Is This Thing On?

When you can't see your own eyeballs it's tough to tell if they're on straight.  This Halloween I was a slow starter, as in the day of Halloween I finally decided that I should make a costume, so Scott did some excellent fabric store scouting and found the perfect cheap fabric and we went to town making ourselves into the Yip Yip's from Sesame Street.   I'm not sure if I liked them before, but watching this again had me cracking up.  I think people either have fond memories or really disliked these characters, but a good majority remembered them at least vaguely.  Scott and I lined up to join the Village Halloween Parade.  They only let a few people through at once so the street starts getting more and more packed with people plus their costumes that may or may not include horns, antennae, halos, backpacks, or spikes, all of which can be dangerous to precariously glued on eyeballs.  It gets worse when a tightly packed crowd of Wild Things, bees and beasts find themselves in the midst of a downpour unable to move.  Some umbrellas come out which can be good or bad depending on your precise location.  Large umbrellas can cover a lot of crowd, but if you're the unfortunate soul at the edge of an umbrella you become a drain pipe for all the cold water that isn't reaching everyone else.  Discomfort aside, everyone was in good spirits and at least the rain made it cooler under those costumes, since after days of 50 degree weather it was suddenly 70 out.  We had a good time prancing along calling out "yip yip yip" and brrrring!  Everyone seemed to remember different parts of different skits, which we happily reenacted.  At certain points we had large swaths of people saying yip yip yip along with us.  A few people thought we were pink and green Elmos, close but not quite.  Or some people forgot what we said and shouted "beep beep beep."  When we'd finally had enough we got onto the train with our costumes half off and inquiring minds wanted to know what the heck we were.  As hot and soaking as we were, we shoved our heads back inside and did our Yip Yip bit, to the approval of the Entire Subway Car.  Many people were excited to see us and told us we were their favorite costumes of the night.   I will miss New York Halloween.

From 10_31_09_Halloween

From 10_31_09_Halloween

Greenwich Village Halloween Parade

Any adventurous people who like Halloween should definitely come visit me in New York at the end of October next year. I will show you a good time. Marching in the Village Halloween parade is an experience not to be missed. I tried to convince many friends here that they should join me, but they all either watch from the sidelines or pass altogether. When you're watching from the side, you really don't get to see everything, and you're so crammed in with other people that the only costume you'll probably see is the tip of some Wizard's hat. Of course there are the stiltwalkers and the amazing animatronic statues that tower over everyone's head, you'll see all twelve of those. But you won't see and experience the thousands of costumed people walking in the parade, and get people to clap for you, scream at the sight of you, cheer you on, laugh at you all while you have actual elbow room. Last night I headed down to Scott's lab and we got dressed and walked over to the start of the parade. That is the worst part, where you are standing in a large crowd of people who suddenly take up more room than they usually do, due to extra appendages and props. But once the cops let you out of the starting gate, it's smooth sailing. You can walk at your own pace and choose which band or musical float you want to walk by and dance with. You get to see everyone's costume, and everyone gets to see you. I had many small children tell me that I won, that I was the best costume they saw that night, which was a pretty great accomplishment considering the creativity that was on display. Of course, for all I know they could have said that to ten people that night, but I still felt proud. Two separate girls called me "cute" which I thought was a funny way to describe my costume, and many people did double takes as we walked by. A mime and a headless person, in love. That's an interesting plot line. Anyway, enjoy the pictures for now, and make plans to visit next year!