Halloween, Halloween

England is not so much with the Halloween festivities, but there enough Americans/people who like costumes, candy and good time here that I don't feel my season is in anyway affected (though, let's be honest, any Halloween missing my sister is going to lacking a certain something).

Just over a week ago, Matt threw an early Halloween party.* I had been really jazzed this Halloween to reconfigure my 50's style bathing suits into either a pin-up or Poison Ivy costume...then decided it wasn't worth the hypothermia. Not really planning in advance, I was left to figure out a costume out of my closet. I wound up settling on Holly Golightly (LBD, lots of pearls, big sunglasses, ceramic coffee cup to hold my drinks for the night). I am weird about costumes...I don't think so much about what I want to be as opposed to what I can do with relative accuracy. Cold aside, one of the biggest reasons I didn't go the Poison Ivy route is my hair is the wrong color. I don't believe in wigs and I haven't fully committed to dying my hair red this season, therefore, a dirty-blonde Poison Ivy struck me as a travesty.**

The party itself was a lot of fun. Matt's place is kind of small, but that meant moving from conversation to conversation was really easy and it was a great opportunity to get to know the newbies more. Matt didn't have a costume, so he wore a sharp suit and sunglasses and when people asked him who he was, he told them to guess. This became funnier the more beers I knocked back, I won't lie. There was a little dancing and we didn't get home until 2 or 3 in the morning. What more do you need in a party?

This past Wednesday, Red and I inaugurated the 2011-2012 Taco Night season, which incorporated the time-honored tradition of Pumpkin Carving. We still don't have furniture, which worked out perfectly for this kind of thing. We had a few people who had either never carved a pumpkin, never eaten a taco or had never don't either....the cultural exchange continues! We didn't go too late (to my neighbors relief, I'm sure), but it was a fun group and it was nice to have people here for once. I expect we'll do some kind of Christmas thing, which I'm really looking forward to....this time of the year is the greatest.

Remainders:

• I got the job! At the Company, working front of house, Training starts this week. It's such a relief to know I have a paycheck in my future, plus working for the Company is pretty cool. I actually had another interview on Friday there for another job...there's a chance, if I get the second one, I could do both. I just really like doing different things and learning more about theatres. We will see, though. Either way, I'm excited.
• The puzzle that served as the metaphor for my life a few days ago HAS BEEN VANQUISHED. The fact that it was completed with Red at 2am while watching 'The Others' just made it all the sweeter. My flatmate = best flatmate
• Booked my tickets home. December 14, America welcomes me back.

*He and some other friends of mine are doing a charity walk from Strats to London, re-creating the route Shakespeare might have taken, which meant they are away for Halloween proper. Won't you consider sending some money their way?


**The hair thing actually is usually the deciding factor of any Halloween costume. Joan from Mad Men? My hair was already the right shade. Cinderella? Hadn't dyed it in awhile, so it was a suitable strawberryish blonde shade. Holly Golightly? It's currently darker and streakier than usual and photographs brunette. It's all in the details, people.

Bring Out Your Dead

On Halloween proper a group of us trekked out to Mary Arden's farm to partake in a variety of appropriately morbid activities, including a Tudor wake. Upon arriving we found out there was an Italian play about to start called 'The Servant of Two Masters," done in the style of Commedia Dell'arte. Now, I pretty much hate Commedia. The Company had done a production of Shrew in the style when I was at the theater, and it was kind of painful and gave me prejudices. Even without that experience, I don't think I would like it as it is very loud and very broad and (in my mind) incredibly tiresome. But, most people seemed to want to go and I didn't want to be the jerk making a fuss, so a play it was.

All my fears confirmed! Incredibly broad, incredibly loud, somewhat repetitious. The actors were very talented, they were just starting from a place I didn't care for. The main character was very, very everywhere at once and, because the room was so small, constantly up in the audiences grill (as it were). It would up being a half-hour longer than we were originally told (and, honestly, than it should have been anyway) and left me feeling a little exhausted and impatient.

One of the features of Mary Arden's is that they have re-enactors meandering about, and we were ambushed by one at the end of the play. In the middle of the curtain call, a man dressed as a Tudor Puritan preacher appeared in the room and began to passionately preach against play going on the Sabbath before devolving into a screaming-and-crying account of the infant plague victims he buried that morning. WHAT. There are little kids in the room! And we want to leave and see the farm! Stop holding us captive! it was incredibly, incredibly awkward.

Because we were in the play so long, by the time we left there weren't many activities to see. Face painting was done, the pumpkin carving was over, the falconry demonstration was halfway over. So many lost opportunities! But the farm was still there to explore, and so we did. We found the little cute pics (pictured) and then an Institute friend who works there led us to the "wooly mammoth" pigs, who were ginormous and incredibly hairy. I also fed a horse! And we saw the falcons and the dovecote and things of that nature. It's closed for the winter, but I think going back in the spring is a sure thing.

The Tudor wake was the last event of the day and involved a procession with a cart and a man yelling "Bring out your dead!," which, sad to say, did not inspire the proper level of solemnity due to a little band of performers named Monty Python:

They stopped at a house and loaded the cart with disturbing shrouded dummies, including a number of small child figures, and then walked the cart through the farm. And thus, the dead were buried.

Tau and I met up with Freelancer at the pub for Sunday roast dinner (beef, turkey or ham with mash, veg and Yorkshire pudding) and then Tau and I came home and hung out a bit before watching 'Nightmare Before Christmas.' And thus, Halloween passed.

This is Halloween

Tau and I woke up with a plan to hang around Strats/home all day and not do much that wasn't directly related to preparing for the party that was going to be thrown at casa mia that night. Caffeine being directly related productivity and productivity being required for a successful party, we stopped by Starbucks where OH MY GOODNESS a sign outside promised that "red cups are coming." It's like they are finally recognizing the legitimacy of the holiday! I feel utterly justified.

"Preparation" really just meant a trip to the grocery store for plastic cups and extra junk food.While taking a stroll through the Halloween aisle in search of special drinking vessels (alcohol tastes better form a goblet, it is a scientific fact), I found a marked down devil costume. It was slinky but not inappropriate and, lacking a costume due to the fail of international postage practices, I bought it and a pair of similarly synthetic bright red elbow gloves. Devil take the hindmost!

Tau had brought cookie cutters in festive shapes, but, sadly, England does not seem to believe in cookie dough the way we Yankees do. We attempted smooshing chocolate chip do into pumpkin and ghosts only to be rewarded with a bunch of indistinguishable blobs. Indistinguishable TASTY blobs, though. Between the misshapen chocolate chip cookies and the Old El Paso fajitas we threw together, we wound up eating quite well.

And then there was the party!

Costumes from the night: Little Red Riding Hood (Chi.Roomie), Griffyndor student (Tau, in incredibly envy-invoking official HP robes), two pirates, the Oxford Complete Works, the textual companion to the Oxford complete works, an autumn tree (Freelancer), Dr. Who (Keeper), a butterfly (TX.Roomie), two witches, Minnie Mouse, a Greek goddess and, my personal favorite, Desdemona's handkerchief (MASSCHRE buddy). We are dorks.

Dorks who love to get down! Minnie Mouse had made a great playlist with the right amount of club tracks and theme appropriate tunes and we just had a grand old dance party for most of the night. At one point, Tau, MASSCHRE buddy and I went to the store for some more beer and I got a hefty does of cat calling (including a tiger growl...really, who does that?), which, honestly, on Halloween, I didn't mind so much. Later, Chi, MASSCHRE buddy and I went to the American fountain for some air and wound up singing bizarre showtunes and patriotic anthems. I love those random moments.

Happy Halloween, everybody! I believe it was our most horrible yet. Thank you, everyone.

Creepy, Kooky, Mysterious, Spooky

Late Thursday night a dear friend and sister got into town from Scotland, where she's studying Art History. We did that sleepover thing, where you talk about how tired you are until the lights are shut off and then suddenly there is SO MUCH TO SAY! And there was a heckuva lot to catch up on.

Wound up sleeping in more than was intended, but that was okay because this was a vacation/holiday weekend without any real plans. I'm still learning how to entertain people in Strats (it will be easier when the Company re-opens), and Tau and are both easy going, so after a few rounds of "well...what do you want to do?" we decided to just go play in town for awhile, which included a trip to the Creaky Cauldron. I had mentioned this store in a previous post as a "store for people who actually think they are witches," but, while that's what it looks like, turns out I was wrong! It is, in fact, a delightful Harry Potter-styled shop that sells wands (carved on the premises), home fragrances and sweets disguised as spells, ministry of magic proclamations and other things of that nature, in a kind of waiting-for-a-ride-at-Disney* atmosphere. You can even send post by owl! And there's a tea shop at the back that claims to sell butter beer.

All of this was delightful, but there's more! The shop also holds a small kind of haunted house museum you can walk through (for a small fee, of course), lighting your way with a small electric candle. There was a Harry Potter room, a room of potions with a riddle, an incredibly creeped out nursery (children are terrifying), LOTS of dark mirrored hallways. I was very fond of it as it was only tableaux. No one jumped out at you, nothing suddenly moved. However scary it was, it was because your own brain made it that way...and, might I say, I have never pulled back curtains with more apprehension than during that little exploration.

Explored a few more shops and then got some tea before heading over to the Birthplace, where they were doing a special candlelit 'Shakespeare's Villains' event. The entry to the performance was separate from the main Birthplace entry, and you bought your tickets from the two actors trying to drum up business on the street and the guy was kind of in my grill more than I would have liked, but Tau gave as good as we got. Tau and I didn't feel like giving our real names, so we became "Pembrooke" and "Lady Rothschild" respectively for the rest of the evening, which didn't do much to further endear us to him.

Freelancer joined us for the tour, which was actually really, really cool and not a tour at all. Instead of being shown around by someone telling you about Shakespeare's life, our little group of six was led room to room by actors doing creepy scenes from Shakespeare. The porter led us to the witches, who conjured up some evil doings before bringing us before the Macbeths and then pointing the way upstairs, where Richard III was engaged in some nefarious plotting before we were then let out of the house by Hamlet, thinking about what happens after death. The performances were surprisingly strong for something like this, and because each room had it's own separate scene, you had time to really absorb the atmosphere. I especially loved that the discussion of murdering the princes was done in the nursery. Great touch.

Ended at the pub, as all the best days do.

*I mean that as a good thing. Think of the line for the Hollywood Tower of Terror—the attention to detail in the set decoration is insane. It was like that, only for a shop looking like it came from Diagon alley.

Pumpkins Scream in the Dead of Night

Got home from Bham with my MASSCRE buddy and opened the door to a house filled with people getting ready to carve pumpkins. Wonderful!

I had made the suggestion we have people over a couple of night previous, sending out a Facebook message to all ten of the Institute students I had communicative access to, but Chi.Roomie was the one who really made it happen. There was a thousand types of junk food and candy and alcohol (because what you want to be while carving slippery spheres with steak knives is sugar high and drunk*) and pizza was ordered and Chi had rounded up a lot of people through word of mouth, so our happy home had become Halloween central.

I cannot tell you how fantastic it was! Almost everyone had brought a pumpkin to carve, and for at least one person, it was their first one. I talked to some students I hadn't spoken with before and managed to stay awake and alert long enough for all the pumpkins to be hacked to (artistic) pieces.

I cannot say enough good things about the night. It was really the first time we had hung out in a non-Institute related setting (there have been pub trips, but either with very small groups or on the heels of an official event) and I loved that our home was the hosting location and it just was so...comfortable. And home-like, to see all of these people I enjoy having a good time together and being festive and whatnot.

Went to be earlier than maybe I would have in other situations, but I was dead tired. Manged to be conscious long enough to see my Yankees stay in it and then promptly passed out, and hard, but people stayed long after I was out and that ALSO makes me really happy. It reminded me of PH2, in a way, and those are some of my happiest housing memories.

Some pictures from the night:

(The first shift of pumpkin carvers in the kitchen)

(More pumpkin punishing)

(The finished product)

(A closer look at the craftsmanship)

(My pumpkin, which I am quite pleased with!)

*Truth be told, no one was either. The worst that happened was people were full and sleepy.