Life: Idiotropic

Last night was Canadian night for the International Women's Club, so they put on a Halloween party for us all. We'd been told to wear our "scariest" costumes, so there was a hippie (me), Pooh bear, Tigger, 2 Pirates, a Pink boa-ed cowgirl, a butcher-maid, a couple renessaince women, and about 20 witches.

The room was decked out in traditional Halloween gore... tombstones and skeletons, ghosts and witches. The tables had frozen hands in bowls, plastic spiders, and shot glasses filled with tomato juice and green olives for our "toast."

I had the pleasure of sitting between a great group of Americans and some very nice Turkish ladies. Sitting next to the Turkish was great and it was fun to talk with them, and when they got tired of trying English, it was also nice to have the option of talking with my American friends.

The Canadians served a pea-laden beef stew with French bread for dinner demonstrating just how many adult women still hate cooked peas. The waiters cleared countless pea piled plates. For dessert was cake - white or chocolate, gingerbread skeletons, and peanut butter "eye-balls."

For games they had the traditional and the not-so-traditional. All the reps had to stick our noses through a hole in a black curtain and the audience tried to guess who was who. I, being the most melanin-challenged of the bunch, thought they'd guess me first. Thanks to bad lighting, I was only guessed by the process of elimination. They kept thinking I had the Spanish nose. The next game was the ol' kindergarten standby of sticking your hands into different "body part" foods and guessing what they are and what they're made of, but they kept it tame... jello hearts, grape eyes - unpealed, - spaghetti for brains, etc. In the last game the "volunteers" had the choice to bob for apples or to try to get the apple on the string. Bobbing proved far easier and a lot more entertaining.

The night ended with raffle prizes of which I won none and the traditional gaggle of smokers just outside the front door. I stood out there with friends trying my best to have a nice conversation without breathing. It's almost been a year since we've moved and I'm still not used to the smoke.