halloween: wild and bloody

i was a bit reluctant to revel it up this halloween. through the years i have had just some unbeatable costumes, so i'm loathe to do something under par. however, i was determined to go to the joe iconis halloween bash at the beecham. the show lived up to all expectations. i'm pleased to have created new iconis converts, not to mention new katrina rose dideriksen converts.

everyone who thought they had better things to do-- well it's just too bad. cause it was awesomeness and you missed out. phhhbbbt :p

my bathroom is still sadly marked with the spatters of blood. i swear i have tried to clean up, but there was just too much blood and it's going to have to be a step at a time. why is that? well, i slaughtered a metaphorical pig and drenched myself in it's blood for a quick, yet balls-to-the-wall Carrie costume.

i can now officially claim to have participated in full fledged new york halloween craziness.

let me tell you, riding the subway looking as ridiculous as all that is not the easiest thing to do. interestingly, i seemed to actually scare people in my neighborhood. having a blood-drenched white girl appear behind you is not something people want to see that far uptown.  funnily enough, once i hit about 110th- i guess around Columbia territory- i got more laughs, "rights ons," and Carrie quotes tossed my way.

hats off to the always ferocious katrina, whose Max costume was the best one i saw.  she tried to get me to dress as a wild thing, and i wanted to badly. but again, you gotta go big or go home. and with only a couple days and full time work, there was no way i could created the pimped out wild thing i wanted.

i have seen some amazing wild things online.  it seems a lot of people went all out for the premiere of the movie in full wildness.  i found some great homemade instructions for creating a wild thing head-really any giant puppet head.  next time i may have to take that route.

and, after the show we gallivanted around the city in our regalia.  i managed to drag reneta along and hopefully she enjoyed being with a bunch of crazy people.
and i even got some joe lovin.

there were some really great costumes out in the annual halloween parade in the village, of course.

i especially like these.

my other sister, michelle, also took the cake with her awesome outfits created for her family.  maybe not quite as gruesome as the city costumes, but still fab.

cough medicine crazy or "kichaa"

i spent this weekend in my cave in inwood, hocked up on as many over the counter drugs as i could afford. labels may say only every 4 hours, but if you alternate, you can keep on chuggin practically continuously. my cocktail not only kept my fever down, but also made golf and sesame street inexplicably entertaining for hours!

i should have suspected i was on the verge of physical meltdown when i burst into tears after a woman working at pret (ny deli) unexpectedly made me a free cup of tea and lemon when i tried to speak to her. but i tossed it off to my typical craziness.

i refer to my craziness a lot- sometimes in self deprecating jest, sometimes in honest despair of my over-dramatic nature. the word "kichaa" is Swahili for "crazy/disturbed person" it is  a very bad word, both as a description and as a noun. it is taboo. well, of course upon learning the word my mother and i immediately incorporated it into our daily speech. we are southern women worthy of many Tennessee Williams plots and Faulkner-ian tragedies who should probably be medicated at least some of the time. and as such, we embrace our "craziness" much to the shock and horror of the Tanzanians.

living in a large city like new york, you are faced with the truly crazy- the sad, mentally disturbed individuals somehow living their lives. and they are scary. why are they scary? what is it about someone, unkempt and restless, anxiously mumbling to themselves that makes you edge away?

as i sat, under the influence of as much ibuprofen i could find, pathetically woe-be-gone in my state of life, on the painfully loud subway, i found myself next to a truly disturbed individual. not wanting to offend mr. crazy, i did not leap to a new seat. but my, somewhat induced, state definitely felt the dark aura oozing off him, like a b-horror flick. i suddenly realized i had squished myself completely against the man sitting on my other side. mr. crazy hopped up to stand and hold the rail, still waging his argument with an unseen individual. i tried to relax away from the stranger on my other side, but found it very hard to do so. there was some sort of comfort from the contact with the silent man on my right versus the combustion of ticks and angry mutterings leaning over me.

where is that border line between "respehctahble southahn" crazy that's fodder for so much literature and family gossip and the truly taboo crazy? it's not funny really. these people some how survive in this overwhelming huge city, despite the other voices in their heads.  it's just another on a long list of things that's sending me to hell, probably.