Halloween through the ages

If you've been a faithful reader, it should come as no surprise to you that Halloween, a day when you can dress up, act ridiculous, and eat lots of candy is one of my favorite days of the year. Moving to Baltimore in 2005 was an excellent strategic move in that respect, because the entire city takes it as seriously as I do. For the first four years, I lived downtown, in Fells Point. On Halloween, it's unheard of to see even a single person in regular clothes, and it's rare even to see store bought costumes. Everyone has elaborate, creative, impressive costumes. 

It's my blog, so I wanted to take a trip down memory lane of my Halloweens in Baltimore.

My first year here, before I'd met Eric. We actually went trick or treating this year. For my real life friends who are reading, guess which of these 80s divas insisted on that?

2006

 Believe it or not, Eric was actually working when this picture was taken. I was supposed to be a Hoochie Hoodrat.The bar Eric works at had an army theme that year.

2007

Pippi Longstocking. Not as good as the costume my mom made me when I was 6, but still impressive.

2008

 Our most popular costume of all time, hands down. A Peeping Tom and a woman in the shower. Can you tell I even have a spout with "water"? Eric stayed up all night to finish it. Plus, any time I get to go out to bars in a bathrobe is a win for me.

2009

 Even though I was down the entire week before Halloween with Swine Flu, we still managed to throw this together.

2010

Get it?

This one was a little more obscure, but we were basically acting out my favorite song ever, Baby Got Back. Eric was Sir Mix-A-Lot, and I was the girl with the big butt. Even though I really provide that on my own, I used some cotton balls to really drive the point home.


Now you have some context to understand why it broke my heart this year that grad school, regular school, and running marathons took over our lives and we didn't get any Halloween costumes prepared. Eric was so busy working he didn't even join us in Fells Point last night. Which was just as well, because nobody got the memo that it was Halloween weekend, and you are supposed to dress up. Luckily, as I've mentioned many times before, it takes a lot to embarrass me, and this was far from doing the trick.


I met Casi, Carolyn, and John for pad thai to carb up before making the rounds in our costumes. While we waited for our food, we had a photo shoot in the restaurant. See what I mean about how "embarrassment" doesn't affect me?

Kip, from Napoleon Dynamite

Here's the real deal - how great is that costume?

Elmo did this to himself, no lie

Bend...

And snap!

Katy Perry, thrown together at the last minute. I already had the Elmo.

 Since I was already wearing heels and had broken every other "pre-marathon" rule in the book, I almost threw all caution to the wind and started drinking. But, I played it safe and stuck to water. I did pretend to take this shot though, then pour it into John's beer glass so I could take the cute free shot glass home.


Things have really changed from how we used to party back in the day. Instead of stumbling home at 2am when the bars closed, we made sure to end our drinking (well, my water drinking) in time to get frozen yogurt before the shop closed. 

Actually, Carolyn just looks like she fell asleep in front of the shop.

We were devastated to discover the hours had changed for fall and we were too late, so we just went home.   I thought I was going to have some chocolate when I got home, but I barely got my wig and heels off before I passed out. If I'm too tired for dessert, that's really the highest level of tiredness for me.


The high for Washington, DC tomorrow is now 47, which drastically alters my outfit plan for tomorrow's marathon. That is to say, I currently am freaking out because I don't have one. Weather.com rudely just informed me it is supposed to feel like 26 when I arrive at the start. At least it won't be snowing, like today.


Eric, being the ever thoughtful husband that he is, brought me these from Costco. I'm bringing at least two throwaway layers and a garbage bag. 

Do you dress up for Halloween?  If so, what's your costume this year?

Any advice for running a marathon when the weather is below freezing?