this is my halloween

Friends, I like Halloween but... as an adult, I'm not a huge fan. I find I do not enjoy the costume thing as much as I did when I was a kid. It isn't for everyone. Plus I'm not super creative so I never think of cool ideas like going as "swine flu." (A girl I know wore pink scrubs and a pig snout.) Tonight I was watching the episode of The Office where every woman in the office dressed up as a cat. Yeah, I've totally been the cat. More than once.

So when I found out that my apartment move coincided with Halloween weekend (not out just up - I'm playing musical bedrooms since one of the roomies moved in with her bf.) I didn't stress over it. Last year I went to D.C. instead of dressing up and going out. The year before that I moved into this apartment on October 31st and spent the night nursing a cold and unpacking. The year before that I was new to the city and fresh faced so - in a night that is a feather in my proverbial feather cap - I dressed up as a Hershey kiss with my then roommate and we went bowling at Chelsea Piers.

Now, I'd be lying if I said I didn't wish I was doing something more like the latter this year. I think my Halloween indifference is wearing off. Elvis walked by my cubicle at work today and Lisbeth Salander made an appearance before going to a party held by another department. Oh how I looked longingly at that conference room as the sounds of Beyonce's "Single Ladies" mingled with my Excel spreadsheet. (Side note: If you haven't read Stiegg Larsson's Millenium Series - Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, etc. you MUST!) Apparently, my department feels the same way about Halloween. No one dressed up. Unless you consider dressing like a "real New Yorker." Today I wore a black dress, black leggings, black boots, and a black cardigan.

While I might attempt the West Village Halloween Parade this weekend, I think I will have to plan on embracing it all next year. Hopefully, it will not involve spending the day dressed up as an exhausted single gal who has moved her belongings yet again. But one never knows. This is New York.