Halloween 2009 or the year we began preemptively embarrassing our child

Ross and I tend to be in town every other year for Halloween. Last year we were in Argentina, and in 2006 down in Mexico, so we always have difficulty coming up with costumes since we kind of forget about it on the years we are here. It's generally a last minute decision involving whatever we can find in our closets and buy on our street. This year, however, we spent a little more time on it since we figured it may be our last year to go all out for a long time.

A bunch of our friends were dressing up as characters from a show on HBO called "Eastbound and Down" so Ross went as Ashley Scheaffer, the Will Ferrell character, and enjoyed shouting quotes all night. For myself, after mulling over a possible Zombie Farrah Fawcett costume, I decided to go as Lady Gaga. I'm always up for crazy hair and makeup and the possibility of going pantsless sealed the deal. We figure we can show Baby Hoss these photos when he/she hits the teen years and ask Hoss if his parents looked cool and possibly threaten to bring the costumes out of retirement.

One interesting note on Halloween in the City - kids do trick or treat here but it's very different. They go to bodegas and storefronts to get their candy. There are no knocks on the door in our apartment building (but considering the fact that I have only seen one child in the past 5 years of living there and I'm pretty sure they speak some sort of weird Scandinavian language, it's not surprising) and kids walk all over the streets screaming "trick or treat" at the people behind the counter where you buy your lottery tickets. While the stores are accommadating, they aren't completely enthused. I was getting a manicure around 5pm on Halloween evening and a bunch of little kids came in yelling trick or treat. All of the people getting their nails done oohed and aahed. The woman doing my nails however said "Trick or treat. Go get yourself" and pointed towards a meager looking bowl of penny candy near the nail dryers. It was a little sad. We don't plan on being in the area by the time Baby Hoss actually can understand and enjoy trick or treating so I won't have to deal with surly storeowners pushing dried out gumballs on my child and for that I'm a little grateful.