Bringing the Drama

On Saturday after the HALF MARATHON, it was time to go back to Chalmette for the big Halloween party. I was anxious to go again after the fantastic time last year, and then my aunt sent me an email in September about it. I was going to dress up this year, and do more than tape black circles to my shirt. I was not going to have work on a Saturday, so I had no excuses. I struggled for a costume idea though. I posted on Twitter about it, and the only response I had was from my friend Adriene whose suggestion was disappointing. I mean, I figured she’d suggest a Twilight character at least…..but she didn’t. So the week of the party, I’m thinking about not dying in the HALF MARATHON and what costume I’m going to wear. I went to Target, Walmart, and a Halloween store, and nothing. I wasn’t wanting to pay $60 to dress up like the BK King, although that would have been cool a couple of years ago. I had a fake mustache, wasn’t there something I could figure out???

Two days before the big day, I noticed I had a new follower on Twitter, and it was the Quiznos toaster oven. You may know him from the commercials where he talks to Scott, the Quiznos employee. Apparently he had started following me when I asked about costume suggestions, so clicking through his page I came upon a page full of suggestions related to Quiznos. A couple of them were dressing up as the oven himself, but I didn’t have a box big enough to pull that off. But behold, dressing as a Torpedo! BRILLIANT! It’s unique, it’s something I can make, and it’s cheap. I could even wear my fake mustache!

On Friday I went to WM and bought a white sheet for $4. FOUR DOLLARS! I’m not sure how many other people were going to be dressing as Torpedos, but I got one of the last white sheets. After running the HALF MARATHON on Saturday, the costume was put together. I had some help drawing the logos on and pinning it, but I thought it came out fine. The result is below:

And yes, that is my HALF MARATHON finishers’ medal I had EARNED earlier in the day that I was wearing no matter what.

One of the highlights was a drunk lady who tried to befriend me by showing me her Star Wars shirt and saying it was vintage because it had Jar Jar on it (she kept saying it was a jabberwocky). That doesn’t mean it’s vintage, that means it sucks. I didn’t tell her that though because she was really excited about it. She was going around by herself and told me she lost the rest of her family, but she was still collecting candy in 3 bags; two for her family, then one she said was for her dog. You know you’ve hit rock bottom when you are trick-or-treating for your dog, or worse….LYING about it.

A while back I had read about the Star Wars In Concert show, where they’d show clips of the movies along with a live orchestra. I eagerly bought tickets for the NOLA show, but I’m not sure if I was as excited as I eventually became. When we walked in to the Arena on Tuesday, I didn’t quite freak out but came pretty close.

One of the coolest things about the concert was that they had set up costumes and props from the movies AND they had people dressed up as characters. Of course, there were plenty of regular people dressed up, but the people I’m talking about were with the show. The disappointing thing was that they seemed to just have characters who wore masks, like Boba Fett. I would have flipped out for a picture with Han Solo. The closest I could get to that picture was a picture with Chewbacca.

There were TONS of people getting pictures with the characters. Little kids were dressed up in their Halloween costumes, or maybe they were pajamas. Adults didn’t shy away either. I saw multiple Obi Wan Kenobis and random Jedis.

The show itself was really great. My favorite part is the beginning, with the dark screen and everything just begins with the music and the scrolling text. That’s pretty much what happened Tuesday night. It was great. They pretty much went through all six movies with clips along with the music, which was incredible.

They had Anthony Daniels, the guy who played C-3PO, as the night’s MC. He would talk and advance the story so the orchestra could take breaks. When he mentioned the Imperial Empire one time, the arena was quiet and listening, and this one guy booed very loudly. It was really funny, and I might have missed the following description about whatever scene was being set up. Only in an arena full of SW fans would someone booing the Empire get that kind of reaction. It was awesome.