Trick-or-Treat

Em wanted to be 'dead Hannah Montana,' and Mo wanted to be a Lego.



Mo's costume is pretty straightforward: red sweats with red Gladwares hot-glued to make the knobs. Unfortunately, pulling them off was irresistible to her.



Meanwhile, I'm trying to get Em's and my makeup done on the fly while handing out trick-or-treats to the early comers.

She started out with eight knobs, and was down to five (despite orders to sit on her hands) by the time we left.

Luckily, she showed interest in me and Em's makeup and let me put some on her. I get enough dirty looks for taking adult-sized kids trick-or-treating without also having one of those kids appear not to have bothered with a costume.



The Kansas City Scar ran a piece on how to do the Joker makeup like Heath Ledger's. And I had everything they called for: rigid collodion, Ben Nye grease makeup, etc.

The collodion works, but it'd take some practice to get really good scar tissue from it. Plus, I probably don't have enough slack in my chubby cheeks for it to really do its thing.



The grease makeup, well, getting it on smooth isn't the point with the Joker, but getting it on passably is still a bit of a trick.

And then, I bought the set powder to keep it from smearing and running and then forgot in my haste to use the stuff.



So with our compromised makeup, we set out to beg for candy.

The weather was awesome. Last year, I thought a lot of people had scrooged out, but I think maybe it was just nasty weather. Because people were out in force tonight.



One of our neighbors was giving out hot dogs and nachos in addition to candy. And several had set up stage sets in their front yards.



I'd told Em this was her last year to trick-or-treat. She's in seventh grade, after all. That was the cut-off when I was growing up: my parents quit letting me trick-or-treat once I was in junior high. I have a friend who said she'd gone until her senior year in high school, but I can't picture it. Though some of the houses we went to, people tried to press candy on me for having makeup on and being at the door. I'm just an escort, and 39 is definitely too old to beg for candy, but a couple of folks seemed disappointed I wouldn't take any.

Em was definitely in the spirit, though, bursting with 'Happy Halloweens!' for people and skipping about. If she keeps having fun with it, I guess I'll keep taking her on the rounds. Mo, too.



And when I thought we were a little far afield, more than a block from home, I was stunned at how many people opened the door and immediately knew Mo. The kid barely speaks sentences, yet she seems to know everyone.

We finished up at the house of a guy who turns his whole front yard into a display, with upwards of a dozen blow-up figures. He was giving hay rides on a wagon towed behind a golf cart, too. But as I photographed his yard, Mo went into a seizure.



We've adjusted her meds, she hasn't had as many lately. But they still break through. Makes for a long walk home, even when that walk is all of a block and a half.


Halloween from Chixulub on Vimeo.

I bought six bags of Reese's cups. They were on sale, 2 for $2.99, so this was under ten bucks but I thought I'd overbought. Last year I was stuck with a lot of Mary Janes that I don't really like, so this way at least the leftovers would be something I like.



Which might not, really, be a good thing being as I don't really need candy calories.

This was 84 pieces of candy. And we ran out with trick-or-treaters still streaming into the driveway despite our being gone an hour or more on our own begathon.