GLAMOUR AT THE GALA

Yesterday, I spent just over an hour ordering Christmas gifts from various websites. One of them wouldn’t accept my card the first time, and I tried again until it did (since I knew there was nothing wrong with the card and figured it was just a glitch). Right as I was finishing up getting ready to head out the door to the Halloween party I got a text message from our bank saying there was suspicious activity on my account and asking me to call immediately. So I did, and found they had put a block on my card until they had received confirmation it was actually me making the purchases. Once again my speediness gets me in trouble.

Like I said yesterday, I wasn’t really in the mood to go to the Halloween Party but I already had my costume ready and the appetizer I was bringing (thanks Costco!) and was driving my friend Lisel and her husband, so I couldn’t really back out at the last minute. The max limit of 25 was already full on the AIC website’s sign up sheet for the party but the hostess had 3 extras so we ended up being 28 people total. Everyone went all in on costumes, which made it really fun. In addition to the usual vampire, devil, werewolf, and witch, we had the Blues Brothers, 2 social butterflies, a highland dancer, Glinda and Elphaba, Jane Fonda’s aerobics assistant, 2 cats, a scary Japanese clown, an insane asylum inmate, a scary nun, Periomenopausal Care Bear, Ash and Misty (or Ashley and Mister) from Pokémon, Mr and Mrs Happy Gilmore, the T-shirt of Dread, and me.

I had decided I had to find a way to incorporate my turban into a costume, and as I mentioned in my previous post, I figured the easiest was to dress up as an old-style Hollywood star. I heard the names Norma Desmond and Gloria Gaynor bandied about but I hadn’t really based the idea on any specific person. It was a genius costume, though! I WON Best Costume! (hoping it wasn’t a pity vote for all those who knew WHY the turban) I had to laugh though, because I ended up stripping off almost all my costume by the time we were ready to eat. The shawl was too hot, the gloves were too hot (plus I couldn’t eat any of the finger foods with them on), the sunglasses were too dark and non-prescription, so everything was a little blurry), my bracelets kept catching on my shirt (and ripped two runs in the front, ARGH), and my grandmother’s clip-on earrings pinched like hell.

The party was really fun, the food was great: nachos and caprese salad and little sandwiches with the crusts cut off and my spinach artichoke bites. Both Lisel and Monica (who is one of the Activities officers) were celebrating their birthdays yesterday and Lisel brought a huge red velvet cake, plus there was a ton of holiday-appropriate sweet stuff to choose from. After the food, Kirstin divided us into 3 teams of 9 for the annual Halloween trivia quiz, and I was chuffed to have several people demanding to have me on their trivia team. Carys was our team leader and she gave us the team name of Hip Hip. The questions were SUPER HARD, lots of horror film questions, and since I have never seen ANY horror movies but one* I was not much help after all. I did know who the author of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was, and I knew the answers to a few more, but my team was awesome and we totally kicked ass, getting 18 out of 25 correct. The other two teams got 11 right, each. And when Kirstin announced that the winner was Team Hip Hip, we all screamed “HURRAY!” and it was hilarious.

After that, Kirstin put music on and lots of people were dancing and singing. I sat and chatted with a few others in the living room, and around 10:45 I rounded up Lisel and Martin and came home before I turned into a pumpkin 🙂

The clocks went back last night, so even though it felt like I had slept in when I looked at the time, I was actually awake right around the normal time I’d be waking up on a Sunday morning. It’s been raining, soggy and dreary weather all weekend. I’ve stripped the bed, started laundry, watered the indoor plants, ordered 2 more Xmas presents, emptied the garbage cans, and had lunch. Now I’m going to finish up the AIC newsletter so Lisel can publish it, and then settle down and finish my latest crossword puzzle and read a new book, and then later talk to my family along with Russell (and hopefully, Kathey). Happy Sunday to all who celebrate!

*From Beyond The Grave with Vincent Price, when I was 13-14, which scared the bejeezus out of me.