A Halloween Like No Other

No house parties or bar celebration this year. Only a small work celebration without bringing food for a potluck. Now as the day goes by, I'm still wondering if any kids will try to come. If so, my mom and I have something planned to give out candy. I certainly won't do this:

Because I wasn't sure I'd be celebrating, I didn't think about possible costumes for this year. Sometimes I begin thinking about this as early as August or September, but I this year got a feeling about what would happen for Halloween this year, and that feeling was true. So no ideas came to me, even as I looked on costume websites. And I had no interest in wearing anything related to 2020, such as toilet paper or hand sanitizer. Then it occurred to me to redo something form a previous year, since I and some left in a drawer. As I said on Wednesday, I redid my Tropical Depression costume for the work celebration. I was considering doing it again tonight, but I had been torn between doing that one yet and and another I still had. This one was actually from a 60s party we had at work in 2018. I pulled it out for today. I took the pictures below, and will put it on again tonight. This dress easily slides over my clothes.

This came up on my Facebook memories today:

This was in reference to the 2016 election. This year, there are only three days between Halloween and the election. Even more scary!

And even more scary is that Daylight Saving Time ends tonight. I always get messed up when the time change begins. And so do our cats. 

Even if though I have to stay home tonight, I can still wear the costume because it's fun and we got to have fun one way or another, even when homebound. And there is a new Saturday Night Live on tonight. That's something to do tonight. 

I miss being able to walk around and take pictures of neighbors' Halloween decorations this year or to see others wearing costumes at stores this year. And going to the bar. Things I hope will be back for next year.

Even More Humor for Halloween and for the Election

 

Costume Redo

For our celebration at work yesterday we played bingo to win candy as prizes and several people brought candy bags for each client who showed up. In the past we'd had potlucks with many games for holiday parties, but because of the pandemic, potlucks and extra games are out this year. I chose to redo my Tropical Depression costume, without the hat, and by wearing the grass skirt over my jeans. I wanted to wear it over my khaki shorts like before  but it's now getting too cold for wearing shorts in my neck of the woods. These were taken at home before leaving.

Since I knew parties at bars would be out this year, as wells the one I went to last year at the house of my writer's lab leader, I was uncertain about costumes this year. But then since I still had some left from previous years, I decided they could be redone this year just for the fun of it. I'm uncertain about doing this one again on Saturday, as I am not expecting a lot of kids to show up--it's usually like that anyway, and this year's circumstances likely won't change that. But it's still fun and people still have to have fun one way or another. I'll either redo this one yet again, or one of the others I have on hand, perhaps the tie-dye dress. 

Only two others came in costume yesterday, one as a bag of trash and one as Rosie the Riveter. This may be all I get to see in person this year.

Still More Halloween Humor

 

The Irony of Masks This Halloween

I went into the fall season thinking what is stated above, though it's been years since I actually wore a Halloween mask. I have always preferred not to have one as I felt them too restricting. I then got to thinking of those in the photo below. I grew up in the 1980s, and  I can't seem to recall ever wearing one of these boxed costumes which were around for such a long time. They certainly looked uncomfortable with all the plastic involved. And I have heard stories on how the string to hold the mask on would often break before the night was over.

 

Nowadays we see make like these, which i have never worn. They seems just as uncomfortable and even more so, since they cover your entire head. This is one thing I'm glad not to see this year, with the cancelling of bar parties.

Not an option this year.

The CDC has been warning people not to substitute Halloween masks for the cloth ones we have have been forced to wear in public the last seven months. 

At work on Wednesday this week, we will be having a small celebration without potluck food or interactive games we normally have for our holiday parties. We can still play bingo and will have prizes. Dressing is optional, and I may put on my tropical depression costume (without the hat). I will have to have my mask on, of course. I had thought about looking for one that is flesh-colored, but didn't seem to find any, and now time is running out. I'll just have to do with the regular one. It's going to look weird, but one has to follow the protocols. If I wear the costume at home next Saturday I won't have to have the mask on then except if kids come to the door. I still don't know what to do about that--given the CDc guidelines about trick-or-treating and the fact that very few kids seem to come to our house to begin with. 

Christmas in Stores Before Halloween

One thing I don't miss about not being able to visit stores much during the pandemic  except when needed is seeing Christmas stuff already in stores. Dollar Tree, for one, has already put out Christmas, shoving Halloween items (which they put out in July!) to the back walls. On my most recent trip to Target, I noticed a lot of Halloween costumes, but am not sure if I saw any Christmas stuff yet. I may have not been consciously looking, and I'm glad if I wasn't doing so🙂 

It seems inevitable that customers will start mixing up Halloween and Christmas decorations on shelves. As someone who once worked in retail, this is nothing unusual to see. Once at our now-defunct Kmart I saw this happen (see photo below)  and this was in September! And on a side note, this is one thing I will miss about Kmart. Their Halloween selection was always so much bigger and better than that at Target.

This had to have been done by a customer. Same
for the one below.

The picture above reminded me of working at Home Goods. The items in this photo look like the holiday stuff we would get when I worked there. And the Christmas stuff would arrive as early as September. I always wondered why, though it was inevitable. And it can now be expected in any stores. 

Even though Christmas is already out, I'm certainly not thinking about it just yet. Not to mention Thanksgiving, which people say stores forget about. Not too many decorations for Thanksgiving seem to appear in stores like Target and Dollar Tree, but do people really decorate for that holiday? It seems like the grocery stores make make more money off Thanksgiving, but more on that another time. I'd been hesitant about even decorating for Halloween this year because of the pandemic, but went through with it anyway. I am now certain I will pull out one of my saved costumes just for the fun of it. I still want to have some fun even if parties are out this year. 

Two Weeks Till Election Day

I have already completed my ballot. I took it to one of our town's drop boxes a week ago today. My mom has already completed her as well and took hers to the drop then also. We are absentee voters. Lately our mail has been arriving late in the day, often after 4PM, and the day our ballots came was one such day. But it was only five more days until we each voted and then dropped the ballots off. Who else has already voted?

As I have mentioned in an earlier blogpost, a sexy mail-in ballot costume exists for this year. One thing I hope not to see, but with bar celebrations off, I probably won't see any. And chances are no one in my neighborhood would be wearing such a thing to begin with. But it one wanted to be a ballot for Halloween, why waste nearly $40 on one, when you can make one yourself from poster board from Dollar Tree? Or a ballot box from a cardboard box? This would not be my first choice for a costume ever, but this is how I would do it.

Just update this to this year's info.

Color Coded Reading Challenge 2021

 This has been a favorite of mine and I will be in once again.

~Read nine books in the following categories:

1. A book with "Blue" or any shade of Blue in the title/on the cover: Girl in Blue--Ann Rinaldi (link)

2. A book with "Red" or any shade of Red in the title/on the cover:

Chasing Redbird--Sharon Creech (link)

3. A book with "Yellow" or any shade of Yellow in the title/on the cover: Chain of Gold--Cassandra Clare (link)

4. A book with "Green" or any shade of Green in the title/on the cover: The Earth is Painted Green--Barbara Brenner (link)

5. A book with "Brown" or any shade of Brown in the title/on the cover: Brown Girl Dreaming--Jacqueline Woodson [reread] (link)

6. A book with "Black" or any shade of Black in the title/on the cover: Black Ribbon--Susan Conant (link)

7. A book with "White" or any shade of White in the title/on the cover: Me and White Supremacy--Layla F. Saad (link)

8. A book with any other color in the title/on the cover (Purple, Orange, Silver, Pink, etc): Beyond Magenta--Susan Kuklin (link)

9. A book with a word/image that implies color in the title/on the cover (Rainbow, Polka-dot, Plaid, Shadow, Paint, Ink, etc): My Dark Vanessa--Kate Elizabeth Russell (link)

Challenge completed on June 1

Some Humor for the Holiday

 

Covid Halloween Images

 I saw this today on Twitter. 

And I saw this cartoon on Facebook last week:

Again, I would not have chosen a costume based on the pandemic, and am wondering if anyone would have even thought of any of the ideas in the cartoon. Not sure I'd have gotten any of them if someone actually did any of them (if not for seeing this cartoon), and it seems unlikely anyone will. Not such great ideas, in my opinion.