Yesterday was perfect Halloween weather here in Eugene. Actually, it was just perfect weather, period. There is something enormously uplifting about cold, crisp, sunny autumn afternoons. I wish I could bottle up that feeling and bring it out on overwhelmingly gray days like today, when all my brain wants to do is shut off and go back to sleep.
When I was little, Halloween was a big deal. I still remember the palpable excitement I felt, rocking back and forth on my chair at the dining table, unable to finish my pizza because I COULD NOT WAIT for it to be dark so my little friends would arrive in their little costumes. Then we would canvass the neighborhood with our parents, searching for those elusive king-size candy bars and daring each other to go to that one house that was SO SCARY.
I am no longer a Trick-or-Treater; in fact, I was only eleven or twelve when I joined the ranks of the lame people who stay at home doing homework and don’t even carve Jack-O-Lanterns. Some crotchety part of me really objects to teenagers Trick-or-Treating. Come on, folks, leave the candy for the kids!
But that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy Halloween. In fact, to be perfectly honest, right next to that crotchety part of myself there is an eternally youthful part that will never get tired of playing “Dress-Up.” I love costumes. So I was stoked to wear one for the Gutenberg Halloween party last weekend.
This year I decided to turn my love of photography into a party activity. Using some gorgeous red curtains I borrowed from my mom and an awesome light that I borrowed from a friend, I set up a makeshift photo studio in a room off of Gutenberg’s foyer. The resulting photos of everyone in their costumes are every bit as dramatic and fun as I had hoped they would be. You can see all of the photos from the Halloween party in a Flickr set here. I highly suggest you go look at them; there are a few gems. 
Oh, and me? I went as Rita Skeeter, the “Enchantingly nasty” reporter-woman from Harry Potter.
… I will let you draw your own conclusions about the fittingness of that costume choice.
November 2nd, 2006 at 7:33 am
nice costume! bet you had lots of fun “reporting” on the event too!
one question: did you go for the false eyelashes afterall??
November 2nd, 2006 at 8:20 am
Sarah - Alas, no, I did not wear fake eyelashes, although I easily could have with that character.
In the end I decided that using outrageous mascara would be just as effective, and that I wasn’t looking forward to peeling fake eyelashes off my eyelids at the end of the night. So my practical side won. 