Costumes, Cosplay, & the Joy of Being Odd

I love costuming. Since I was very young, I always got extremely excited about Halloween because it was the one day of the year I could wear any weird thing and pull it off without anyone batting an eye.    It doesn't matter if I'm using spray paint, tape, string, or the sewing machine, I find great joy in crafting my weird creations.  This year is no exception, unless you count exceptionally strange.

My theme this year is related to previous costumes I've done, but with a whole new twist.  I've been to comic cons and other such events dressed as a large number of things, from a horror show serial killer to a Star Trek bridge crew member.  I even dressed once as a royal family member who had been roped into participating in Christmas baking, you know, the kind of thing you see in Hallmark Christmas specials and other such shows.  This time though, I'm going as the ghost of the victim of the fictional serial killer I previously dressed up as...and what's more, I'm going to make it funny!

Yep, there was a very notable scene where a woman was chained to a cinder block, the block was thrown in the lake, and down the woman went.  Dressing as the victim may sound morbid, and in many cases it may be, but not in my case.  Nope!  I'm putting a humorous twist on it.  My styrofoam cinder block is ready to go, as is the plastic Halloween chain.  I've been working on fake seaweed and it is progressing well.  Next up is the fish I need to make to put in my hair and attach to my clothes.  If I have time, I'll attach some lures to my clothing as well, after removing the hooks of course!

I don't know what your plans are, but let your creativity run wild and have an amazing Halloween!

 

Influenced by the Green Movement or the Green Berets

I have a herd of kids. Most are out of the house these days. Occasionally, I will reminisce about decades gone by.   The following is a short, humorous  story, true life that is, that I wrote about 10 years ago. It still makes me laugh and hopefully it will you as well.

One day my preschooler announced that she had chosen her future occupation.

Recently, my preschooler announced that she had chosen her future occupation.

“What do you want to do?” I asked her, hoping I’d either been such a great mom that she’d say “mommy” like me, or that she’d realized her artistic talents and would announce “painter.”  

“I’m going to be a fish rescuer,” she told me proudly. 

Thinking that maybe she’d overheard the news talk about the need to keep the oceans clean, or perhaps she’d decided that she wanted to stock the tanks at the local pet store, I asked, “What’s a ‘fish rescuer’?”

“I’m going to use bombs to protect fish from sharks,” she explained, smiling.

Clearly, if any sort of green movement is affecting my kids, it’s not the environmental one, it’s TV’s green berets—Sylvester Stallone and Steven Seagal.