You are never too old to dress up

Happy Halloween! After having pretty crappy halloweens for the last few years, I was pretty skeptical when Nada invited me to dress up and go out on Saturday night. I don't know if it was my holiday spirit, my general happiness these days, or all the mimosas our waitor was sneaking us at brunch, but eventually I agreed to go out. We promptly went to Ricky's - if you don't live in NY, Ricky's is the biggest chain of halloween stores. The store was pretty crowded (although it was nothing compared to the line at the store on the upper east side - it wrapped around the whole store!), but it was kind of nice to be around so many people who were so excited about dressing up. I found a flapper costume, and tried it on in the store right over my clothes. Nada laughed at me, but then a few minutes later did the same thing. There were no dressing rooms, and I would have been pretty angry if I paid $40 for something that didn't even fit. Anyway, Nada decied on a Cleopatra costume, and tried her dress on over her clothes too. She wasn't convinced it looked good, even though the weird store clerk near us and I told her it looked awesome, so I told her I would take a few pics with my camera. After all, the camera never lies...

Doesn't she look cute? When she saw the pics she was convinced, so then it was over to the wigs. She got an awesome black wig with these snake thingies on it (it was the exact wig that was pictured on the package of her costume, so that was lucky). Nada was the queen of good finds at Ricky's. She found her wig - stuck all the way in the back of a row of different wigs. She also found me a blonde bob to go with my flapper costume. We decided that what would really completel my costume was one of those long cigarette holders. We looked all over the store and couldn't find it, and then right as we were about to give up and check out she saw one! Champagne must really make her focused. So we headed back uptown to my apt to get ready, and I think that was actually one of the most fun parts of the night. I've been living alone for a long time, and usually don't have anyone hanging around when I'm getting ready to go out.

This hair is really not my color...maybe if I was more tan...

The gloves I am wearing I bought 10 years ago - for my senior prom! I don't even remember if I ended up wearing them, but at least I put them to good use now!

Nada looks so great - I was telling her all night long to cut bangs like this...

Once we were all ready, we headed downtown to Nada's boyfriend's apt. We were being silly and taking pics of each other in the taxi, and at one point the cab driver says: "What's going on? Are you taking pictures of me?? I keep seeing a flash!", and we said that no, we were taking pics of each other and not him. I'm not sure why he thought we would be taking his picture, but whatever.

Nada worked wonders with her lip liner that night...I was totally jealous all night long...

Nada's bf was dressed up as a soldier - "Sgt Robzilla", and some people throughout the night thought he was a real soldier. We went along with it, just for fun. Once we picked him up, we all went to his brother's apt. His brother and his brother's gf were dressed as pirates and their costumes were awesome. They have an apartment with one of the most amazing views of NY I have ever seen! They also have a dog named Jizzy who is adorable, but who tried to hump my glove a couple times. Oh well.

Here are Cleopatra and her soldier...so cute :)

Who would have thought a soldier would be hanging with a couple of pirates?

We first went to a club called Myst - the boys worked some magic at the door so we didn't have to wait in line, which was awesome. It was so crowded inside we could barely move. Everyone was dressed up, and the costumes were so great! Some people really go all out on Halloween. We somehow managed to make it to the bar and get a couple drinks and try to dance a bit (the dancing was more like bouncing in place because of the crowd, but still fun). After a while we decided to get the heck out of there. We wandered around for a little bit, and eventually went to some other random bar. We could actually breathe here so it was a drastic improvement. 2 notable funny things happened at this bar:

(1) There was a bar back dressed as some kind of Roman soldier, and Nada's bf's brother kept calling him "Sparticus", and kept telling Nada to order our drinks from Sparticus. A little later Nada and I were in line waiting for the bathroom, and who walks by but Sparticus. He stops next to me, and sort of leans in and says "Hey". I said "Hey back" and he goes "Do you know how to swing dance?". Kind of a random question, but maybe it was because of the flapper costume? Who knows. It just so happens that I do know how to swing dance, and when I told him that, he got all excited and said "Great! You have to promise that we can do a move later. You're the first girl I have met in NY who actually knows how to swing dance!". I thought "do a move later" was kind of an odd way to put it, but I said sure and he happily walked away.

(2) Nada and I went to the bathroom together (typical girls I guess), and the bathroom door had a large mirror running the length of the door. No big deal, but when we went into the bathroom and shut the door, we turned around and saw that we could still see all the people who were outside the bathroom waiting in line! It was one of those 2-way mirrors, like in police stations (I am basing this on my experiences watching Law & Order, so I don't know if real police stations actually have these mirrors). So basically, we could see everyone outside the bathroom but they couldn't see us. It was very unsettling. And to make it worse, the people outside were checking themselves out in the mirror, so it really looked like they were looking right at us! Weird. After this bar, I hopped in a cab and headed back uptown. It was kind of a random day altogether, but so much fun!! I am once again a fan of Halloween. It was also so much fun to finally hang out with Nada and her bf together (they are so cute you almost want to vomit!), and to finally meet her bf's brother and his gf. I hear so much about them all the time, and it's always nice to have a face to go with the names. They were a great group - even though I was totally the 5th wheel, and didn't know them, I never felt uncomfortable or left out or whatever. It was great, and I can't wait to dress up again on wed! Nada and I decided that since we spent money on costumes, we have to dress up on actual Halloween and go to the parade in the village. Hopefully later this week I will have some really interesting pics from the parade...