Halloween was a smashing success. I danced. I drank. I saw my friends. Fewer people recognized my costume than I had hoped, but genius is always under-appreciated. Besides, I was not alone. Devon failed to recognize Lily in her I Have Been Turned Evil By Tim Curry dress from Legend and it took me a moment to spy Matt's hammer tee-shirt and realize that he was wearing a costume. It was a good Halloween for costumes: I saw Eric dressed up as Thor, I saw a Predator (sadly, not Senator Predator), and Mollie's excellent Bride of Frankenstein. The band from the Muppet Show deservedly won the costume contest. I saw a minimal number of Sarah Palins, sexy and otherwise, and if there were sexy nurses/cops/firemen/witches, I have developed a sort of blindness to them which made my evening that much more palatable.

For reasons that pass beyond my understanding, the Alternative Press Expo was scheduled for the weekend of Halloween. It rained without mercy and everyone had a hangover, which sucked a great deal of the charm out of the event. The vendors were particularly desperate this year, and it was difficult to approach a table without being subjected to a hard sell -- let me tell you about my comic; it's about these elves.... I saw many trade paperbacks that I had not yet collected and which I did not buy because I have little enough free space on my bookshelves as it is without Garth Ennis' run on Hellblazer. I saw art books by the fantastically creepy Ray Caesar. I made sad eyes at watercolors by Attaboy and prints by Stitchmind and that one woman whose name I can never recall who makes cute little harpies and medusas and mermaids with webbed fingers and pointy teeth. I very nearly bought a bat necklace from Tammy Stellanova, but I was distracted by the need for lunch. I purchased tee-shirts, because I need tee-shirts to wear to the gym which do not feature the name of my Mysterious Employer. I did not commission even a single sketch for Project Squid Girl, because my walls are already covered in squid and I don't think that I could put up another one without taking something down.

Halloween lived up to my expectations and APE did not. I have new tee-shirts, but no new art on my walls. It is raining, but I am inside and warm. The world is in a comfortable sort of balance and all is right within it. Om.