TBT - Halloween

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Halloween 1986
Sometimes you just have to be yourself. My friend and I refer to this as the "need to be" and it refers directly to just being yourself - that person YOU are most comfortable with. The person YOU would be all the time if you never had to fit into different roles.

Halloween is such a great time to just be anything or anyone you want. Think about it, who really is judgmental on Halloween? We all have an opportunity to be whoever, whatever, to any extreme, for a whole day....and it is acceptable!!! If I love Halloween for any reason, this is it.

When you allow your friends to get in on the action, you often find yourself in a persona you might not otherwise have chosen and that gives us our TBT photo of the week.

Who didn't love the 80's? A great trend was the whole "big clothes" fad which paid off great for me with my friends. As they got out of that stage, I was able to inherit some great stuff (of course it fit me regularly, and I wasn't complaining).  Halloween '86, my buddy raided her wardrobe and turned me into a slutty mix of Madonna, Stevie Nicks, and Bon Jovi. Grab the curling iron, toss in a can of aqua net, some feathered earrings, and poof (yah, as much spray was in my hair that night, a small spark could have made it go poof!) we had a Halloween memory that has lasted the test of time. It still comes up in conversation, usually starting, "remember the year I made you look like a prostitute?" That is what friends are for. I can honestly say that I did not ever dress up like that again, although I did look pretty amazing!

Halloween in college gets a bit crazier. Yes, I am sitting here having a moment on memory lane, reminiscing about one of my most ingenious (and probably most disgusting) Halloween costumes I went for, which has caused me to chuckle out loud (thank goodness I don't have an office mate). No, I am not sharing it in print. Those who know, know. Those who don't....should be glad they don't! Have you ever seen something and your thought is, "I will never be able to un-see that again in my life." Yah, it's kind of like that! I personally called it brilliant. Moral of that story....don't challenge me and don't dare me.

Simply Irresistible, 1990
Ok, so how about a college one I can share? I was never one to go out to the bars. Actually, in college I went out twice and it took a lot of begging and asking to get me to go. I was not a fan of the crowds nor all the drunk people. My sophomore year, some of the girls on the floor dressed up as the girls in the Robert Palmer videos. They wanted me to go out with them so bad and I told them there was no way I was getting into a mini-skirt. They put me in a black suit and tie and I took my "Simply Irresistible" girls out to the bars.

What gets fun is that only three of them were old enough to even get in the bars which left some planning to do. Seeing they all looked so similar (and did not look like their ID's), I took the three in who were of age, then I came back out and got the other two, we used the same ID's, and took them in. The bouncers had no clue it was different people. The best is being Facebook friends with almost all of them now and rolling out this photo each year. I would love to be there each year as they explain it to their children!! Ironically, both of these photos are in the same collage frame on my wall!

So today I give cheers to those moments where you "gotta be" and you actually go for it. Whether it is on Halloween or any other day of the year. As I learn to be happy with who I am and learn to find peace with that person, I get a little less afraid to allow that person to show through.

Happy Thursday!

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