joyeux halloween?

Yup. Today's the big day. Candy for everyone and costumes, too! Oh. Wait, I'm in France and tout le monde s'en fou (no one cares). Today is officially the first Halloween in my entire life that I have failed to dress up. I love dress-ups so much that I often have multiple costumes. I've been a clown, a Singaporean princess, a Native American princess, Glinda the Good Witch of the North, a sheep, a baby doll, Santa Lucia, a chef, a belly dancer, a witch, Galadriel of J.R.R. Tolkien's imaginings, a pirate, a bulimic Russian ballerina, a character from an Oscar Wilde-era masked ball, the color white, a pink fairy with black lipstick (oh, adolescence), Hermione Granger, Christopher Robin... I'm missing about ten, I think, considering that every year I usually find at least two occasions to dress up as something different. What else, Mama? Do you remember any others, Papa?

Guess what I'm wearing today? Normal stuff. (Black, at least.)

Tonight Colin, Stephanie and I are celebrating the holiday with dinner at our favorite Vietnamese/Chinese restaurant, Tu-Do. Then we'll head into town where Colin is going to drop by a blogger[nerd]'s convention and Stephanie and I may take a stab at the giant Ferris wheel that's temporarily installed at the park by Quinconces.

... It's that time of night when I usually start getting dressed for trick-or-treating at home. I wonder if it would be frowned upon for me to paint my face with eyeliner and lipstick. I could make a really cute kitty.

In order to not totally miss out on the festivities, I hung this in my window:


















It's my chest x-ray from my medical visit this morning at the immigration office. They were mainly concerned with my lungs and reproductivity. (I should say, my lack of reproductivity. Honestly, does it look like there's room for any American babies in France? Algerian babies? Russian babies? Ukrainian babies? Non-French babies? Nuh-uh!) They let me keep the x-ray afterwards, and I thought it was very nice of them to be so respectful of my secular, American, spooky holiday. (This is an apt time to point out that the school vacation I'm on right now, Toussaint, is what I knew growing up Catholic as "All Saints Day.")

I didn't even buy candy. I didn't carve a pumpkin. I won't be marshing any mellows over a bonfire at the Triangle. France is great and all, but these are things that I sorely miss.