I love Halloween! I love watching our students as they show off their costumes – they are so cute! It is such a wonderful chance to watch them act out their super hero and princess fantasies. I also like to wear costumes that are not just creative, but also have some sort of play on words.
Above you will see the costume I chose to wear a Rastafarian Mickey Mouse (to the kids I was “Hippie Mickey”). However, that is not what I really wanted to be! What I really wanted to do was wear that exact costume with pasta taped all over the shirt – get it??? I would have been a PASTAFARIAN!!! Okay, I realize that sometimes my sense of humor seems to entertain myself more than others!
I have another costume favorite I wore over ten years ago. I bought a shirt and painted a giant letter “P” on the shirt. I wore the shirt and painted my eye black. Get it????? I was a black-eyed pea!!!!! I spent the entire night explaining my costume, which I thought was quite clever, but no one else seemed to get.
Another wonderful Halloween reality is that for one day out of the year I can dress in something different than my professional clothing – I can even wear skinny jeans and converse to work (they were part of the costume).
I love that education is so much more than training students to memorize and regurgitate rhetoric spewed at them from textbooks. I love that we have those wonderful days like Halloween when our learning communities become communities of imagination, of fantasy, of fun.
Today, 112 days ’til 40, I am thankful for our ability to take the time and pretend. Our children remind us how healthy it is.
~400daystil40
Fortuitous Forty!!! 
Lily in the Nova
November 1, 2012 at 00:14
Pastafarian, Black Eyed Pea, haha I love it! 🙂
I love the fun and imagination of Halloween too 🙂
400daystil40
November 1, 2012 at 22:18
Thank you! I always like to find the witty costumes!
Lani Longshore
November 1, 2012 at 03:03
Pastafarian, what a hoot!
400daystil40
November 1, 2012 at 22:18
Thank you!!
buckwheatsrisk
November 1, 2012 at 03:32
i get them both and i think you’re clever!
400daystil40
November 1, 2012 at 22:18
Thank you, most people just seem to think I am weird… 😛
buckwheatsrisk
November 1, 2012 at 22:23
no they may just be normal and boring…lol
sakuraandme
November 1, 2012 at 04:39
This post is cute and funny! xx
400daystil40
November 1, 2012 at 22:17
Thank you!!!
knitxpressions
November 1, 2012 at 11:05
Haaa…I love your ‘black-eyed P’ costume…it may not be apparent straight up but it sure is funny!!!
400daystil40
November 1, 2012 at 22:16
Thank you! Nice to know there are others out there with a similar sense of humor! 🙂
knitxpressions
November 2, 2012 at 05:53
Oh indeed there are, but I have a feeling a lot of them are in the closet. LOL
Spider42
November 1, 2012 at 12:14
It sounds lovely and like a bundle of fun. We don’t have that kind of thing here as such – sure we have fun festivals and such that kids really enjoy, but nothing quite like halloween and christmas like you have in the States. I suppose thats a big part of why it’s starting to slowly catch on in niches here too.
Oh and love the rasta-mickey, don’t feel bad he was called hippie because folks often associate the rasta with it now. Ignorance of a new generation that can’t differentiate in a hurry! 😀 And as far as the costumes go, I love the creativity but I have to admit (from some experience) that some jokes are just either ahead of their time or are too subtle/off-beat/specific/inside for the public at large.
Have a good one!
Cheers..
400daystil40
November 1, 2012 at 22:15
Yes, sadly most of my costume jokes are appreciated more by myself than those around me (I seem to be my own best form of entertainment). Halloween and Christmas are two very celebrated holidays in the USA… sadly, they can sometimes get out of hand – people need to slowly learn balance!
Spider42
November 2, 2012 at 09:48
It’s good to be happy and content with oneself. The trick being to not become TOO much like that. 🙂 I’m still learning.
And as far as holidays getting out of hand… well that kind of getting out of hand, like a St. Patricks day, there are those that really go around the bend a bit and should have stopped about 10 steps prior, but for the most part I say in a life thats too damned short and filled with boring shite and mundanity far too much of the time – bring it on! For those few days, those happy times, BALANCE BE DAMNED!
400daystil40
November 3, 2012 at 00:38
Yes, you are so correct! hehehe – you made me laugh, yes at times we are all happy to walk away from “balance” – aren’t we???
Spider42
November 3, 2012 at 09:03
Indeed!
Another Thousand Words
November 1, 2012 at 15:43
Great and FUN post, 400! PASTAFARIAN is hilarious (and very creative)! Love the pink Converse image…mine, which are now SEVEN years old, are black with white pin stripes and my short tops are kind of a grungy white with black splotches…both comfortable and getting compliments all the time.
What I am seeing, as your 39th year moves along, is quite a bit of transformation…you are happier than when I first began following–guess you’re finding great joy in approaching the magic 4-0?
400daystil40
November 1, 2012 at 22:14
Thank you! My pink converse are also quite old… at lest 10 years………….. Thank you so much for the compliments and the comments re: transformation – we are all on a fascinating journey, aren’t we??? Thank you, also for appreciating the pastafarian costume idea!!!! 🙂 Most people just roll their eyes over that! 🙂
Another Thousand Words
November 2, 2012 at 02:42
Oh, where is their sense of humor, 400? I laughed and chuckled for quite a bit, imagining all the different pasta shapes (and had you semi-cooked linguini or fettucini, you could have bent them into lovely squiggles!).
And…I agree that these last 6-8 months have been transformative for many, especially myself. My own ‘natural’ cynicism is being overtaken by my long-missing sense of humor, which I often come up with these days, especially during my walks around Chicago. Life can be FUN…we only have to let that FUN in!
400daystil40
November 3, 2012 at 00:42
Yes, I agree – I have to seriously consider creating that pastafarian costume in the future!!!
I am go glad that you have also experienced transformative experiences in the past 6-8 months – it means so much when we can step out of our comfort zones and allow ourselves the opportunities to grow and evolve! 🙂
Another Thousand Words
November 3, 2012 at 02:21
:>) !!!
walkwiththerabbi
November 1, 2012 at 17:02
The last Halloween experience I had was in Canada, before we moved to the US. I was magnificently adorned in women’s attire (I looked spectacular) and after “kicking up my heels” with one of the kids girlfriends, said, “I had no idea that a man was capable of dancing like that.” Hmmmm!!!
400daystil40
November 1, 2012 at 22:13
Hehehe – I think you need to write a blog entry on that halloween and post a photo with it! 🙂
walkwiththerabbi
November 2, 2012 at 00:33
Yikes!!!
Sid Dunnebacke
November 2, 2012 at 03:42
Pastafarian! That’s brilliant! I’d like to say I’d have ‘gotten’ the black eye pea costume… people not getting it doesn’t take away from the clever, though, if you ask me.
I’ve found that my children have a LOT to teach me, about this kind of thing and lots more.
400daystil40
November 3, 2012 at 00:40
Thank you for the compliment! One day I will be that pastafarian! And I am so glad that you would have gotten the black eyed pea costume – because no one did that night (though I still think I was very clever!)