This Is How I Do Halloween in My Mid-Twenties

On my way out the door today, my landlord said, "You must be going to a party!"

I then had to explain that I was dressed up to take Baby Brother trick-or-treating. Lots of people in their mid-twenties go to Halloween parties, but not me!

Actually, I did go to a Halloween party, it was just on Friday and not today. It was a church-sponsored Halloween carnival. This year, Baby Brother and I put together costumes to be Greg and Wirt from Over the Garden Wall. We bought Wirt's cloak and Greg's overalls, made the hat and teapot out of a cardboard cone and card stock respectively, and scrounged together other bits and odd ends to make some respectable costumes.

After two years of dressing up as my actual gender, it was back to my usual cross-dressing. This was the fourth year in a row of my dressing as a cartoon character of some type and the second year ever of my dressing as a character played by Elijah Wood.

I wore my costume to the Halloween carnival. Best Friend Boy was there also. He was wearing the costume that he's worn for at least three Halloweens: a quarterback costume comprising a letterman jacket and a football. Best Friend Boy likes to play it safe when it comes to Halloween costumes. I understand why: although putting together a more obscure costume is lots of fun, only the people who are really familiar with the property usually recognize it.

Quite a few people approached me at the carnival. About half of them said something like, "OH MY GOSH OH MY GOSH YOU'RE WIRT RIGHT THIS IS AMAZING YOU'RE SO AWESOME!" The other said something like, "So are you a gnome or something?"

To my great amusement, several people had a conversation with Best Friend Boy along these lines:

PERSON: So what's your costume?

BEST FRIEND BOY: I'm a quarterback.

PERSON: ...that's it?

We also had a party at my workplace today. So I guess that technically, I went to two parties. However, the night itself was spent on the streets of Hometown with Baby Brother and Ginger Cousin.

It was pretty chilly even though two days ago we had an exceptionally warm night. The rule in Utah is that on Halloween night the temperature always drops, regardless of logic or science. Even though my cloak was usually stifling, I froze quite a bit during the hour we were out. But—all in all, a good night.