What are you going to be for Halloween? I know somebody who’s mother sewed a loverly tiger costume for her once.

Oops. There were a couple of problems with that. One is that this costume had a hat. With ears, of course. Did this child like to wear hats? Noooo waaayyyyy. I will never forget the day it was 10 degrees with blowing snow and Mouse was about nine months old. I got the beach urchins all bundled up for a run to the Westgate Kroger. I got them out of the car at Kroger and by the time we were at the door, she had pulled her hat off. And yes, I was judged. Typical Planet Ann Arbor busybody: “Why isn’t your baby wearing a HAT?”

A worse problem? I had not chosen the correct aminal (intentionally misspelled) for the costume. I did not know that at the time. At the age of 18 months, when this photooo was taken, this child could talk. She was capable of saying things like, “Cookie could I please baby” and “Would you please read this book to me” with perfect enunciation. What she could not quiiiite pull together yet was, “I am not a tiger, I am a MOUSE!” By the next summer, she was able to articulate her identity in no uncertain terms. We arrived at the moominbeach and my uncle very innocently asked, “And this must be [insert birth name here].” The emphatic retort from the then two-year-old was, “No this is *not* [insert birth name here]” (without even looking at him). And then, “No [insert younger 2nd cousin’s name here], that is not your shovel. *I* was using it.” Yes, I picked my battles with this child.

This long preamble may have embarrassed my competent, independent adult child but the post is really about me. The LSCHP has decided that we are going to have a Halloween luncheon on Wednesday and we are all encouraged to wear a costume. I think there will be a contest. I am certain that I won’t win it. I [of course] don’t really care if I win it. But I do feel the need to have some kind of costume and where is my good old Aurora Borealis costume when I need it? Alas, I threw it out a couple years ago. It was disintegrating.

Last year, The Commander was getting settled into Freighter View and she called me in need of a costume of sorts for a Halloween celebration. I knew that she didn’t need much. Some of the people at FV have forgotten about Halloween and/or aren’t comfortable wearing anything but what they are used to wearing. But The Comm was excited about participating and I wanted to help her with that. I sent some fancy pieces of fabric that she could drape wherever she wanted to. And The Beautiful Jan provided a hat.

After Halloween, The Commander became a frequent flyer to the hoosegow and things went downhill and I think Jan got her hat back. I *remember* taking the fabric back to The Planet. Can I find it now? Noooooo. I know that I didn’t throw it out.

So, I am not sure what I will eventually end up presenting myself as at our Halloween party. My team went to Woldemort today to pick up some party supplies. We are systems analysts and even though we love parties and costumes and stuff, we are kind of more interested in just doing our work. We’ll see what I end up with as a Halloween costume. You never quite know…

P. S. The tiger brightened up considerably when she realized that if you dressed up in a tiger costume and went door to door yelling “trick-or-treat” “shoe on”, people would give you candy.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 29th, 2012 at 7:04 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.