Nobody raise your voices

Yesterday was Halloween Day. I celebrated. Here's how (and why):

At 8:00 in the morning, I awoke to that shrill call of my alarm and, consciousness full, turned on the hot water heater. It takes a few minutes to heat up, so in the meantime, I got on the computer, checked the news (because this must be done, right?), frowned over the fact that I'd gotten no e-mails of import, and then wondered what I should do to pass the remaining few minutes.

With the hot water finally full, I took a shower. I remembered, much to my chagrin, that I had not completed next month's lesson plan -- I had completely forgotten to type it, in fact. I hurried out of the shower, got dressed for the day, and proceeded to complete my costume.

Here is the final product:


If you're not sure what the hell all that makeup and shit was supposed to make me look like, it was Kung Fu Panda. Kids were using me as a punching bag all day.

Here are the rest of the teachers:


In order of appearance, from left to right: Mary (as herself), Elena (as a pirate), Loren (as Rapunzel), Andrew (as sheriff of Brokeback County), Alana and Erin (as Eve and Wall-E from Wall-E), and me.

I stayed in character for the afternoon, too. Everyone got a kick out of it (in addition to their aforementioned punches), and it was fun. It was a hectic, wild, crazy, out-of-control, practically-spontaneous, by all accounts a no-way-in-hell-it-should-have-worked kind of a day. I don't mean to glamorize, or to promote sycophancy in your responses: work was extremely frustrating, and I was itching most of the day; and I had yet another sore throat, probably not to be helped by being touched by skeptical kids all day to see if I was real.

Here is my kindergarten class:


They are, if you desire their names (from left to right): Andy (as a wizard), Luke (as Spider-Man), Thomas (as a gangster from Chicago in the 1920s -- no, really), Joanne (who is unashamedly my favorite student, as a witch), Emily (as a princess/fairy), Jack (as Spongebob Squarepants), Steve (as a pirate), Michael (I think he was a Korean superhero, but I'm not sure), Ryan (who figured his Tae Kwan Do outfit was good enough), and Kelly (as a fairy).

This was the first time I'd celebrated Halloween. And the occasional playacting as a child aside, my first time dressing up for anything. It was fun, but nothing spectacular.

Welcome to my life.

All of which brings me to why, and to reflect on the day. My final class and I had a snack party during our class, since they weren't part of the earlier festivities. It was a laid-back class, with drinks and bits of candy distributed to them. They made it all fun and worth it in the end, in their quiet studious attitudes and gentle laughter at my getup.

After getting home, removing the muck that had sunk into my pores, and then removing the remains of my costume, I settled in for the night, feeling less than healthy, and more exhausted than I've felt in a while. I forwent my usual Friday night trip to the Subway in Suji (one of the highlights of my week, wherein I spend a calm, blissful hour to and fro whilst enjoying the shivering cold and some spontaneous tunes on my iPod). I went to bed early, thinking how glad I was that it was the weekend, and wished for a tasteful (hopefully for its fruitfulness) weekend.

And today, as on October 30, I think Halloween is just another day. But no one will ever be able to say I didn't try.