tricks and treats...

Friday: costume only half assembled. Get home late from the office, roommate is spectacularly dressed as Vampire Bride when I walk in. About 11pm her and her friend are about to leave, they get a call the Roxy has been shut down. No Motherfucker party (man am I glad I wasn’t planning on going). Quelle horreur. After consultations with various Brooklyn based peeps, I decide that it’s just too cold and I’m not totally feeling the witching season, so stay in.

Saturday: household chores done, costume has all the elements, just not in the right order. Heading over to the McKibben lofts to hang out and sort out costumes, I’m asked to pick up a bottle of wine and some fake blood [no, it’s not the basis of some weird ritual]. A bunch of places had already sold out of fake blood, so I head to a Ricky’s… where there are lines to get in about 20 people long, and staff monitoring the line like it’s a ride at an amusement park. Out. Of. Control. I end up joining the line, buying blood and things. Will cooks us an amazing dinner [it’s so nice to sit down at a table to eat with friends], we drink some wine, I play with the kitty [allergies schmallergies]. I have a nice wine buzz going on. We’re playing records. Will and Christian head on out, we say we’ll see them later. CC is prancing round in her Dead Heidi outfit, putting finishing touches to it, I’m probably going out as a vampire bunny [not the official costume, an alternative], we’re in contact with Lauren about a party in the East Village… Then somehow we’re sat in the kitchen chatting away drinking cups of tea and we lame out on plans, staying in to drink tea, play with the kitty, Peter’s playing guitar, there’s a dance party goin’ on down the hall that CC tries to persuade us to crash. No dice.

Sunday: wake up to a beautiful morning and a sneaky extra hour in bed as the clocks have gone back. We get up, put on records, CC makes tea and breakfast while I walk down to get the Sunday papers. Eggs Florentine and the NY Times as the sun streams in through the studio windows and 33 plays on the record player… beautiful. It feels like the first day of spring, not almost November. We go stand on the roof, taking it all in, then I realise I have to make the trek back to Joizey. The L is still fucked [why Halloween weekend, MTA? Why?] and the replacement shuttle buses are pretty crammed full. Stock up in Whole Foods Union Square before I waste my paycheck on crap [its so nice having a fridge/freezer/cupboards with actual food in them], get back to JC and only girl-roomie is around. I finish up my costume, sewing the appriopriate parts while half-watching the Goonies with her. She goes out a while later, ergo I have the place to myself. I move the furniture to one side in the living room – a place which is probably about 20 ft long – and have a lot of fun skateboarding around. Hard wood floors, can get up some good speed… I’m feeling hyperactive, decide to call my parents, not really thinking about the fact that it’s like 11 at night over there. My ma’s been working all weekend at a show and has been ill too, so she just ignores my bounciness. Poor momma. Roommates eventually start arriving back in dribs and drabs. I assemble my costume, head over to Lauren’s. We end up watching a really downbeat, sad episode of Grey’s Anatomy. Really conducive to the party spirit… Later we hook up with CC and head to Monsters Ball, drinking whisky along the way. It’s the beginning of my downfall…

Monster’s Ball: [things I remember]
• A lot of French people
• A lot of people dressed as Orthodox or Hassidic Jews
• This guy telling me that no one would understand how awesome my costume was [oh yeah, I went as a Warrior. Y’know, from the film The Warriors. It was rad. I had a bandana tied round my head ‘n everything.]
• Splitting to go find Sparks on Bedford Ave.
• A girl up a tree at Bedford and N 6th, screaming “I hate you!” at the top of her lungs as some guy tried to cajole her down. Surreal, even for Halloween, even for Williamsburg.
• Staring in horror at the window display of the Meat Palace or whatever the hell that place is called with the big ceramic pigs and bunnies and photos of Alec Baldwin and Freddie Prinze Jr.
• Chugging Sparks on the corner of N 10th before going back inside
• I should never have Sparks. Never.
• We go back inside and I notice they’re doing $3 “vampire shots” [whatever the hell that is] all night so I buy us each one. We thrown them back and all simultaneously agree they’re naaaaasty.
• Talking with Merlin about the coverage he got that morning in the Style section of the Sunday [NY] Times.
• Sarah turns up for her set. She tells us where the free vodka is. Oh dear.
• This girl who apparently looks like one of the dudes from My Chem Romance who’s dressed as Adam Ant thinks I’m hott and wants to make out. Nice to know I have options at least for when I entirely give up on the male species.

Things I don’t entirely remember:
• Most of the journey home [it’s an easy autopilot route back from the burg, lucky for me] [and, er, yikes]
• What time I got in
• What I’d done with my PATH metrocard this morning

Today, Halloween:
Wake up and I’ve overslept. Call into work and tell them I’m feeling a little under the weather but I’ll be in by about eleven. Eventually manage to crawl out of bed at about 10:30. Speaking to Lauren on AIM I discover I went back for more free vodka last night. This I don’t remember. Make some food. Think I’m feeling better so head to work. Get in at 12:30. Leave again at 1. Manage to hold it together on the PATH train, but it’s close. Get home, spend rest of day lying on sofa, watching Halloween-themed TV, like ‘Stephen King’s IT’ and, currently, Nightmare on Elm Street. Johnny Depp is so young and cute in this. Does he get killed? I don’t remember. I don’t even think I’ve ever seen this movie right the way through.

So Halloween-US style. Interesting. I’m missing the parade in the city [obviously]. I didn’t hit up many parties. I was impressed by the costumes and the lines at Ricky’s, clearly this shit is taken seriously here. I just had one tiny trick-or-treater but I wasn’t expecting any and we have nothing here [I also answered the door in my pajamas whilst talking on my cell phone. The mom was like “Oh – oh sorry, come on Rachel!”]

Happy Halloween and many tricks and treats to one and all.