Up to mischief this Halloween

by Brittany Geragotelis

I've always loved Halloween. It's not my favorite holiday (That would be Christmas, followed by Friday the 13th), but it's definitely in my top five. The truth is, there are two things I like about it. One, it's a day devoted to scariness. The air seems more electric, you get startled a little easier at noises, you start to believe that ghosts, vampires, aliens, ghouls and things that go bump in the night might not be fiction. I love that on Halloween (or really any time that weekend), you can turn the TV to any channel and land on some slasher film starring some masked man chasing after young coeds, documentaries that manage to catch a murder on tape or ghosts haunting people, houses and families. In other words, it's AWESOME.

The other reason I love this holiday is because I revel in the idea of dressing up in a costume and being something else—someone else. A fantasy version of me, if you will.

And no, I don't mean a fantasy version in the slutty kind of way. In fact, I sort of feel like it's cheating the holiday when people dress up as slutty nurses, slutty bumblebees or slutty M&M's (Oh yeah, that's right..someone somewhere actually managed to make a chocolaty desert candy sexual. Now that takes some real skill...or just a drunk college girl who decided to wear the little kid's candy costume sans pants....). Take a look at a few of this year's gems:

























































































Come to think of it, I actually kind of like the Freddy Kreuger look....But back to the real costumes. I love becoming someone else....just for the day/night. Over the past 9 years since I moved to NYC, I've sported a variety of costumes: some really imaginative, some funny and others....a bit obscure. But all were fun! Here's what I've dressed up as in the past:
















A cheerleader























A punk rocker




















Mary Kate & Ashley Olsen






















Illyria from "Angel"
























Blair Waldorf from "Gossip Girl"


Today is my last day in the office before Halloween, so my staff and I decided it would be fun to dress up. My costume this year? Michael Jackson from his Thriller video. What do you think?























So what are you going to be this Sunday? Leave your comments above and then go have a treat for me! If you send me a picture of you in your Halloween costume, I'll post it on my blog! E-mail pics to thebookslayer@gmail.com

5x5,
B.