Halloween Festivities- I'm The Laziest Costumer Ever.

So.  Halloween.  I love Halloween!  I love it for many reasons; it is kind of the kick-off to the Holiday Season, most importantly.  It comes in the fall, my favorite season, so naturally I am going to like it because of that too!  I also love candy, of course, and I LOVE seeing kids dressed up.  When I was married and living in an actual house, my favorite thing was to pass out candy to trick-or-treaters, giving generously to myself, of course.  In short, I especially love Halloween when it comes to children.  

For me, dressing up in costume is overrated as an adult.  I'm just not really into it.  Mostly because I can never think of anything great, nor do I have the mental prowess and resourcefulness to actually make an idea into reality.  People are surprised by this, considering my profession.  But I am telling you- in shows, people put costumes on ME.  I don't have to think them up, design them, make them. I just get to show up and put on great clothes.  That, yes, I do love.  But to have to do all the work myself?  Eh.  Not really my thing.

So, on occasional years when I do actually feel peer pressured/slightly open to being in costume, it's all about the easiest, lowest maintenance, lowest costing solution.  This year was one of those years.  I present to you, Liz Lemon from the TV show 30 Rock.  Ladies and Gentleman, Liz Lemon.  Liz Lemon, everybody.   A button down shirt, blazer, boot cut jeans, my glasses, and a bag of Cheetos.  That's it.  Thank you, Pinterest.com, for the idea.  You are a gem of a website.  

In NYC every Halloween there is a huge costume parade that people get really into.  Anyone can walk in it, so I have a bunch of friends who love to do that every year.  And they really do come up with some great costumes!  As evidenced above in the picture of me, my Brook and Dallin. They both look great, especially Dallin's geisha.  I mean, come on.  That's a great costume.  Anyway,  we had a big group, and tons of creativity, and I loved seeing all of it.

Fat ballerinas?  Brilliant.  Possibly my favorite, in part because it was just a fat suit Lisa and Stephanie put on over their clothes.  My kind of costume. :-)

Well, some went off to walk in the parade, and some of us actually just went to dinner.  I was definitely in the dinner group, and felt great about it.  I didn't feel the need for the parade marching.  A lot more peer pressure will have to be applied before I do that.  (When did I get to be such an old woman??)

So we ate dinner and then went to St. John the Divine, the largest cathedral on the east coast, and of course it is right here in NYC.  

The celebration was called the Procession of the Ghouls.  We watched the 1926 silent version of Phantom of the Opera with a huge organ playing throughout, and then a parade started, with really creepy music playing, of ghouls.  It was so cool!  

I can't really describe it, and I couldn't really even tell you the definition of a ghoul, but I hope the pics do some justice.  It was a fascinating night.  

We ended up at a diner where I made a new friend....I don't know that there is any need for an explanation, except to say, Sexy Bunny.   Just that.

Laughing so hard we can barely take the picture, you know.  Par for the course.

The BEST part of Halloween was getting pictures like this sent to me from sisters who knew I would want to see my kiddies!  Love them!  

Happy Halloween!

Halloween Blaze

Another fun thing I did in October to celebrate the Fall/Halloween season was go to the Halloween Pumpkin Blaze in the Hudson Valley, about an hour and a half out of the city.  It was basically like those parks with tons of Christmas lights in crazy designs, except with carved pumpkins.  They weren't all real (how could they be, I guess), but a lot of them were.  It was the perfect combination of awesome and slightly creepy, with different areas and scenes and music in minor keys playing throughout.  It was very cool, and the company was even better.  I don't have a lot to say about it, so here are the pics:

The crew: Ty, Emily, Dallin, Alexis, Ros, Sharon, David, me.  (The one on the end, looking like a stranger photo bombing someone else's picture).

Jack O Lantern In The Box?

A zoo, you know...

The Bride of Frankestein.  And a graveyard.

With Faux-Pumpkin (or Fumpkin) Zombies.

Self explanatory.  And creepy.

We are very close to Sleepy Hollow, of Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow takes place.  So, naturally, we have The Headless Horesman.

Chinese New Year?  Nope, just a fumpkin dragon.

My girl Alexis and I.

Sometimes you just need to end a blog post with a picture of a cool lantern.

Our Day in the Leaves. or Storm King

I feel like I'm about to tell you some Nordic myth about a king who created storms to stop wars and prove to his queen how much he loved her.  Or something.  But I'm actually just going to tell you about the sculpture park my friends and I went to.  It happens to be called Storm King, and the leaves are stunning this time of year.  The sculptures were cool, but really, I just wanted to play in the leaves!  It was Fall paradise.

It was a perfect weather day, and the drive upstate was beautiful in and of itself.

The best sculpture of the day was a picket fence made of mirrors.  It was fascinating!  A rare mirror selfie moment for me, but totally necessary.

Most of these pictures really speak for themselves.  There are a ton, but can you blame me?

Sharon and I, trying to take a pic, unsuccessfully.  

This is when I dared David to to somersaults up the hill.  And he did.  It was amazing and hysterical.

Mel and Jon, just being.  

David, just...I'm not sure what he is doing.

This David saw me climbing and insisted he didn't need to try it himself.  He lied.

Eating some amazing pizza in Cornwall on the way home.  An adorable main street.

Oh, I love Fall.  And I love living on the East Coast for it.  It's my favorite.