October 2005

Earl and I attended my family’s traditional Thanksgiving-Christimas dinner at Halloween celebration today. The tradition started nine years ago when my grandfather remarried and started going to Florida right after Election Day. Since he and his wife weren’t going to be around for the holidays, we’d all celebrate early with a delicious buffet and a smattering of presents. It was a good time to get together with all my cousins and such and catch up with the family.

I didn’t know if the tradition would continue since my grandfather passed on in July, but I was glad to find out that everything was going to go as planned. So Earl and I trucked up north and went through the whole early holiday dinner routine. It was good to catch up with the family and share some stories. It’s probably the last time we’d see my sister before she heads back to Moscow to join her boyfriend while he plays hockey. She’s going to be gone until April this time. This is going to be an odd holiday season. Thank goodness for the internet and webcams.

Earl and I just returned from a friend’s Halloween party. We had a blast hanging out with everyone and the food was delicious and it was a romping good time. On the flip side, I feel like a big weight has been lifted from my shoulders because it was a costume party. And I’m not really that good at costumes.

I’m afraid my gay card will be taken away.

I always think of the *perfect* Halloween costume on November 3rd. It’s a given. I look back at the festivities we attended and say “oh, I should have dressed up like Spiderman” or something like that. This year I had absolutely no idea what to wear for tonight’s costume party so Earl and I went as Eagles football fans. Not very ingenious since we are Eagles fans, but a comfortable costume nonetheless that allowed us the luxury of hanging out in football jerseys without the fear of dragging a bat’s wing through a cheese dip or a mistakenly leaving a Zsa Zsa Gabor diamond in the fruit punch.

Now I’m looking back at the party and thinking I should have worn a barber’s smock and thrown a comb and a pair of scissors in the pocket and gone as a barber. I think a barber with a shaved head would have been cute. See, I always think of these things too late.

The last time I had a really original costume was in the early to mid 1990s when I dressed up as a bag of recycleables. I wore nothing but a blue recycleables bag and hung a bunch of soup cans and pop bottles off of it. It was a bit drafty but I didn’t feel fat because I wasn’t in a Hefty bag after all and it was environmentally conscious. And very suggestive. Good thing I was single at the time.

I think I’m going to make a note to review this blog entry in mid October 2006 so that I’m better prepared next year. Barber smock. It’ll look great.