Our Oregon Trails: Halloween Shenanigans

OMSI After Dark

I started off my Halloween celebrations by attending OMSI After Dark. It's a monthly 21+ mixer at the science museum and this one was Halloween themed. The first thing I did was get my face painted! The guy used an airbrush, which was a weird experience. It reminded me of the puff test at the eye doctor. Every time he moved to a new section of my face and started the airbrush, I'd jump. I wore my bat costume (made from a hoodie with an umbrella I sewed under the arms). I decided to continue the theme with bat face paint as well.

Along with the Halloween theme, they offered spirits throughout the museum. My friend participated and got the sweet shot glass pictured. She shared some of the drinks with me as we walked around the museum. and we had fun playing in the exhibits. Eventually, it got very crowded and it was difficult to walk around.

Bat costume when I made in in 2013.

Face paint!

We hid in the exhibits to avoid the long lines and enjoyed playing around. We sat and did some weaving for a while and it was more difficult than I thought it would be. I continuously mixed up which thread went where so I moved to an easier pattern.

I found out that this was their most popular After Dark. It was almost double their normal attendance. Knowing that, I may go back for another. I plan to volunteer for OMSI events in the future so I may even be working a few.

Halloween Potluck

Conference room

The next day was our staff Halloween potluck at work. We decorated the front desk and the conference room early in the month. I'm proud of our work! (pictured to the left) Traditionally there was a costume contest and office decoration contest. They also carved Jack-O-Lanterns but this year, we decided to decorate sugar skulls instead. There were just two of us on the committee so we tried to keep it a little more simple and much less messy.

My office

My coworker got sugar skull molds and we made them ourselves. It was quite easy with just sugar, meringue, and water packed into a mold. A few people were sad about the lack of carving but after we started decorating, we all had fun.

Our Marketing Director passed away suddenly in early October. He was a fan of Halloween so we decided to have an 80s themed costume contest this year. Why 80s? Because he was the radio guy in the movie Howard the Duck. I haven't seen it but I'm told his part was a small one. We all miss him dearly and this was a fun way to celebrate his life.

Where's Waldo?

The 80s are back!

Elliot from ET and Mork

My spiderweb dessert

Sugar skulls!

Finally: Halloween!

Halloween was just a few days later and I went all out this year! Brandt and I were going to go as Kevin and Russel from UP (the bird and the boy). I cut out feathers from fabric and sewed them to a pair of spandex. I mixed the colors in a similar fashion to Kevin's feathers. Then I added some teal feathers as sleeves. I was going to make Brandt's costume but ran out of time. He isn't a big fan of parties so wasn't upset that he didn't have a costume to wear.

I really wanted to paint my face this year and I found a great YouTube video to show me how. It took much longer than I thought but I'm happy with how it turned out. I also painted whiskers and a nose on my friend's face before we left for our first party. We went up to Vancouver and enjoyed drinks, food, and a trivia game with friends. We also went to a party with some of our Target coworkers afterward. The costumes that night were fairly impressive. Others had face paint, there was a great Cruella DeVille, and my favorite was Meg from Family Guy.