Texas Lou

Halloween can mean lots of different things to different people.  For kids, Halloween is about procuring large amounts of candy and staying up late to enjoy their sugar high.  For many college girls, its the opportunity to get away with dressing like a slut for one night when it is socially acceptable.  For some, Halloween introduces the challenge of seeing how many people you can scare as a undead-like zombie or a 50 year old man dressed in drag (my former step-dad’s costume one year when I was in high school).

For me, Halloween is about creativity.  Since I began working at VGT in the Fall of 2008, I have dressed up for Halloween every year since we are allowed and even encouraged to wear our costumes to work.  We even have a costume contest where our coworkers get to vote for the scariest, most original, and funniest costumes.  I’m not really an extremely competitive person, but I do like to get reactions out of people so I usually try to come up with something that is going to accomplish that goal.

I know it is nowhere near Halloween, but I dressed up for work today (a dress compared to my usual jeans and a sweatshirt) because I am meeting my dad and my brother at some fancy schmancy restaurant in Washington D.C. for dinner after work that has a stricter dresscode than my workplace.  Wearing something “unusual” to work got me thinking about the other times I’ve traded in my casual attire for something intriguing.

*Halloween 2008* I dressed up as the farmer in the dell…box!  I had just bought myself a new laptop so I took advantage of its packaging!

*Halloween 2009* I was Mario from the Super Mario Brothers.  I was especially proud of myself for reusing the GIGANTIC overalls from my farmer costume I wore the year before.  I never knew how difficult it was to find overalls, especially in my size and these were the smallest I could find!

*Halloween 2010* I decided to go with 80s rocker chick mainly because I had just gotten over Bronchitis and didn’t have a ton of energy to go all out on a costume.  I couldn’t find real legwarmers, so I made my own by chopping the bottoms off of a large pair of tube socks.  I used my guitar hero guitar as a prop to give the costume that extra edge.

I have to say that I think I’ve had more fun dressing up for Halloween in the past three years than I ever did as a kid.  Soon I’ll start thinking about what my costume will be for next year.  I know Halloween is still 6 months away, but I’m going to need alot of time to come up with a costume that will top the previous three!