Rants and Ramblings: random commentary about culture, media, politics, technology and whatnot.

same bat-time, same bat-channel

I began my Saturday by loopily swooping around the apartment wearing a homemade bat costume.

Yes, I’m a dork. But there was a reason.

Backing up…

Every year, my friends Eric and Caroline hold an elaborate Halloween party at their Northern Virginia home. Starting in about July, they completely redecorate their home, creating decorations and elaborate props befitting the chosen theme for the year. The theme itself varies from year to year, and it’s kept top-secret until the night of the event. Previous years’ themes have included 1950s sci-fi and the Golden Age of Hollywood. This year: a blending of the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

At this party, costumes are mandatory.

Procrastinator that I am, I didn’t start seriously thinking about costumes until about a week before the event. Inspiration struck, though, when I stumbled across a blog post explaining how to make a bat costume out of a hoodie and an umbrella. It seemed so simple, and in the photos, the costume looked charmingly low-fi. I had my costume (and it became Rob’s as well).

The day before the party, though, I still hadn’t bought the supplies for said costumes. So Friday night, we made a just-before-midnight run to the Wal-Mart in Kingstowne for cheap sweatshirts and umbrellas. (Side rant: I called the three Wal-Marts closest to me for their hours, and none was open past midnight. What’s up with that? For some reason, I thought they were all open 24 hours, the late-night domain of high school kids and college students with nothing better to do.)

It took me until 4 a.m. Saturday to disassemble the umbrella and hand-sew the pieces under each arm of my sweatshirt. Thankfully, Rob’s took much less time: I was able to finish it in the two hours before the party’s start. Whew!

(In retrospect, looking at the photos, I also should have taken the time to iron the umbrellas. Ah well.)

Anyway, we made it to the party, admired the decor, and had a good time, including hearing Eric’s tale of how he came to own a real Indiana Jones bullwhip and meeting a fellow NAA alum who now works for the American Institute of Architects. (I arrived in the middle of a conversation between Rob and the latter fellow as each extolled the virtues of Chicago architecture.)

We rounded off the night with a visit to a housewarming thrown by my friend Chris from CCT (where the photo above was taken). The party had mostly worn down by that point, but there were a few other CCT alums there, making their own inebriated fun. I may see some of them this Saturday, too, at the CCT 10th anniversary party (some of Rob’s classmates, current students in the program, have taken to calling it the “CCT Prom”).

More Photos »