Like a fool, I believed her. I'm forty. It's my choice.
Yesterday morning, on Halloween Eve, she decided that she was, in fact, going to dress up and that her costume was going to be epic.
The following conversation took place over a plate of scrambled eggs and a homemade granola bar:
Child: You know, I've been thinking about dressing up for Halloween and I'd like to do it.
Me: Dress up for next year? I think that's an awesome idea.
Child: No. Dress up this year.
Me: Halloween is tomorrow. Do you have a costume in mind?
Child: Nope. I'm sure you will come up with something good. Oh, and I want it to be epic.
Me: Got it! Borrow some of my clothes and dress up as a slightly doughy, 40 year old Midwestern Mom. Ha! You could be me for Halloween! I can teach you some killer dance moves and the lyrics to "When Doves Cry" in case you've forgotten them. Dancing around to Prince would cinch the "I'm dressed up as my fabulous Mom" costume.
Child: Mother. That. Is. So. Not. Funny.
Me: Ok. Borrow your Dad's clothes and ...
Child (totally interrupting my flow of creativity): NO.
I love her, but sometimes she is a total buzzkill. The Mom costume is gold. Pure gold.
We settled on painting her face Dia de Los Muertos style. Here is where a good blogger would insert a photo of the artistically painted face of her beloved child. You have me, the so-so blogger who is inserting a picture of a skull with face painting similar to what we are going to do.
I don't know if the face painting we will do is "epic" enough or not, but it was something in which we were both in agreement.
The day before Halloween is an interesting time to shop for costume supplies. Most of the good stuff was already taken. Or broken. I saw many a broken angel wing and oddly bent halo.
(Hmm … broken wings and bent halos. Hope that's not indicative of anything to come.)
My daughter and I agreed upon fun, bright colors to put on her face. White was needed for the entire face, with pink, blue, and purple for designs.
Guess what colors I couldn't find? White, pink, blue, and purple.
I suggested we change our color scheme and go with the plentiful colors of black, brown, and olive green.
That suggestion was met with the ol' stink eye from my kid who, as it turns out, didn't want to be a Dia de Los Muerto/camouflage soldier. Good to know.
On a whim, I pulled into the local hardware store. It's known for carrying hardware supplies plus a plethora of random stuff like gallons of milk, scented candles, books currently occupying the Best Sellers list, and assorted greeting cards. Halloween makeup would be just the oddball thing this store would sell that no one would ever think to buy there.
I walked in to see that the store still had a few Halloween items … and BINGO! They had a delightful assortment of face paints.
Clutching the Deluxe Family Faces makeup kit (containing white, pink, blue, and purple!) in my excited little hands, I headed for the checkout.
The checkout girl was stunningly beautiful, a rarity among hardware store employees. She was surprised to learn that face paint was sold at the very store that employs her. Checkout girl went to a Halloween store to buy her face paint.
As it turns out, Checkout girl has done this type of face painting for years and offered several tips for a newbie such as myself. I was very appreciative of her taking the time to swap makeup tips with me.
Checkout girl said that wasn't something she got to do very often at work.
I agreed and said that from now on, I was going to the hardware store for all of my makeup needs. And I highly encourage you to do so as well.
Happy Halloween!
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