Bringing in November Halloween style

                                      Pictures of the 2008 Halloween block party courtesy of Kimberly Shookman

According to The Post, the crown uptown at the block party this year was relatively mellow and smaller than past years. There was an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 people that attended. Court Street was crowded and the partygoers were provided with music from local bands at each end of Court Street.  Vendors of all sorts came out and served much-needed food to the costume-wearing students.  The beer garden located on Union gave students the opportunity to sip on a cold beverage while listening to the bands uptown.  Many students came dressed to impress.  The Athens NEWS has a great slideshow on its Web site featuring a variety of creative costumes.  Even though the three groups I followed did not make it on the slideshow, they had a lot of fun and were very pleased with their finished costumes.

Girl Scouts

                           Logar, Kristen, Price and Julie posing in front of their house on Halloween

Well, they did it! They officially outdid their costumes from last year.  Julie, Price, and Logar all agreed that this year's costume was way better than they expected. "We destroyed our last year's costumes," Price said.

Their costumes were so original and creative that they were interviewed by The Athens Messenger.  However, they did not make it into the article.  "They picked stupid costumes like the Joker; I mean how original," Price said.

They had a lot of fun paying the part of electrocuted girl scouts.  "We would just pretend we got electrocuted all night," Julie said. "We kept telling everyone to watch out for the storm."

Julie and Price's favorite part of their costumes was their hair.  However, Logar had trouble keeping her hair big all night, which caused the marshmallow stick to keep falling out.

Overall, everyone who saw them couldn't stop laughing and were left speechless.  "I really believe our costume was up there for the best costume," Price said.

Grey's Anatomy

                                                                   The whole female cast of Grey's Anatomy

Cristina and Izzie

"I loved them," Kellie said after the Halloween celebration.  "I think we looked like the cast and people recognized us.  It was also the first Halloween that I was comfortable and warm."  

It is true.  We hardly walked a couple steps before someone would call out, "Hey ladies of Grey's Anatomy!"  For the most part, we received compliments and praise.  However, we also got some shout outs from some pretty passionate Grey's haters.  This was pretty hurtful; however, by the end of the night we learned to just turn our heads and pretend we didn't hear anything.

"I liked being part of a group," Kellie added.  "It was more fun because we could act out scenes together and I was with all my best friends."  

Kellie's favorite part of the costume was the names tags because they were legit and made the costume.  Sara liked the sparkly pager and her fake blood.  She also had a lot of fun filling out her fake forms.

They both agreed that it was their best Halloween yet.  "It was really fun and there was no drama," Sara said.  "It was everything Halloween should be!"

Jamaican Bobsled Team  

                      Eric, Tony, Bryon and Jeff posing as if they were in a bobsled

The compliments just kept coming for the bobsled team all night.  One of the bands playing on Court Street even gave them a shout out.  "We had a lot of people react to our costumes," Bryon said.  "Everyone was singing the song or saying quotes from the movie."

They also managed to stay in character the whole night.  They all talked with Jamaican accents and did not split up from each other.  It was apparent that Cool Runnings has a pretty big fan base from the responses they received.  "A lot of people knew more about the movie than we did, which surprised me," Bryon said.

They did run into one minor problem; the tape lost its stickiness.  However, they fixed it with safety pins.  

According to Bryon, it was the best costume he has ever worn.  "Overall, it was a very good experience and a lot of fun, and I think part of it was because of the costume."

Becoming the Jamaican Bobsled Team

Right after I finished up with the girl scouts, I headed over to Fern to see how the bobsled team's costumes were coming along.  Their main task for the night was detailing their black spandex with the yellow and green tape.  When I got there, Eric had just returned home from the Import House on Court Street because they had not yet received their Jamaican flag stickers in the mail.  Luckily, they had that resource a block away from their apartment.  Bryon and Jeff got right to work, while Eric and Tony sat on the couch and looked up pictures of the bobsled team. They mentioned that they were glad that a girl was there to help them; however, they didn't know that I was probably less creative than them. After consulting the image online, they decided to make a yellow V-shape going across the shirt and then filling it in with the green tape.  

                                  Bryon using the yellow tape to make the Jamaican details

                                    Jeff applying the green tape on his uniform

They seemed to have it under control and were flying through the process until Jeff attempted to try on the shirt. Right before he went into the other room to change (because I was there), Tony yelled out that it might have not been a good idea to tape the shirt before he put it on.  No one really thought about the fact that spandex is very stretchy and putting on the shirt requires it to stretch greatly.  Sure enough, once the shirt was on the tape was already falling off.  So, the first attempt was not so successful.  They were busy trying to get ready for the Halloween bash they were having that night and I had to get back home because my friend from UK was on her way, so we decided to leave all the work for the next day.  

                                     Bryon trying to reattach the tape after Jeff put on his shirt

This was not how I have spent my past Halloweens.  By 3 o'clock, I am usually ready and up on Court Street enjoying the entertainment.  But on this Halloween at 3 o'clock, I was speed walking with my best friend at my side to Fern Street with my notebook in hand and camera on wrist without a costume on.  When we walked in the apartment, I was hit with the smell of stale beer, which is the smell that makes you never want to drink again.  Then, as I proceeded to walk in the living room, my feet stuck to the ground every step I took.  It was a workout walking around that place.  It was safe to say that they all had a good time at their party.  I was glad to see that they meant business when I got over there. They were already dressed in their black spandex and black tennis shoes and were ready to paint their faces with brown grease makeup.  Bryon and Jeff started painting their faces in the downstairs bathrooms.  This makeup was stuff that really clogs the pores.  While applying the makeup, Bryon expressed concern saying, " I hope this does not offend anyone.  We are just trying to look as close as possible."  They needed help getting the back of their necks, so I stepped in while my friend, Katie, took pictures.

                        Bryon and Jeff applying grease makeup in their bathroom

                         Me helping Bryon paint the back of his neck

While I was helping out Bryon and Jeff, Eric had two eggs boiling.  He was planning on attaching the egg on a piece of thread and wearing it as a necklace.  Unfortunately, it didn't really work out and the egg crumbled each time. So, he dicided that it was a good effort but needed to forget about the egg.  After the boys were painted, it was time to spray their hair black.  Jeff was the first to be sprayed and he kept complaining that it was "so cold," which gave his roommates an open target to make fun of him.  Eric even used the black spray-paint to apply a mustache.  

                                               Tony spraying Jeff's hair black

         Eric using a cotton swab to apply the black spray on his upper lip

The guys put the brown makeup on their hands, which restricted them from touching anything. Anything they touched, walls, phones, clothes, turned brown.  Because of this, it was up to the people in the room without painted hands to apply the tape to their shirts.  "I feel like I am in a museum because I can't move or touch anything," Bryon said while his older brother helped him out.  They were having some problems with the green tape, because apparently someone at the party spilled a beverage all over it, which affected its stickiness.  Because it would not stick to the spandex, they put a piece of yellow tape down first and then stuck the green tape on top of the yellow tape.  It was quite the ordeal.  

                                     Victor helping his younger brother

              Bryon standing like a statue while Victor finished up the tape job

The last detail was to stick the Jamaican flag on their left thighs.  The process took less than an hour, and they guys were so excited to go show off their costumes on Court Street.  As the gathered up their belongings, Jeff quoted the bobsled team's chant, "Feel the rhythm, feel the rhyme; hop on in, it's bobsled time!"  As I walked on Court Street with the bobsled team, I was amazed at the praise they were getting.  Everyone recognized who they were and kept quoting the lines from the movie.  The team soaked up the glory.  While all the partygoers were complimenting the team, I was getting mean stares and confused looks because I had my everyday clothes on. It was at that point when I realized that I really needed to get home and get my costume on.  

                                   Eric adding his Jamaican flag to his left thigh

Becoming Grey's

Becoming the Grey's characters proved to be a long and tiresome process during the week before the Halloween celebration.  My roommates worked on their costumes throughout the entire week unlike the girl scouts who established a set time to finish their costumes.  Luckily for me, I live with all the Grey's wannabes so I was able to document most of their efforts while making the costumes.

I'd have to say the biggest task was the dreaded name tag.  While I was working on homework in my room, Kellie and Sara bursted into my room, plopped on my bed, and got to work on the name tags.  They told me they didn't want me to miss out on this endeavor for my blog.  I was very appreciative of their willingness and helpfulness during my blogging period. So, I put away my Sociology homework, got out my online journalism notebook, and got my camera ready. They both had their computers open, connected to the Internet, and ready to design the eight name tags needed by all our roommates.  This task, of course, was not very easy especially because Sara and Kellie were working on it together. They tend to never see eye to eye, which always makes things more difficult.  

                                 Sara comparing the name tags on the show to an image of the logo on eBay

Sara found the Seattle Grace Hospital logo on a shirt that could be purchased on eBay, and compared it to the name tags the characters wear on the show.  It was identical, except for the fact that the font was teal instead of navy blue and the background was navy blue and needed to be white.  She took extreme measures.  She opened the logo on Kellie's computer in the paint application and magnified it in order to see where the navy blue was.  She then started meticulously erasing all of the navy blue with the eraser bit by bit to make the background white. This process, of course, started to frustrate Sara.  "Why couldn't the people on eBay just make a white t-shirt?" she asked us while working on the logo.

 

                                               Sara working on erasing all the navy blue from the logo

After 10 minutes of staring at the computer screen trying to get every little navy blue spot between the letters, Kellie suggested trying to find the font and redesigning the logo themselves.  At first, Sara was not satisfied with just making the name tags Arial because she wanted them to be authentic.  But then she realized that the paint option was going to be extremely time-consuming and almost impossible, so she opened Pages on her Mac and started copying the logo.  

                                          Sara making the Seattle Grace Hospital logo on her computer

While we were all piled on my bed, Kristy came in with an official patient form from the hospital she works at.  Sara joked saying, "You being a nurse comes in handy for the costumes and also if we were going to die or something." These forms were going to let us put our doctor skills to the test on Halloween, because we were planning on filling them out for fake patients. While Kristy talked about her day at nursing, she compared it to Grey's.  "You know how people on Grey's get excited when bad things happen?" she asked us.  "Well, it is really like that!"

  Kellie looking over the patient form

While Sara perfected the logo, Kellie looked up the characters' pictures on ABC.com and e-mailed them to Sara.  The teamwork was just impeccable.  Then Sara added the picture under the logo and put their name and title below the picture.  She also found a barcode on Google images and pasted it at the bottom of the name tags, so they could be scanned when "we went into work." 

                                      Sara putting the name tags together on the application, Pages

After she printed them off, I helped her cut the name tags and put them into the laminated holders.  Everyone was extremely impressed with Sara's creative abilities.  Half-jokingly, Kristy complemented Sara saying, "The effort you are putting into these name tags is just leaving me gasping for air."

                                                        The finished name tags

To make the patient forms more official, Sara cut out the Seattle Grace Hospital logo and taped it over the other hospital's name and then made copies of the form.  We went to Staples and decided that five copies for every roommate would be enough to fill out.  

                                        Making copies of the Seattle Grace patient forms

The week flew by and suddenly it was the day before Halloween in Athens and everyone was running around trying to get everything together for the big event.  I felt like a chicken with its head cut off.  When the groups decided to work on their costumes dictated what I did with my day; I had no say of what my day consisted of.  Because we had yet to find a suitable pager, Sara and I went to Walmart hoping to find something we could decorate and call the "sparkly pager."  In an episode of Grey's, Meredith wins a competition and in return receives the "sparkly pager," which gives her dibs on all the good surgeries.  My roommates really wanted to make the pager, so we could fight over it in the street like the interns do on the show.  With Sara's creative wheels spinning, she picked up a Tic Tac container to substitute as the pager while getting ready to check out.  We bought the gems with adhesive backs to bypass the messy glue and tape. After the Tic Tac container was unrecognizable and covered in gems, Sara colored the top black and wrote the number 9-1-1 on it.  "It is just so pretty and we will also have mints all night," Sara said after putting the finishing touches on the pager.  

                                                       Sara smiling while decorating the Tic Tac box

                                                                                                               The finished "sparkly pager"

It was the night before the famous Halloween celebration, and most of my roommates were getting ready to go out for the night.  Kellie, however, had a different agenda.  She borrowed a friend's curlers and was testing them out to see if she could get Addison's beautiful, loose curls. 

                                        Kellie spraying a section of her hair before putting it in a curler               

Down the hall on the third floor, Kristy was also working on her hair to make it look more like Meredith's.  Except she was going a couple steps further than putting her hair in curlers.  She had bought light brown hair dye,which rinsed out after shampooing, and was applying it to give her blonde hair a darker tint like Meredith's.  Even though Kristy did not care for the look on her, the hair color looked almost identical to Meredith's sandy blonde hair. 

                                                   Kristy applying brown dye to her hair

It was finally the day of Halloween, and unfortunately I was not around most of the day to see all my roommates get ready because I was with the two other groups.  I did get home in time to capture Sara spray-painting her sister's hair black like Cristina's hair.  Sara kept most of the spray-paint on Kim's hair except for the layer of black on the top of her ears.  The spray-painting went surprising well, expect for when I tried to take a picture of Kim, which caused her to back up against the white wall, leaving a smear of black paint.  However, it was easy to clean up and wiped right off.  

                                        Sara spray-painting Kim's hair black for her character

When I went downstairs, everyone was anxious and ready to start the party.  My roommates dressed the part down to their shoes, jewelry and undershirts.  Kristy, for example, wore her Chucks and a maroon shirt under her scrubs like Meredith.  The final step, which was almost forgotten, was applying the fake blood that Sara had insisted on buying. She was the only one who opted to use the fake blood, because my other roommates wanted to look "cute, not gruesome."  So, Sara, Kristy and I went on the side deck where Kristy practically finger-painted Sara's scrubs with the realistic, fake blood, which concluded the process of becoming the Grey's Anatomy characters.  There was nothing left to do but celebrate, fill out the patient forms, and fight over the "sparkly pager."

                                                     Kristy flicking the fake blood onto Sara's scrubs

The Burning

Friday at 6 o'clock was the set time for the burning of the costumes.  When I walked in the house, they were a lively group. All four Gingers were there in their uniforms ready to go.  (They call themselves the Gingers because three out of the four have red hair.)  Sarah's parents, the troop leaders, and brother were also there to join in the festivities.  I got there just in time to take pictures of them to send to Grandma before the burning occurred.  

Sarah's mom, Kristen, Julie, Sarah Price, and Sarah Logar pose for a picture in their unburned uniforms

I could tell they were dying to get those uniforms off to start burning and trashing them, but they took a couple minutes to perform a famous girl scouts' song, "Make New Friends," which they all had memorized.  

The girl scouts singing "Make New Friends"

After they had gotten out of their uniforms, there was some debate on where to actually burn the clothing.  A consensus was reached to do it in the living room.  They all spread out across the floor and started with their skirts.  Some opted for lighters while others used matches; they tried to figure out which one burned the clothes faster.  They would first cut the fabric and then rip a hole where they wanted it to be burned.  Price's mom smartly advised them to watch were they put the holes.  Price requested R. Kelly's song, "Burn It Up," to play in the background, which was very appropriate for the occasion. 

Kristen and Price got right to burning their skirts, while Julie seemed a little timid to take the lighter to the skirt in their house.

                                 Kristen concentrating on burning her skirt with a match

"I just see it all going wrong," she said.  "I am not a risk taker."

Sarah's father proved himself "wise beyond his years" when he suggested lighting a wine cork and then rubbing the ash on the uniforms.  

                   Logar  burning a cork that she had saved from her birthday to use on her skirt

Everything seemed to be going as planned, until a slight dilemma occurred. Beep! Beep! Beep! Only after five minutes of burning, they had set the smoke detector off!  It was loud enough to drown out the t.v., music, and everybody's conversations. Everyone bursted into laughter while Logar ran to the kitchen so she could get a towel to fan the alarm. After that fiasco was over, everyone decided to move outside on the porch.  It was so refreshing to walk outside and get some fresh air.  Let me tell you, burning clothes is not the most pleasant aroma there is.

                                  Logar attempting to fan the smoke detector with a dish towel

While outside, Sarah's mom told me they had four frozen boxes of real girl scout cookies to hand out on Halloween.  Her husband was planning on handing out popcorn, which are like the cookies for boy scouts.  

It was at this point the burning got out of control.  Ash was flying all over my notebook. The pyromaniacs started to come out.  They claimed the burning was "addicting."  They moved on from their skirts to their shirts and socks.  The fact that some had burned their thumbs around ten times with the lighter did not stop them; they were determined.  

                                      Kristen showing Sarah and Julie her burned shirt

And when the burning was sadly over, they moved to the mulched area in front of their house and rubbed their clothing in the dirt.  While Julie was rubbing her skirt in the dirt, I heard her say, "Oh my god, her poor grandma." Needless to say, they were somewhat worried about how they were going to smell on Halloween while feeling bad for destroying Sarah's grandma's hard work. 

                                   Kristen and Julie rubbing their socks and skirts in the dirt 

After an hour of burning, they realized they had destroyed their uniforms enough and decided to get ready for a fun Friday night uptown.  They told me to be there early in the morning on Saturday because they wanted to be ready and on Court Street at noon.  

Things do not go quite as they planned Saturday morning.  I texted Sarah around 11 o'clock because I had not heard from them, and she responded that the time was pushed back to 12:30. They were not going to reach their goal of being ready by noon.

When I got to the house, they were still waiting on Kristen and Julie to arrive.  Enrique Inglesias was blaring from Logar's room; the English version of the song would play first and then was followed by the Spanish version. Sarah's mom had already helped her tease her hair and do her makeup, but Logar's look was still in the works. 

The first step was teasing the hair, so it looked like she had been electrocuted, which, of course, involved a lot of hair spray.  Price offered to help, because she was obviously a pro at teasing by looking at her hair.  Logar seemed a little worried about the intense teasing.  She kept asking, "I am I going to have to cut her hair after this?"  However, she was extremely happy in the end when she saw how awesome, well how electrocuted, she looked.  

Price teasing the back of Logar's hair 

The next step involved applying heavy eyeliner all over Logar's face to resemble ash and just make her look overall distressed.  The girl scouts chose to use eyeliner instead of the cork's ashes because they felt it would be a better option for their skin; they did not want any funky rashes or breakouts. She told me that she was concerned about "looking dead" with the crazy makeup and teased hair.  

Sarah smudging eyeliner on her nose

Sarah decided to bypass wearing her hat and instead secured leaves and branches in her hair with bobby pins.  On one of the sticks, she added two miniature marshmallows on the end to signify the ever-important girl scout tradition of bonfires.  She didn't want to overdo it with the branches, leaves and a hat.  However, she did say her biggest fear of this costume is getting ticks from these leaves and branches.  She kept telling the other Sarah that she was going to have to check her for ticks. 

                        Sarah searching for leaves and sticks to attach to her hair in her front yard

                              Logar laughing while adding the campfire stick to her hair

It was around 1:30 when Logar was done becoming electrocuted, and Kristen and Julie were still M.I.A.  Since I still had two other groups to attend to, I told them to call me when they arrived so I could take pictures of their finished costumes.   

Halloween Store Craziness

The Post was not lying about the Halloween stores in Athens being extremely busy the week before Halloween.  But what do you expect?  OU has around 20,000 students and two costume stores to shop at; of course they are going to be insane especially because most college students tend to be procrastinators.  

I braved the crowds and went to both costume  stores the weekend before Halloween to find out the popular costumes and trends in Athens.  I somewhat regret this decision, because the interviews that should have taken around 10 minutes lasted 45 minutes.  However it was worth it, because I received some really great information and good insight from the assistant managers.

Halloween USA

The outside of Halloween USA

My first stop was Halloween USA, which is located in the Athens Mall, on State Street.  I did not feel as crammed in this store because it is very spacious and wide open.  I went around 11 o'clock, but it was not as busy as I expected.  There seemed to be more Athens residents shopping than students.  Once I walked into the store, I was surrounded hundreds of costumes, accessories and decorations.  I really triggered my excitement for the upcoming holiday. 

The inside of Halloween USA filled with tons of Halloween goodies

I was able to talk to the assistant manager, Katie Labouitz.  I thought we would conduct the interview back in the office, but she pulled me to the side right by the masks and dressing rooms.  The interview went very smoothly, expect few a few interruptions by confused employees needing her assistance.  

"The popular costumes for the women are in this HOT! HOT! HOT! section, which the prices range from 30 to 60 dollars," Labouitz said.  "They tend to be more revealing and at the block party people like to show off their figures even thought it is cold.  There are chefs, fairytale and nursery rhyme characters, and sport costumes."

The Hot! Hot! Hot! section for women in Halloween USA 

"Batman and Joker costumes have been big because of the movie for boys," Labouitz said.  "The guys also like the costumes in the Adult Humor section and superheros are big this year like Ironman. The gangster costumes are doing well and pirates are always popular.  We have a lot of political masks and I am surprised those have not been selling better. "

The Humor section in Halloween USA

She said the the average person spends about 30 to 40 dollars on their costumes, which includes accessories like hats, sunglass and weapons.  

With the declining economy, I was very curious if they were experiencing more people just buying small accessories because they were opting to make their own costumes.

"There is no happy medium," Labouitz said.  "Some people will come in and just want one accessory, and some people will come in and buy a whole costume with everything included.  It is shocking that there are so many different purchases.  I am also surprised with the amount of people how come in and spend 60 to 100 dollars on an expensive costume with all of the accessories, because I thought more people would try to save money around the holidays."

Labouitz said the overall trends she is seeing are characters from movies, animals like a gorilla suit and group-themed costumes.

Court Street Costume Store

 The costume store on Court Street advertises that they do indeed have costumes inside

The costume store located in the heart of downtown Athens on Court Street was happening when I ventured there!  I went around 4 o' clock in the afternoon on a Sunday and apparently that was the cool time to go. There were tons of students in their browsing for costumes, and it also doesn't help that the store is very narrow and crammed with Halloween goods.  

The narrow inside of the costume store 

I asked around the store and was told assistant manager, Alysia Galt, would be the best person to talk to because she works the register.  Although I got a lot of great information, the interview did not go nearly as smoothly as the one at Halloween USA.  Alysia was manning the counter, so after each question she would have to help students who needed a pair of tights, a fake mustache or a pair of nerdy glasses.  So, then I would resort to scanning the extensive wig collection. I was dodging anxious people and protecting my space at the counter so I could finish the interview. Galt muti-tasked extremely well and did not even get a little flustered with all the commotion.  

                                 The assortment of wigs I looked at when conducting the interview 

Galt grew up in Athens and has worked at the costume store since she was 17 years-old.  She came down from her Chicago residence this year to help out with the madness. 

"The popular costumes for guys this year are Top Gun characters, Mario and Luigi, Joker, and Indiana Jones," Galt said.  "For girls, they are sailors and indians; we already ran out of headdresses and we ran out of the work belts for construction workers.  It really depends on what is happening this year like politically and in the movies."

The costume store also offers rental costumes.  These are popular because they are cheaper.  The average costume with all the accessories is around 36 dollars.  

The assortment of rental options in the costume store

"That is why Top Gun is so popular," Galt said.  "It is a renal and we have already rented out 10 to 15 jumpsuits out. "

According to Galt, the average cost of a costume if the person is not renting one is around 50 dollars if people buy a full costume with make-up, wigs, and jewelry.   

Galt said that she is constantly bombarded with students asking her for costume ideas.  She sees a lot of people come into the store and browse around to get inspiration.

"I like working with guys because they take any suggestion they can get, so they are pretty easy to help," Galt said.

When I asked her if she has heard of any really good ideas, she said she helped a group of girls who were dressing up as troll dolls.  

"I like the group costumes because I think they are more fun and have more of an impact than just one person," she said.  

 

Halloween in Athens has been a tradition for Galt since she was very young.  According to Galt, her mom loves Halloween,  so she has been part of the Court Street celebration since the age of eight.

However, the celebration has changed quite a bit over the years for Galt.  

"I went to OU and I have noticed that the celebration has gotten larger while there seems to be less people dressing up in costumes," she said.   

So according to the employees at the costume stores, we can expect to see a lot of people dressing up as the Joker, politicians, Indiana Jones, pirates, indians, and superheros.