You're never fully dressed without a smile.

I haven't dressed up for Halloween in years, but when we were invited to costume-mandatory Halloween party this year, I got really excited.

I totally wanted to be a cupcake. I even found this awesome costume online that was exactly what I wanted, except I did not have "serious sewing know-how." My grandma, who used to make the costumes of my youth, would have totally made it from me but she died a long time ago. Sigh.

Plan B. Inspired by one of my favorite movies from my youth, I decided to dress up like Annie. My mom, perhaps sad when I mentioned that I wished grandma was still alive to help me out, got into action by finding me the perfect red dress, socks and mary janes (thanks, Marshall's!) and sewing white ribbon on my dress to get the perfect look.

Dan, who wanted a costume that worked around his glasses, decided to be Rainbow Man. If you don't know who Rainbow Man is, don't worry. No one does. Apparently, he is this famous sports fan from the eighties.

We made a cute couple:



Every year in New York, there is a big parade in the Village which is a dysfunctional affair of rowdy people in costume walking down the street. I went the first year I lived in New York and never again. Our party was located in the Village (not on the parade route), so we just hung outside on the apartment stoop and watched all the freaks go by. We were quite a spectacle ourselves.

Here is our group:


See if you can spot: Olympic diver Greg Louganis, Annie, an astronaut, an alien, newlyweds Ellen and Portia, gymnast Shawn Johnson, swimmer Michael Phelps, John McCain, Sarah Palin, Karate Kid in shower costume, a NYPD cop, Rainbow Man, two random people that I never figured out who or what they were.

We were quite the scene and had a lot of fans come and take pictures of us.


Sarah Palin and John McCain were the most popular. Here's them with Joe the Plumber.


This was the best costume we saw. Not sure if you can tell, but the heads of the cards are actually masks and then there are holes for the hands where the two actually carried the flower and the sword. They told us that they had a Jack costume, too, for their kid.

After some cops started eyeing us suspiciously (you aren't supposed to loiter on stoops in New York, especially with alcohol in hand), we took the party upstairs where astronaut Nien set up a smoke machine and a cauldron which was really the coolest thing.

I told Dan that we needed one of those. Dan said that as long as we live in the same city as Nien, we don't need a cauldron.


Doesn't this make you want one? For all of your parties?