Oh you really like that title? Corny as it may be, I do have to admit that Miley Cyrus song is pretty catchy, although I would be fairly ashamed to play it with other people listening along with me. I could go off about Miley Cyrus right now, but I won't; I'll leave it at that. Right now, before this post becomes irrelevant, we'll have discussion about Halloween.
This was really leaning towards an 'old fart' post, but I'll just leave it at a normal rant. I know I'm old, but writing more of those posts are simply encouraging my senile mentality. No one wants me frequently bitching about being old--only periodically. This post will be separated into three different sections: the days before, the night of, and the days after Halloween. Hmm, I guess this could have been split into three different posts, but since this post is coming so late, consider it a belated Halloween treat. Just don't be getting blog-vities...I won't be held responsible for those.
Weeks Before
Several weeks ago we had a new eccentric girl work with us at the office. Again, like most of my co-workers, she is younger than me by a few years. The rebellious type who likes to stir things up, she asked around wondering if we were able to wear costumes into work the Friday before Halloween (Saturday).
Attire at work has always been business casual. I'm not exactly one who enjoys wearing khakis, slacks, multiple shirts, ties, belts, etc. It's not that I don't like clothes and that I may be a closet nudist, but I just want to wear a t-shirt and jeans to work is all. If people are more comfortable physically when they are at work, productivity would supposedly increase, right?
Then again, not many people share this philosophy. We supposedly need to dress professional since it's a professional environment. It is an office headquarters--fair enough. There are a lot of HR people and executives roaming around with clients showing the day-by-day operations around the place, so they would like to project a professional and respectable image. Fine. I can live with that.
I thought to myself and told her, "Well, we DO work at the headquarters for a pretty big company. If anything, I highly doubt they'll let us wear silly/questionable costumes into work for Halloween."
Not to be denied she replied, "Well, I think it'd be really cool if we did though!"
Last week (I guess 2 weeks now, considering the belated-ness of this post) at work in the office we received several notices about Halloween coming up. The reason why these notices were so significant was because HR (Human Resources) actually allowed us to wear costumes and other Halloween-themed clothes in the spirit of Halloween. They mentioned Halloween-themed sweatshirts/sweaters were welcome and that costumes were to be "functional" for work. However, that notice also mentioned that jeans were NOT allowed. So for instance, someone wanted to dress up as a cowboy (like Woody from Toy Story), he would wear a nice vest, a cowboy hat, boots, and some unconventional but business-casual-appropriate dress slacks. Of course, that would look absolutely atrocious: a gunslinging cowboy riding his trusty stallion while carrying his portfolio and references. Okay, so no sane person would bring a horse to work, but you get the idea.
I don't think I could ever imagine myself with some Jack-'o-lantern sweater since it would probably would make me look like a middle aged white woman going through a mid-life crisis. Funny how this image is the first thing that comes up when you search for 'Halloween Sweater' and it links directly to ugly seasonal office sweaters.
Later in the week we received another notice revising the first one which would allow us to wear jeans--as long as they are part of our costume. Basically this led to a massive brainstorm around the office on various costumes that would somehow incorporate jeans. Most of the girls around the office either opted to dress up as nurses (a.k.a borrow their friend's scrubs for the day) or opt not to dress in costume at all. To be honest, women's business-casual attire has more vague boundaries which they can obviously exploit. I on the other hand really didn't have any ideas nor did I want to spend extra money on a costume that would just allow me to wear jeans for one day. I really thought I was going to end up wearing the same 'ol shirt and tie until it hit me--Kanye West.
I have a pretty decent assortment of clothes which would be considered as 'urban'. It would be a fitting costume despite me being Asian. Okay, Asian Kanye West coming through. Yo HR, I'm really happy for you on this day celebrating the spirit of Halloween, and Imma let you finish, but wearing these jeans is part of my costume. There's no way you can send me home to change my clothes; the jeans are legit. Eh, there wasn't much of anything else to this story for the most part. Work was boring like usual.
Night Of...
Now for the actual night of Halloween. I didn't really bother to go out. After all, I'm too old for trick-or-treating and mentally, I'm also too old to be hitting up the club. I hadn't really planned out giving out candy (okay call me a cheap bastard, I deserve it) so I was basically celebrating Halloween through my brother. I recently got him the Metal Gear Essentials Collection for PS2, so he really wanted to be Snake (Snake Eater snake to be specific). Before anyone questions my parenting skills, I think a 13 year old has the capacities to play a Metal Gear game without too many bad repercussions. For his costume I got him some dark clothes and put some camo paint on his face; job well done I'd say. I could've gotten him a fake rubber snake and perhaps a toy knife to finish the ensemble, but maybe next year I suppose.
The Days After
Since I'm too old for trick-or-treating now, but since I still have a sweet tooth, the last few years I've been hoarding the seasonal 30-50% after-Halloween candy. Okay, I feel like a real cheap bastard because:
- I didn't give out any candy Halloween night.
- I'm only buying candy when there's a sale on it.
And...
Eh, let's just blame the economy on my spending habits. It's everyone's scapegoat nowadays.
I made a trip out to Target early Sunday morning with my brother to see what was left of the Halloween candy there. Surprisingly, there was still a lot of candy there compared to years' past. Again...that dreaded e word. I didn't get too much candy. Only spent about $16 worth which isn't too bad. If I spent anymore, I really would need to hit up the elliptical machine more often than I should. My metabolism was never good to begin with so the candy I get now will be going straight to my thighs, gut, and wherever else fat likes to roam. Anyhow, this is what I managed to get with that $16:
- a bag mix of Skittles/Starburst
- a bag of various Reese's candies (regular Reese's, Fast Break, Sticks)
- a bag of various flavors of Nerds
- and a hefty 3 pound jug of Milky Way.
The thing is this 3 and a quarter pound jug of Milky Way was pretty cheap. Only $4.99 for 90 Fun Size pieces (I'll complain about Fun Sizes at a later time). Pretty damn awesome if I do say myself. I could've opted for Snickers, Twix, or 3 Musketeers, but Milky Way is definitely my candy bar of choice. It has that awesome mix of nougat (whatever that is) with caramel. Disturbingly, my choice to opt for Snickers was pretty much gone when a Vietnamese family dropped by to completely hoard all of the Snickers jugs away. It was absolutely crazy, similar to how pirates hoard other ships or when vikings pillage towns--everything left bare and devoid of anything useful.
I apologize for not having a picture of the jug full of candy. Apparently I put a big dent into the jug already with more than half of it gone. Lulz.
I knew people liked their candy, but not that much. When I was paying for my candy, I happened to see that family head out with 2 FULL shopping carts full of those jugs? Really? Who are they trying to feed? I know the peanuts in it make it slightly healthier than other candy bars, but holy crap, who's going to eat all of that? If I still retained my math skills from high school, I could possibly figure out how many jugs they had. Let's just say...a lot. Even at $5 a jug, they still paid at least more than $200 on them. It really got out of hand, but basically that's what Target and every other store that has leftover Halloween season candy aims to do with the clearance sales--get it the fuck out.
Well that basically wraps up my Halloween adventures this year. Perhaps I'll actually post my time-sensitive posts on time for once, but then again I would most likely sacrifice the quality/content of it in return. Happy candy eating!
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