Halloween

I love the idea of Halloween.  It combines some of my favorite things:  drinking, costumes, debauchery, and dressing slutty in a socially acceptable forum.  But somehow no matter my situation in life, who my friends are, where I'm living, I never seem to have plans on Halloween.  Let me rephrase, I never seem to have solid plans-in-advance, this-is-the-party-we-are-attending-on-Halloween plans.  I always do something but I almost never have a costume or anything like that.  In fact, the only time in my adult-ish life that I can remember having a costume on Halloween was senior year of college.  We were throwing the party.  It was one of my favorite parties that year.

He's prettier than a lot of the boys that were on stage yesterday.

This year my something was getting invited to the Rocky Horror shadowcast at the last minute.  Which I loved.  It reminded me a lot of freshman year.  It was in the East Bay near Bobby's house so there were a lot of kids from Berkeley there.  Freshman year Nathan would have fit right in.  When we went to Rocky Horror back then in Williamsburg, Nathan was in crazy drag.  And definitely the only one.  In Berkeley it was the costume of choice for those college boys.  Oh.  And people actually knew what to shout at the screen.

There was this guy sitting next to us who clearly goes to showings on a regular basis.  It was obvious that what he lacked in social ability, he made up for with his obsession for this show.  It seemed that he found community and status in his ability to shout vulgarities at Brad and Janet, to wear platform heels and smack his ass in the costume contest.  While I was busy cringing at the way he was screaming himself hoarse, interjecting far more than any other audience member, and berating himself for shouting something early, one of the lesser cast members was busy falling in love with him.  Let me be straight with you guys:  he disgusted me.  He came to the show alone and seemed to have no filter.  He was flashy and wanted approval, but it seemed like he couldn't get it in his every day life so he got it from a crowded theater of Rocky Horror fans.  He had learned everything to say and how to act so that he could fit in somewhere, not just fit in, but actually be cool and respected.  He was over the top.  He was desperate under a guise of extreme confidence.  At least that is the snap judgement I made when he wouldn't stop shouting out crude jokes and snide, superior comments as Rif Raff tried to introduce the show.  AND THAT WORKED FOR HIM.  Because during a lull in the show, one of the Transylvanians draped herself across his lap and started asking how he knew so much about the show.  He answered in a cocky, oily tone that he'd been to the show many times before.  She continued to throw herself at him, and he continued to eat it up, growing all the more smug with each one of her sycophantic little giggles.

Consolatory tights.

Anyway, today my Halloween plans were pretty much nil.  I'd done my something, so I wasn't hoping for much more.  Early in the week I had gotten a vague invitation to Napa for the weekend, but after several frustrated text messages and even one unreturned phone call I realized I wasn't going to pan out.  So I walked over to the Panhandle neighborhood where they have a Lucky's Grocery.  I picked up some cookies and a copy of Bridesmaids from the Redbox.  Then I went down to the Haight and spent way too much money on a pair of tights I'd been eyeing for the past three weekends (that don't match anything I own).  I came home, put on my tights, made the cookies, watched Bridesmaids, and blogged.   Any other weekend and this would have been a great night.  I mean, it was a great night, but at the same time it was lacking.

I remember Andy telling me that he doesn't really like New Years because he never really has a good time.  I think that's how I feel about Halloween.  Like I said, I like the idea, but it never really seems to pan out.