Sunday, October 30, 2011

We is the Rocky Balboa of the Costume Party

The we is Wife and I.

We were invited by our lawyer friends V and J to their annual Halloween shindig. Evidently this is a very big deal at their house. Their house (which is not small) is all duded up with the stuff of the season (I can only imagine how much time that takes them). And it is a costume party for both adults and kids (lots and lots of kids).

Wife and I have participated in quite a few...well a few...well occasional...well exactly NO costume parties in our adult lives! That is no as in none, never, nada, aucun, zip, nil, not a single one.

Of course, this opportunity was the course of great excitement...well no panic would be the better word. First thoughts were "How the hell do we get out of this". But the lawyers have been to our house numerous times and that would be oh so rude. So no it was on to the horror of what heck we could do.

I have to say that it never even occurred to us to just get a mask and fob the whole thing off. This was the perfect example of why Wife and I work so well together. After thinking about a number of classic Halloween costumes, an idea just popped out of my head that we should replicate the painting American Gothic. For a look at the original go here. (By the way it was that same intuitive thinking that led to our second story). However intuition without execution is just daydreaming. And Wife is the executor par excellence. She put some much time into studying the picture, going to yard sales, second hand stores, and regular stores to get everything needed in the detail needed. And the spent hours altering things.


Our end result (before going to party)

And we won BEST COSTUME OVERALL!

Not only that there was a buzz in the room. I kid you not. There will people pointing to us across the room and saying in soft voices "Look their American Gothic". And others telling their friends that they needed to see the "American Gothic" couple. And people telling of their seeing the picture in the museum, and histories of the picture, and one person pointing a minor detail missing in Wife's hair. Totally out of bounds.

It is now official. Wife and I are officially retired from the costume party competition circuit. Retiring on top,

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Awesome. You totally deserved the prize.

alexis said...

well, if you're going to do it once, do it well! I hope there were shots from the party as well?

Mike said...

Congrats! It was well-deserved. The likeness is spot-on!

Lakeview Coffee Joe said...

Excellent execution!! Retiring on top? That's no fun. Start a trend of winning competitions!

Pulisha said...

Great idea & perfect execution. Next year you can tear them apart and put on some make-up and be "American Gothic Zombie." ;)

Bernice said...

Your expressions are the best!

terri said...

That is AWESOME! I love it!

My favorite radio station hosted a Halloween party at Toby Keith's I Love this Bar and Grill. I didn't go, but they announced the next day that the winning costumes were... you guessed it! American Gothic! What a great idea!