Halloweekend

(Note: Yes, I know that it is January 2011. And yes, I know that this is a Halloween post. But c'mon people! The holidays are a busy time! And when have I ever been punctual when it comes to blogging, huh? Anyway, here goes...)

So, typically, I am NOT a fan of Halloween. I know, Bah Humbug and all. But I find the whole occasion to be quite stressful, mostly because I hate having to think up a decent costume to wear. My creative juices just don't revolve around fashion.

This year, however, I actually had a pretty decent Halloween weekend. Friday night (October 29th), there was a huge regional YSA party/dance that I went to with a bunch of friends. My roomie, Rachel, dressed up as Snooki, and I have to say that she pretty much nailed it. Except for the bright orange hands (she got a-ONE too many spray tans in pursuit of the cause). But hey, GTL as you see fit.

As for myself, I managed to put together a makeshift sexy kitty costume (which was repeatedly mistaken for a sexy mouse costume.....idiots).

Even though the party was EXTREMELY crowded and hot, and even though I felt like I was babysitting half the time because I was surrounded by hundreds of 18-year-old twits, I actually had a pretty good time.

I give my friend, Todd, the award for most creative costume. Can you guess what he is? Can you?

A bar of soap.

I know, right? Ew. But somehow coming from Todd, it's not as offensive.

Afterwards, we all went out to Denny's for some food.

And then on the way home, I got pulled over by some power-hungry cops who claimed that they were doing so because I had tinted front windows.

Seriously?! Tinted windows? Could they even tell if my windows were tinted at that time of night? And by the way, they are NOT.

Apparently that was the only excuse they could come up with to pull me over to see if I was drunk, which totally bugs, because I wasn't even speeding or driving recklessly or anything. And they didn't even ask me if I HAD been drinking; they asked me HOW MUCH I had had to drink that night. What the?!?!

So, here is when Snarky Courtney comes out - when supposed authority figures try to attack/accuse me without justification. I was probably a little sassier with the cop than I should have been......after all, I had done NOTHING wrong. Even though I told him that I had not been drinking that night, and that I would take a breathalizer test to prove it, he still made me follow his finger back and forth until he was satisfied that I was sober. At that point, he let me go with a "warning" about my supposedly illegal tinted windows, and that was it.

To his credit, it must have looked pretty suspicious to have a 31-year-old dressed as a cat, with smeared cat makeup, driving around with a blonde bar of soap at 3 o'clock in the morning. And I guess that I would rather have him being safe than sorry when it comes to drunk drivers. But still! I felt so violated!

The next night (Saturday, October 30th), a group of us decided to go up to the Haunted Hayride at Griffith Park.

I wasn't quite sure how I was going to feel about this activity, as I really HATE being scared. In fact, my automatic reflex when something jumps out at me is to swat at it. And I was pretty sure that the Haunted Hayride people weren't going to look kindly on my physically abusing their staff.

There were about 30 people per hayride, and we were being driven around a trail which went through the old Griffith Park Zoo. There were about 8 different scary displays - with the subject matter ranging from clowns to demons to axe murderers. They had it all. And some of these displays were inside the old animal cages that used to be part of the zoo - which was both cool and creepy.

Now, I was told that the actors were not allowed to touch the riders. Which was true. But, BOY did they do everything but. They would jump onto the side of the vehicle, banging it with metal objects as they did. They stuck their heads into the center of the group, reaching for us and gruesomely yelling out our names (Yes, they were smart.....they listened to conversations going on and picked up on passengers' names......and then used them to freak us out!).

I didn't think that it was possible to both scream in horror and laugh with glee at the same time, but I did throughout the entire adventure. When it ended, I wanted to go again - which says a lot for a chicken like me.

Here are some pics from the night:

(You can see that Rachel’s hand is still a lovely shade of dark orange….hehe.)

(Waiting in line. YES, there was a 45 minute line to take a ride on some hay. Where don’t you have to wait in LA anymore?!)

(In the metal pen they herd you into right before the ride. MOO!!)

(YAY!! We actually made it on!!)

(Some of the aftermath….)

 

By the time we got to Halloween day (Sunday, October 31st), we were so pooped from our late nights of fun and debauchery, that we just sat around in our pajamas, ate pizza and ice cream, and watched "Hocus Pocus."

Just my kind of Halloween. And yes, I know that makes me old and boring. But I just don't care anymore.