have long been a thing of the past. Not for any negative reason, really; just natural evolution of work titles and relationships, I guess. Jared doesn't do the same type of job in Deli and Meat that Kibby does for Health and Body Care and that I do in Grocery anymore -- actually, Erica does. Nor do we all sit in neighboring cubicles anymore, and we haven't for a long time. Jared and I don't even talk that much anymore, just by virtue of how different our jobs are now. He did stop me in the hall yesterday to talk about having seen a photo of me holding a goat, though.
It is pretty warm under this wig, I must say.
We've got a lot of great costumes at work today, actually. I'm kind of surprised; I don't recall staff bringing it to this extent in the past -- but then, it has been six years. Alicia's "Sabotage" costume is amazing. Jess's "Whisk-y Business" costume is hilarious. (I had to ask what she was supposed to be; so far as I could tell she was just walkining around the office in a dress shirt and no pants. Then she whipped the whisks out of her pocket, and posed for this stupendous picture with a meeting going on behind her.) Claudia dressed as Barf from Spaceballs -- perfectly apropos for her; her default message on our Skype system is my favorite, a quote from that movie: "Evil will always triumph, because good is dumb."
Leon came dressed in a hilariously huge puffy T-rex costume. There's a bunch more around, too many to name. I hope to get more pictures before the day is out, although I'm leaving at 2:00.
I guess I could mention The Killing of a Sacred Deer, which I went to see last night at 6:30 at the Meridian downtown. It's by the same guy who did last year's The Lobster, so I really expected it to be great. Instead, it was just good. Pretty deeply unsettling, though, which he was clearly going for.
I was home about an hour between returning from work and needing to go out again. I had the leftovers from my falafel plate ordered at Saffron Grill for dinner Sunday, and I watched an episode of Lady Dynamite, since I'm putting Stranger Things on hold for Ivan and likely won't continue with that until next weekend. There are six episodes left to watch.
I then took my library book to read while walking back downtown. I was able to catch a bus back after the movie, although it still got me home no more than five minutes earlier than if I'd just walked the entire way. Such is the idiocy of public transit a lot of the time. That took me to about 9 p.m., and the next hour or so was taken up writing the review. I was getting ready for bed not long after that, so there, now you're updated on my evening.
A bunch of us just gathered in the "Ranch" conference room for Halloween costume pictures, right after I was done eating my lunch. Alicia, dressed in her "Sabotage" costume, sat across from me at the table. It was weird and jarring, because it turns out she makes a great middle-aged mustachioed retro policeman who looks and acts nothing like her.
Oh, I need to vote for the best costume still. I forgot about that.
[posted 12:31 pm]