Okay, you know I'm just going to get right into photo statistics, so let's get right to it!
I took—or rather, kept—a
101 shots for Halloween Day (and night) yesterday. Mind you, the photo set is slightly bigger even than that: four related shots from earlier than yesterday means the set has 105 shots.
I totally thought these were new records. But guess what? The record
remain with 2020—the first pandemic year!—for which I have 105 shots from Halloween Day itself, and 111 shots in the Halloween photo album itself. Halloween 2022 has the
second largest photo album. (Prior to 2022, the record had been 70 for the Halloween photo album in 2012, but 90 for Halloween Day totaled in 2015; it's just that I separated "Random Hot Guys" into their own photo albums during the four years I went to West Hollywood Halloween Carnaval with Shobhit.)
Halloween this year, in spite of there no longer being virtually any covid restrictions to speak of—although I should note I did still see some people walking around the neighborhood last night with face masks on—was much more mirrored to 2020, with the length of my "Halloween Day" photo album being a combination of photos from work and photos from the now-annual Capitol Hill Halloween Walk, which proves to be extremely photogenic. (It was especially fun to discover that in 2020, when family holiday gatherings could not happen at all, and thus most holidays yielded smaller than usual photo albums.) In 2020 I managed a pretty good sized, 27-shot "Halloween at PCC" photo album even though the celebration was only virtual that year—and, I was just reminded by looking again at the set, that was separate on October 30 since the 31st was a Saturday that year; I only included a few work shots in my Halloween Day album that year, which really reached its record size because of not one, but two Capitol Hill Halloween walks: first with Alexia in the daytime, then again with Shobhit after dark. That was the only year I did the walk twice, and I took 99 shots on those walks alone. This year, the 38 shots I took at work combined with 61 shots on the neighborhood walk—along with a few others—to reach the near-record (but still #2) size photo album.
Last year was anomalous because Shobhit and I went to Las Vegas for Halloween weekend, 34 shots taken on Halloween Day excluding any Capitol Hill Halloween Walk shots because Shobhit and I took that walk two nights before Halloween instead (and one night before we left town), so those shots got put into my annual "Halloween Time" photo album, typically full of Halloween themed shots not taken on Halloween itself nor at any other even that would necessitate its own album. Also I only kept 42 of the shots I took on the walk last year. I took a lot more this year.
There is one way I
did break a record this year, however! And that's the "
Halloween at PCC photo album. When photos at work actually happen on Halloween Day, they overlap with my overall "Halloween Day" albums, but I also keep them in separate albums specific to PCC Halloween celebrations. And, my
Halloween at PCC photo album this year has 43 shots in it—a record by 7, beating the previous record in 2019.
Had the pandemic not happened, it's very likely this record would have been broken again in only a year or two. 2019 was almost overwhelming in its unprecedented Halloween participation at work; the
work costumes group shot that year featured about 56 people, up from 29 in 2018 which itself was up from 18 in 2017. It was quite the trajectory until the pandemic hit, although even in our Zoom celebration in 2020 I created a collage of 14 people in costume—less than 2017, but still larger than the only other, older group shots I have, from 2005 and 2007.
2021 was a sort of ironic let-down, because it was the first year of "hybrid work schedule" being commonplace, with some people working from home, some people at the office, and some people working at one or the other only on some days. Coordinating virtual events was a lot easier when that was the only option left to all of us. Combine that with the amount of office staff turnover over the past couple of years, particularly in the Executive Assistant and Office Management positions (these are who typically coordinates these events), and last year no one even realized it would be up to them to try putting something together—they might have, had I inquired about it, but I didn't; I just came to work on the Friday before Halloween last year, which was October 29 (because last year Halloween landed on a Sunday), not only the single person in any kind of costume but one of very few people who even bothered to come into the office at all. That's how last year's "
Halloween at PCC 2021" wound up with only 13 shots, less than half the year before even though the previous year we were all virtual—but, we did have a virtual event for the holiday.
This year, we had far more participation than last year, perhaps slightly
less participation than in 2020, but far more
enthusiasm for participation than we'd had since 2019. I helped a little on the "Halloween holiday committee" that Mel smartly formed because she did not feel equipped to take these events on herself the way her predecessors (like Kwanteria) did, but it makes sense to delegate. I did not do as much work as others did, although they all did seem to appreciate my value as de facto "PCC historian" with all my photos, and references to what was done at office events in the past. And of course, again, I took plenty of photos this year—as evidenced by the record number I took.
Indeed, I would argue that, greater participation in past years notwithstanding, the approach this year actually made it
more photogenic by default: I had a lot to take pictures of! And not just people's costumes, either. With the exception of the 2020 virtual event, every year before the day was just a regular work day like any other, except with people in costumes, and typically popcorn and hot apple cider provided. This year, the Halloween Holiday Committee decided on a specific, late-afternoon
event, largely to encourage people who are usually working from home to come in.
Most of them still didn't, but some of them did: I don't know the exact number but I'd say somewhere close to twenty people either attended our "Halloween Happy Hour" scheduled yesterday from 3 to 5 p.m., or at least stopped by; 13 people came to the party in costume, and although he didn't make it to the party, I saw Darrell in a great
king costume in the morning, making a total of 14 costumes I saw at work yesterday—that particular number being on par, actually, with participation in 2020.
Beyond that, though, we also had a costume contest; a contest to guess the number of candy corns in a jar; crafts on the kitchen table for decorating miniature pumpkins; and a brief game of Jackbox in the TV room—all of which, but especially the pumpkins, provided ample opportunity for more pictures. (I took photos of two pumpkins I didn't even see yesterday when I got to work this morning, set on the front desk.) Halloween may have had far more costumes in the past, but this holiday had never been so involved as it was this year. And I really appreciated it.
As with the Holiday Ugly Sweater Brunch last December, I had no real issue with the crowd being smaller for this event. We're still enough in the pandemic that the entire office gathering—and we now have more than 110 office staff—would have been triggering for most of us. About twenty people, for now at least, remains plenty: big enough not to be even close to a disappointment, but small enough to be a comfortable sized crowd for 2022. I had a great time, and deeply appreciate that we're back to making things happen, in this instance of this holiday even more than ever before.
Anyway. Did I mention what I dressed up as this year? Note the photo at the top of this post: "Crazy Cat Lady"! Tracy actually gave me this idea on Monday the 17th, after we had dinner at Lost Lake Café and we were browsing shops on Broadway, most of them closed because it was too late or just because it was Monday. I was lamenting, at the time, not having a clue what I was going to dress up as, and when she ran this idea by me I was like, "That's
perfect!" And then: "It's totally on brand for me!"
I even had to do very little in the way of shopping for anything new for this costume. We did go into a few places on the 17th looking for stuffed cats I could use, and we actually found a beanie baby type one in the Asian market at the Light Rail Station, but I could not justify the cost for just this one use. By the time I ventured out again last Sunday, having already previously looked at one thrift store on an earlier date and trying one more Sunday that was also a bust, I went to Lifelong Thrift Store on Broadway and found not one, but
two stuffed cats. I had been delighted to find after going home on the 17th that I already had three stuffed cats at home, one of them life sized and two more miniature, getting these two new ones to make five was perfect. Seven dollars for one of them was a bit steep but the other one was only $3, so I spent $10
on both: not terrible. I then went to nearby Panache, which always has a ton of Halloween supplies, but they also had cat earrings I loved and I did spend about $14 on those, but they will definitely be worn again many times; that's not tied only to Halloween.
I also have these two tiny cat toy figures, like the size of my fingernail, that Stephanie S gave me ages ago at work. Those have long been at my desk and I stuck those into my wig. Between the tiny toy cats, the earrings, and the stuffed cats, I had nine cats on my person yesterday. One of them, one of the two new stuffed cats from the thrift store, I pinned to be
sitting in the hood of my hoodie, which a couple of people (particularly Marie) found very cute; she had to get a picture of it.
Speaking of the wig, this was repurposed from
the KISS wigs worn by Shobhit, Barbara and me for Halloween 2008; I actually cut about half its length off for this year's costume. I had also repurposed one of them for Halloween 2014, when both Shobhit and I
dressed I drag. That one had more the length I wanted already, but it was not still in my Halloween supplies box—I have no idea what happened to it. —or so I thought! I literally just now realized it may very well still be in the bag where I kept the drag outfit Shobhit had worn. I never thought to look in there, so I'm still not sure. Oh well; I was thinking I would need to "rat" it out, and after cutting this wig, it was already pretty bushy so the wig I wore arguably worked better anyway.
Side note: we got those wigs for the KISS costume fourteen years ago now. Clearly, keeping past Halloween costume supplies handy proves to be a smart idea, even if it takes a decade or two for them to be used again. It saves money and is less wasteful. I have so many hats! And I never wear hats, except on occasion on Halloween. I must have five or six hats now, plus three or four wigs. I've repurposed the blond one several times already, but that one didn't get used this year. I felt a "Crazy Cat Lady" should have dark hair.
One person came up to my desk yesterday telling me they didn't recognize me and thought someone new had been hired and was working at my desk. I was one of few people who stayed in full costume all day yesterday, which was somewhat of a challenge. I felt kind of pathetic, getting an ache in my shoulder muscle just from having
a stuffed cat sitting on it all day. It's not that fucking heavy!
I really thought, for a little bit, that I would still walk the neighborhood in costume after getting home. It would have been fun, and might have made for a few cool photo opportunities with certain yard displays. I had already ridden the bus in it both to and from work, after all—only slightly self-consciously. (I did see a few other costumes on the bus home, including
a doughnut.) But, one of the safety pins on the shoulder cat had already snapped off, and although I had come to work with another hoodie under the cat-pinned hoodie, I went home in only the cat-pinned hoodie but with the other one in my bag, and it was barely tolerable walking home from the bus stop. I could tell it would be too cold to go for the double-hoodie during the walk, which meant I wanted a regular coat, which meant keeping the costume on would be impractical. I took it off as soon as I got home. The cat hoodie is still on the table as I write this; I still need to de-attach the seven stuffed cats and put everything back in their place.
I had to go check the mail and take out recycling and bring in a delivered package. Shobhit was waiting to go up the elevator when I also came back to come back up to the condo after all of that. He took a minute to change his clothes and such, and soon thereafter we were headed out for our Third Annual Capitol Hill Halloween Walk.
The past couple of years, the walk went up 18th and back down 17th, or vice versa. A lot of houses have the same decorations, but a lot of them also mix it up; this year we returned largely on 16th, after overhearing a lady on 17th telling a bunch of kids to be sure to trick-or-treat on 16th. I'm really glad we did, because I got some great photos I never would have gotten otherwise.
Ideally, we would zigzag several blocks of 16th, 17th
and 18th at the north end of Capitol Hill, but typically there is only the energy to go up one and back down the other—largely because it's a good half- to three-quarters of a mile before we even hit the photogenic houses to begin with. Maybe some other year we should drive to some place closer first, so we have the energy to cover all three streets. Just a thought. I need to start figuring out a more ideal route to follow every year. The more years we do it, the more I'll get it nailed down.
We were supposed to do this walk with Alexia, but she texted me yesterday afternoon that she had a last minute work dinner come up and could not make it. She's the one who clued me into this as an option back in 2020, and yet both last year and this year she was unable to join me on what I have now made an annual tradition. Last year, as I said, Shobhit and I did the walk two days before Halloween—that also probably being why there were fewer photos from the walk I 2021, as it was not Halloween proper when Shobhit and I took the walk—and Alexia was unable to join us then either. I texted her that I'm still holding out hope for next year. I took a lot of photos this year, and texted her about half of them, which she seemed to really enjoy.
It was barely past 6:00 last night when we started walking; about 7:30 when we returned home, having walked nearly three miles. That left me about two and a half hours, which I filled completely with just processing, editing, cropping, renaming, and uploading photos to my Flickr account. That's why I haven't yet sent out, or even written, my Halloween email photo digest yet; my plan is to stay home tonight after work to get that done.
[posted 12:25 pm]
