Halloween: Muskingum Style

November 1, 2003

Woke up feeling pretty wretched. Threw on my makeup, and then made my way over to work (where I had an extra clipboard, and where I could make some more photocopies). Walking around in full costume on Halloween is one thing, but doing so on November 1st gets you some weirder looks.

I had on the exact same getup as yesterday (face paint, horns), and the only difference was that my hands weren’t painted (I didn’t want to get crap all over the inside of my car). So after a slow start, I make my way onto the Interstate around 2:00 PM, and head East.

At best, it was a long ride. Again – I felt really crappy this morning, on waking up. But as the day wore on, I started to get better and better. By the time I arrived (around 10:45 PM), I was almost back to normal again. I parked a few houses shy of my destination, got out of the car, and proceeded to smear more red paint all over myself.

Fake horns: check.
Fake contract: check.
Camera: check.

Let’s do this thing.

A bad sign. Within ten, TEN minutes of my walking in… I’m offered a shot of tequila. And so we begin the festivities. Matt on the left. Juliet on the right. And my special little tea cup full of tequila in the middle there.

Actually I forgot to mention this: I walked in, and as soon as everyone noticed me, all my MFA friends yelled out FELIX!!! all at once. What a rockstar entrance! The whole drive over was worth it just for those few seconds.

Here’s universal truth: straws make anything, even the Devil, sexier.

Luanne (Jim’s sister), and Jim. I arrived a bit too late to see Jim’s full costume, and as the evening wore on, more clothing was shed. This pretty much held true for everyone in attendance, whether they were dressed as Lincoln or not.

It’s Super Chicken! And she’s using her super powers to slowly morph into…

Drunken Chicken!

Matt and Juliet, trying to give me "Devil" horns.

I snuck into the living room, where dancing was happening. Held up the camera, and snapped a quick pic. Madness!

In the dining area, I talked with Jesseca (left) and MaryAnn. After a bit, Meghan came around the corner to chastise everyone who wasn’t dancing. She yelled out "They’re MOSHING in there, you FUCKERS!" Then she turned around, and went back in to dance some more.

I found out that MaryAnn is in the Psychology Department (most folks here are either teaching at OSU or faculty at Muskingum). She then told me she studies birdsongs, in particular. I found this pretty interesting, and started to talk about what little I knew about mimic birds. I vaguely recalled there was one bird who, as a result of some nearby construction, ended up mirroring the sound of a jackhammer. Turns out, this bird is the Starling, and was the very bird MaryAnn studies.

We got into topics like jazz, how whales sing, and linguistics – all of which touch on her particular area of study. Cool, cool stuff.

Meghan. Showing off the chest hair.

Sometime in the evening, Matt’s pants become too heavy to wear without manual assistance.

Nothing says party like a nice little bonfire. Shortly after this, Jim started setting off a bunch of fireworks. It seems like every party here has to involve fireworks of some kind.

There was a slight misty rain out tonight, and the fire felt really good. We made a hell of a lot of racket out here. And once we ran out of things to shoot off, Jim headed in to go get some more.

There’s always some sort of lively debate going on between Akhim and Meghan.

The cache. When Jim said he had more fireworks – I wasn’t expecting this!

These were just lying around! Just sitting there in a box. Waiting.

Dan grabbed an armful, and headed outside.

Matt showed me this note he left on Jim’s printer. He explained to me how Jim constantly curses at this printer, because it’s old and doesn’t cooperate. He also explained to me how he leaves this exact same note every time he visits.

As I walk out the porch door, I’m just in time to hold the door open for Dan (who does this comic-like 180 degree turnaround, and walks right back in the fucking house).

The local police have received a complaint about the noise, and discuss things with Jim and Meghan. I hang back with everyone else, and then slowly inch towards the car. I look for any sort of sign… and then I see Meghan laugh a little.

I go a little closer.

The officer was nice enough to let me take a picture. The reason they were talking so long? Jim ended up redirecting the conversation. Even though a neighbor complained about the noise… Jim ended up asking the cop "What about when the students get noisy?" To which, the cop began to explain how they didn’t have to stand for that noise, and that they could call the New Concord Police to settle the noise dispute.

I have to credit Meghan for this picture though. When I asked to take a photo, the cop was really wary. But then Meghan explained that I wasn’t trying to take a picture for "evidence" or anything… but that "He just takes a lot of pictures. And this is so unusual, for us to have a police officer at the house!"

The cops showed up. This is now officially a party.

Midnight Burgers! I think we’ve all somehow inadvertantly given birth to a new term, since Jim and I now both seem to refer to it the same way.

Mmmm… midnight burgers…

Matt… transforming from Super Z, to Little Red Riding Hood.

Lining up Italian Sausages. A LOT of food was made.

Random shot of some stuff on the porch.

"Cook faster, dammit! I’m not messing around here!"

Matt. Worsens.

Saw this inside, and really liked it. So I took a picture.

I’m sorry – I’ve forgotten who I’m posing with. :(

MaryLynne (Philosophy) and MaryAnn (Psychology). The three of us talked grammar for a while, and student papers. Ah me. I know this is nerdy, but I really enjoyed the conversation – everything from punctuation to students fudging on margin widths.

I used to be a part of this world, so it’s nice to be able to step back inside, albeit briefly.

Food is distributed, and everyone gathers like sharks.

Matt likes to draw things on his burgers.

This – this I have never seen before today.

I found out later that Luanne and Jim give each other silly gifts all the time. Whenever Jim gets something like this from her, he always makes it a point to force her to use it whenever she visits.

Abe Lincoln, working the corn dog/twinkie deep fryer.

With the 16th President of the United States constantly giving me the peer pressure, what I am supposed to do? Refuse?

Home made corn dog. Actually, it tastes a LOT better than it looks.

Juliet. Always sneaking in the bird.

With some drunken friends, it’s always better to be safe than sorry. Marking things with clear signage helps.

Someone who doesn’t know about the blog came by, and saw me taking this picture. I tried to explain what I was doing, and that it would make sense if they looked at my web site. They nodded at me in this sort of "Yeah, uh… ok" way.

I tried to explain how I do this sort of thing all the time. But that didn’t really help things.

Not really sure what’s going on here. But there’s a lot of angles.

Juliet and Jim, breakin’ it down!

Meghan, once again abusing the fact that she has a gun and bullying her way around the dance floor.

Juliet, somehow managing to dance in those elf shoes.

Matt, who recovered slightly, took over my camera, and started shooting pictures of peoples’ crotches. This would be mine, covered with the stage paint (from both last night, and tonight).

Back in the kitchen for another round. I believe Matt’s words here were: "Tapwater. The poor man’s chaser."

The best line of the whole evening was from Akhim. Here everyone’s doing another shot of tequila. What started this up? Well, it’s all because Akhim said: "All I need is two more shots, and I can get to the next level."

ROFL!

Pistols at dawn.

I have no memory of what preceded this, or promted it. I have a vague memory of Matt saying "Look! I’m inside the refrigerator."

Seriously – that’s all I got.

Juliet, in a somber moment. Possibly contemplating her beer. Possibly contemplating the corn dog/twinkie deep fryer.

Outside again, by the fire. I hung out here with Dan for a bit. He mentioned losing part of his costume (a flower) down by the parking lot. He pointed to the lampost and said "I think I lost it down there. When I was breakdancing."

I agreed to follow him to go searching for the flower. I was unphased by the breakdancing comment.

We had to crawl through some foliage, and hit a gentle slope before the lot. Keep in mind Jim and Meghan’s house is right on the edge of campus, so once we cross this road… we’re on school property.

A lot of fog, and I had a hell of a time getting any pictures out here. That blur is Dan on the bottom.

No-go on the flower.

As we walked, we kept hearing this low voice. Sorta like someone talking. The closer we got to this spot, the louder the voice. After a while, we recognized it as some sort of radio show. But we didn’t know where the sound was coming from. At this spot, the volume was fairly loud – and part of me was thought there might have been someone dead in that red car, with the radio was left on full-blast.

Turns out, the sound was coming from some speakers above this door – the local college radio station.

But it was all pre-recorded, and no one was inside. Why would they just blast the radio station like this?

On our way back, the campus police circled us once, but then moved on without stopping or asking us any questions. I thought for SURE they would have at least talked to us. But I waved, they waved back. We walked back into the foliage and they drove off.

Dan, posing. As you can sorta see in the background, several things were broken and knocked around over the course of the night’s dancing. I know Meghan was upset a bit earlier in the night, and I hope everything that broke is still fixable.

Cabey-baby! Few men have such a unique and catchy greeting/entrance. I’m not sure who started this, but it’s caught on among all of us that know Akhim.

If he shows up and someone wants to make extra special mention of the fact that Akhim’s arrived (almost as a way to demonstrate the happiness felt at his arrive), the greeting CABEY-BABY! is used.

That’s right. He’s got his own tag line. :)

Here, Akhim is messing with his cell phone, on the couch. Shoes are off, and sleep is not far from now.

Spooky! This is me, with about half of the crap scrubbed off my face.

Ahh. Much better.

Meghan, outside her office.

Around now is about 4:30 AM. This is a view of the porch, sans Flash. Things are dark, the grill has long cooled, and there’s a very low light comprised of string lights and fading candles.

The remains of the day. Meghan sat out here with me briefly, and I asked if we were the first two awake. It’s a line from The Big Chill, and we both got a kick out of it. We talked about the movie a long while, and slowly let sleepiness overtake us.