The Jamaican Bobsled Team

              Tony, Bryon, Eric, and Jeff get into the spirit of Halloween while posing with a pumpkin 

Trying to find a a group of guys who knew what they were being two weeks in advance was like trying to find a needle in a haystack.  I needed a reliable group; a group of guys who would not leave me hanging in my scrubs on Halloween with my camera out but no one to take pictures of.  So, imagine my excitement when finally my roommate's boyfriend came over and told me they were being the Jamaican bobsled team from the 1993 movie, Cool Runnings.   

 Picture of the Jamaican bobsled team courtesy of

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Coolrunningsteam.jpg

A few days later, I went over to their apartment on Fern to talk with the guys about their costumes.  They told me to refer to them as the Boys of Ferngully, which cleverly comes from the location of their apartment.  They Boys of Ferngully got their costume idea much like my roommates.

"Me and Eric were talking about Halloween when were watching the movie and thought it would be a good idea," Jeff said.  "I like this idea because everyone in our apartment is involved and I have not seen a lot of people do it before."

While at the apartment their excitement for the idea was pretty apparent, because they kept answering my questions in their best Jamaican accents.  

"I like it better in a group because it says we're serious but here to party," Eric said .

  

To my surprise, they already had the ball rolling and had started online shopping for supplies for their costumes.  Eric had already ordered the green and yellow duck tape that was going to be used to make the details on their black spandex uniforms on tapebrother.com.  He also ordered  Jamaican flag stickers from flagstickershop.com.  The most essential part of the costume is the black spandex that the athletes sport while bobsledding.  Bryon ordered his uniform on Walmart's Web site; however, the three others picked up their spandex at the Walmart in Oxford while visiting friends at Miami University.  Now, it was a waiting game.  They had to trust that the stores would get their purchases to Athens in time for the Halloween celebration.  

Bryon showing me the where he found the black spandex on Walmart's Web site

The guys are not being specific characters in the movie, except for Eric who is being Sanka Coffie.  He stands apart from the others because he has dreadlocks and carries around a lucky egg with him when he competes, which Eric is already planning to boil.

Nevertheless, they are going to try to be as Jamaican as possible to completely persuade people on Halloween that they are the real Jamaican bobsled them.  Let me tell you, they are pretty convincing with their fake Jamaican accents; I can tell they have been practicing a lot.  

"We are going to try to completely immerse ourselves in the Jamaican culture," said Bryon.  "We are going to look the part, be the part, and act the part."

And what do these guys think about Halloween?  For the most part, they think it is overrated for the people who go to OU but great for the people coming in town.  

"I appreciate that it gives our school a good reputation for partying," Jeff said.  "The block party puts us on a national level." 

To say the least, I am excited for my next adventure over to the Fern apartment to see these four guys transform into the Jamaican bobsled team.  

The Female Cast of Grey's Anatomy

                                           Photo of Grey's Anatomy cast courtesy of www.sodahead.com   

My roommates never do anything on a small scale.  Well, it is kinda hard when you live with nine of them.  So, when one of my many roommates came up with the idea to be the cast of Grey's Anatomy, I knew we were going several steps above and beyond just putting on a pair of scrubs.  

"We were watching it while trying to think of something we could all be because Halloween was coming up," Kristy said.  "Then it hit me that it would be a great idea to be the ladies of Grey's, because there are a lot of characters and we all love the show."

The easy part was coming up with the idea.  The hard part was figuring out what roommate would play each character.  

"We tried to match people based on their personalities and body types," Brittni said.

This sounds like a pretty easy and reasonable way to pick characters.  But, of course, we ran into problems.  Some people complained because they didn't like how she acted on the show or they did not think they looked like that character enough.  However, we got over the third grade drama and began acting like 21 and 22-year-old adults by all reaching a compromise.    

Kristy was put in the spotlight as the main character, Meredith Grey.   Brittni's tendency of being bossy landed her the role of Chief Resident, Miranda Bailey.  The character of Izzie Stevens was handed to Sara because of her blonde hair and blue eyes.  Anne was the last one to pick a character, so she was stuck with the new intern, Lexie Grey.  Kellie's almost reddish hair and love for kids were reasons she just had to be former OB/GYN, Addison Mongomery-Shepherd.  Taylor's light features were the closest to heart surgeon, Erica Hahn.  Sara's sister from OSU, Kim, wanted to be Cristina Yang, even though she didn't really have any of the same characteristics.  And I would be Callie Torres solely because of my dark features.

After that fiasco was thankfully over, it was time 

to gather up all of the materials.  We scrambled all over the town of Athens finding the supplies for our costumes.  Our first priority was, of course, scrubs.  How could you be members of Grey's Anatomy without scrubs? Sara and her sister ordered official Grey's Anatomy scrubs Online.  The others, however, were not willing to spend around 50 dollars for scrubs, so we opted for the cheaper Medline brand at Wal-mart.  And what would a doctor be without her stethoscope?  Kellie and Kristy went to Halloween USA to find fun medical accessories to dress up the scrubs.  And me being the creepy blogger that followed their every move, decided to accompany them.  My roommates got a lot of laughs at my expense.

 The 20 minute trip evolved into a two hour excursion through the streets of Athens.  The stethoscopes were not nearly enough for these Grey's fanatics.  We had to stop at Wal-mart to get clipboards because "all of the Grey's characters always carry around clip boards and it looks so professional."  Then, it was off to Staples to hopefully find the exact name tag holders that the characters use in the show. After ten minutes of pretty intense contemplation in the dimly lit aisle of Staples, Kristy decided that we needed the more expensive, retractible name tags because doctors need those to scan into work, well at least that is what the Grey's doctors do.  

 Kristy scopes out the name tag selection at Staples

And what is a trip to State Street without visiting the good ol' Dollar Tree?  When you are a college student, you can't find a better store than one that sells everything for only a dollar! The purpose of the trip was to find those old toy pagers; however, apparently those are so outdated and the toy aisle was only lined with toy mobile phones.  The trip did not turn out to be a total disappointment. Kellie found the perfect shade of ruby red lipstick that was just "so Addison."  

Kellie and Kristy comparing shades of lipstick

The trip was a success.  However, the shopping was only step one.  It was now time for my roommates to bring out their creative sides and transform these supplies into their Grey's Anatomy costumes. 

The Girl Scouts... Struck by Lightning

                  Logar and Price in their uniforms looking out for the severe weather

Go hard or go home.

This is the motto used by roommates Sarah Price and Sarah Logar, who really understand the importance of a great Halloween costume.  These best friends have taken a traditional Halloween costume and put their own unique spin on it.  Along with their two other friends, they are being girl scouts who were struck by lighting at a troop camp out.  

"I was a girl scout struck by lightening when I was a senior in high school with my guy friend," Logar said.  "We won first place at my high school Halloween party, so I figured to be it again this year."

They needed an original costume idea that would outdo their previous mall-walker costumes that they were both very found of.  

The preparation for this costume has been going on since last summer.  Price's grandma has been working for months making their girl scout uniforms.  She handmade the hats, shirts, sashes with the patches and socks, which they received this week. 

                                      The uniform pieces designed by Price's grandma

A girl scout troop would not be complete without its official troop leaders.  Price's parents are coming down on Halloween and will be decked out in troop leader uniforms complements of her grandma.  

The part of the costume that her grandma does not know about is the fact that they are going to burn the costumes to make them look like they have been struck by lightning.  

"My mom and dad are not burning their costumes because they think it is stupid," Price said. "My grandma doesn't know that we are burning them, so that is why we are taking pictures and sending them to her before the burning."

The next step in the process is roughing up the uniforms, which will be taking place on Friday so they are ready to go on Saturday.  With this goofy group, it is safe to say that this will be a entertaining experience with a ton of laughs.  

The Importance of a Costume

                                             Photo of Halloween crowd on Court Street courtesy of The Athens NEWS

When my online journalism professor told our class that we needed to develop a blog that showed an ongoing process while applying journalistic practices, I was a little concerned because I am new to blogging.  I racked my brain for original story ideas, which is difficult for me because I tend to lack the creative gene.  Then, it hit me.  I would show the creative sides of others by documenting their costume-making processes for the Halloween party on campus. Costumes are a big deal at the annual Ohio University celebration.  The annual Halloween party brings thousands of costume-wearing partygoers from all over to celebrate in one of biggest block parties of the year.  Court Street is jam-packed with students sporting all different types of costumes and people-watching is one of the best parts of the experience.

Coming up with the story idea was actually a lot easier than finding students with creative costume ideas.  I wanted to find people who put more effort into their costumes than just strolling uptown and buying the first costume they like.  To my surprise, not many students have costume ideas three weeks in advance.  When talking to students around campus, I found a lot of people were being Joker from The Dark Night, Sarah Palin, or Barack Obama, which are all expected costume trends for 2008.  To me, these costume ideas were just too obvious.  I was in search of people who were thinking outside of the box.  

When choosing a costume, people can get inspiration from so many different outlets.  Luckily, I found three groups of students who strayed away from the "traditional" Halloween costume and were willing to let me document their experiences.  Their processes will be organized into three steps: getting the supplies, putting the materials together, and showcasing their finished products.  The purpose of this blog is to recognize the creative ability and hard work exerted by these festive students while also providing the readers with some original ideas for their own costumes.