How the Village does Halloween

I have been waiting to post for a couple of days because we suddenly can’t seem to figure out how to upload pictures from our camera to our new mac. Ah, mac. They say you do things so much better, but I’m not convinced. Why won’t you read my camera input? Why be so stubborn after we’ve treated you to our business? Been loyal to you for a full two months? Filled you with all sorts of meaningful bits of our networked lives?

But, I digress- this post was never meant to be about the mac/pc war.

This year was a New York Halloween for me, and I couldn’t stop my heart from fluttering at the messy finesse that New Yorkers apparently put on the spooky day . We stopped by Washington Square to see the children’s parade ending, all the little ones spilling into the empty fountain’s pit, squirrels chasing lizards, princesses in a row, swinging their dresses gently, witches trying to keep their hats from sliding into their eyes as they climbed on the fountain’s spout, and parents grinning and flashing their cameras furiously. (There was one toddler with hospital scrubs on who, when he turned around, revealed a sign pinned to his chest that read Death Panelist. Ah, New York parents. You can’t even blame them for using their children to make political statements- they just enjoy it so damn much, and honestly, they’re so damn good at it.) We also stood for a brief minute at the trick-or-treat bag line and sighed, eyeing the free bags of candy longingly and wondering if it would be wrong to borrow someone else’s kid to make us legit enough for one of our own.

This little boy was a helicopter for Halloween.
As you can sort of tell, his parents were very proud.

We didn’t go to the Halloween parade, but we took a stroll around the Village before leaving, which was parade enough for us – the zombies, scarecrows, giant cats, Supermans, Fred Flinstones, Marios and Luigis (a popular one this year, although I’m not sure why), slutty nurses, slutty red riding hoods, slutty lady bugs, slutty donut girls, slutty baseball players, and slutty nuns (YES, we did actually see a slutty nun) offered plenty of amusement and giggles. We, at some point, rounded a corner to see some poor woman eating outside, bent over her plate, straining her neck to reach her food…in a hot dog costume. Complete with yellow tights. She wins my prize for best costume, purely for the circumstance. A hot dog eating soup al fresco in the rain. Apparently, it doesn’t get more Halloween in NYC than that.