A few weeks ago, I was thumbing through a few old childhood pictures and stumbed across my Halloween costume from 3rd grade. I wanted to be a BELLY DANCER, so my mom made this costume. I remember wearing it to school and freezing cuz it was late October (obviously) and having to wear a white cardigan sweater half the day-- which really disappointed me cuz it ruined the whole outfit (again, obviously).
Looking back at this now, I find it extremely interesting that even back then, I had a fascination with far-away cultures and women from abroad. Who would have thought that 22 years later, I would be studying and spending time working in some of these very places I used to dream about. Huh?!
- But while we are strolling down Halloween memory lane, I thought I would brag about some of my other costume choices over the years.
In 4th grade, I dressed up like a giant PANCAKE. I wish I still had a photo of it. My mom and I made it with 2 giant pieces of foam cut into circles the size of me and yellow & brown spray paint bought at Home Depot. We painted the foam in the park across the street from my house. trying to acheive the perfect brown-yellow mixture that said "Golden Brown Pancake with Butter & Syrup"-- which was tricky.
In 8th grade, I dressed up as a PICNIC TABLE (I have no idea where that idea came from). I bought some red & white ginham checked fabric, stretched it over my shoulders with a broomstick balancing it squarely. Then I stapled plastic forks/knives/spoons, paper plates, and napkins in a 6 piece place setting on it. Topped the whole thing off with giant rubber ants that I also glued to the fabric. I won the middle school costume award that year-- as well I should have! However, sitting in class was a challenge.
My sophomore year at UT, was the same year that the KA fraternity got busted by a local news station for duct taping a drunk pledge to tree in the front yard of the frat house to keep him from stumbling around and hurting himself. So, gutsy Anna showed up to the KA house Halloween night dressed as "THE DRUNK PLEDGE DUCT TAPED TO A TREE". I copied his whole outit from the news-- jeans tucked haphazardly into rubber work boots, a confederate flag Tshirt (of course), and a bright orange ski mask/hunting mask, with duct tape wrapped around my mid-drift, carrying a bottle of Jim Beam. When I showed up at the house, the joke did not go over well when they first saw me, but when I ripped off my mask to reveal "its just Anna", I somehow got away with it and ended up being asked to be in 1,000 pictures that night with people who thought it was hilarious.
Finally, my most recent award winner was MARGE SIMPSON from "The Simpsons." I think I was 25?? Anyway, I made a bright green tube-dress out of random fabric from the thrift store, wore bright red high heels, donned an eye-catching blue bee hive wig (I already owned for some unknown reason), made a red necklace out of sparkly red puff balls from the craft store, and topped the whole thing off with 2 inch wide, flat google-eyes glued tothe lenses of John Lennon-style glasses. My cousin and I were celebrating Halloween that night at a bar in Houston and won the best dressed "couple" award... he went as a fireman (the year of 9-11).
Those are by far the most memorable... will I ever dress up again??? How could I possibly top these, so probably not.
