I love Hallowe'en more than I love most things, but this year I cannot come up with a costume. This is a sad and embarrassing failure; I wouldn't blame you if you thought less of me, even stopped reading this blog. But if you are still reading, here are my excuses:
1) The party I am going to is TV-themed, and I haven't had a working television in 4 years.
2) Prior to 2004, all my favourite shows were sitcoms, and all those characters look approximately like real people. How would you *know* I was dressed as Bailey Quarters, even if I straightened my hair?
3) I am insanely busy these days and will actually be away for most of this week. Even when I am not insanely busy, I am a poor seamstress and have had bad luck with hair dye. Whatever costume I wind up with cannot be complicated, blond, or bulky (the party is also very far away--I don't want to spend an hour trying to keep my wings or antennae or whatever to myself).
Are these constraints not imposing? I am seriously thinking of covering my clothes with Styrofoam peanuts and going as no-signal snow... If you have a better idea (and almost any idea is better than that) please please share it. I will be forever in your debt. I'll bring you candy!
After twelve / just as well
RR
Rebecca Rosenblum...
is a writer and editor who likes a lot of stuff. This is a blog about that stuff, and also her writing. Rebecca is the writer-in-residence at Jean Vanier High School, and was a juror for The Journey Prize 21. Her work has been short-listed for the Journey Prize, the Danuta Gleed Award and the National Magazine Award. Her first book of short stories, Once, was published by Biblioasis and was one of Quill & Quire's 15 Books That Mattered in 2008. Rebecca's stories are occasionally seen in Canadian periodicals and her second collection, *The Big Dream,* is forthcoming from Biblioasis.
1 comment:
Hallowe'en is my favourite day of the year, and I used to go all out, but this year it seems to have lost its flavour. Last year I went as James Joyce, which involved nothing more than shaving my beard differently an putting on an eye patch under my glasses. The year before I went as my dad (it took me a loooong time to do the aging makeup, but in the end when I showed him pictures he thought they were shots of him). This year I think it's the cheapo Superman route (a Superman t-shirt under a suit with the dress shirt mostly unbuttoned).
Since television is the theme this year, though, might I suggest going as DI Alex Drake, from Ashes to Ashes (the sequel to the amazing BBC show Life on Mars). All it would involve is dressing as a plainclothes Detective Inspector circa 1981 (Alex is a woman, of course). You can read about her here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Drake
There's always WDC Annie Cartwright from Life on Mars itself (which was a better show, and set in 1973, if the earlier clothes appeal more), but she's kind of a weak character.
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