Wouldn’t it be great if we could wear a different costume every day?  Certainly some days I wake up and feel like I would enjoy being a princess for the day, or a super hero or even a 60s go-go dancer.  I am completely confident that it would make dull days a lot glitterier (who knew that was even a word).  And, who doesn’t need a little more sparkle in an otherwise ordinary day?

Can you imagine how excited you might be to see your co-worker, the convenient store clerk or your Starbuck’s barista each morning?  I wonder who they are going to be today.  And, for that matter, who are you going to be today?  Well, maybe you wouldn’t have to do it every day (we’d be talking an extensive wardrobe), but on those occasions when you felt a little feisty or tongue-in-cheek.  And, just because you decided to wear a costume instead of regular clothes, it would be amazing if it wouldn’t be seen as odd or offbeat.  Oh, Lynn decided to wear a minion outfit today.  “You look really good in yellow Lynn, you really should wear that more often.”  “Thanks Tony.  Hey, make sure to watch your finger knives when you pass Kelly’s cubicle, she got all bent out of shape when you accidentally scratched the top of her desk last month.”

A harmless mini escape that allows you to delve into a new world where you can be anyone or anything, even if it’s just for a short amount of time.

I admire those people that can dress up in funny costumes like a stalk of asparagus, a Twister game or the Kool-Aid pitcher.  And, I give kudos to those that can pull of a scary zombie or Cruella De Vil or the Bride of Frankenstein.  For some reason, I can’t do it.  I can never wrap my head around trying to be something I wouldn’t really want to be in real life.  There are so many shoes I want to walk in that when it’s time to play dress up (which isn’t often enough), I feel I must try and fulfill one of my dreams, even if just for the night.  Plus, what if a once in a lifetime strange meteor goes overhead or some crazy gypsy casts a spell and we somehow become our disguises for eternity…then what?  I think I saw that on TV once.

I have two go-to costumes that have been my favorite for more than a decade: Batgirl (1997 movie version) and Cinderella.  I haven’t done Cinderella in years because the place where I used to rent the perfect Cinderella dress from went out of business.  Sigh.  I would have bought that dress from them, but now I’m out of luck until I find another one.  I subbed in Sleeping Beauty one year, but it wasn’t the same.  But, that’s the thing…I would actually like to be Batgirl or Cinderella.  I would also find it fun to be a Pan Am Stewardess, Cleopatra or even Barbara Eden from I Dream of Jeannie.  Yes, characters are big!  Chanel No. 3 from “Scream Queens,” Olivia Newton-John as Kira in “Xanadu;” heck, one year I even cut up my high school prom dress so that I could be Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Swanson not Geller – though I’d also like to do Geller one year).  The fun of dressing up and becoming your character for the evening; seriously, wouldn’t it be great to do that more often than once a year?

Or, if you don’t want to be something fancy, maybe you can choose something that allows you to get away with something you can’t do on an ordinary day. On Halloween one year when I was at Universal, I was a Cincinnati Reds player.  Reason #1: I had my dad’s Dream Week uniform with our last name on the back; and, more importantly, Reason #2: It finally made it acceptable for me to wear a baseball hat and my white Nike high tops on the Universal tram (something I dreamed of doing after all those years of wearing black heels).  Yeah, watch out – I know how to push the limit.

Though, to be fair, shoes can make the costume.  Besides the obvious with Cinderella’s glass slippers and Batgirl’s boot covers, I’ve also been “The Devil in Disguise” (when my friends and I dressed as titles of songs) with thigh high red boots.  And, thinking back, man, I should have been Miss America and worn my plastic shoes that had a Statue of Liberty and silver glitter snow globe feature in each heel.  Missed opportunity.  (Shoes were thrown away after algae of some sort few inside the heels)  But my absolute favorite was when I got to wear my Plexiglas-ish clear platform heels that have an unscrew-able bottom.  Basically, you take the bottom off and fill it with anything you want inside and it decorates the heel.  In this instance, I filled it with colored stars and glitter when my friends and I went out on Halloween dressed as the Las Vegas Strip.

My favorite themed group costume ever executed.

Each one of our costumes featured a different casino’s logo.  We used the motif of each casino to design our themed outfits; and, the pièce de résistance, we all had battery operated mini lights strung in our costume in one way or another.  We had Paris, the Venetian, Caesar’s Palace, The Frontier, Treasure Island and the Stardust (my costume).  Two of those casinos are now gone.  I’m guessing eventually, the themes will all go out of Vegas casinos and it really won’t be a good costume idea; but, when I think back, I still believe it was one of the best costume ideas we ever pulled off; and, nothing I’ve ever seen anyone else do before or since.

Truly, if you can come up with a cool, unique group costume, you win all the trick-or-treat candy, in my book.  I’ve seen cereal spokes-characters, Saturday Night Live characters and board game characters.  I think when you can get a group of people to jump in and play dress up together, you’ve really hit the jackpot.  It’s why I love themed parties so much.  Celebrate a past decade, a murder mystery, celebrities in rehab, or whatever gives you a valid reason to dress up.

One day I want to have an Aaron Spelling party where everyone has to come dressed as one of their favorite Aaron Spelling characters.  I’ve been planning it in my mind for years.  I’ll just have to decide if I want to be Sammy Jo Dean, Officer Stacy Sheridan or Amanda Woodward*.  Actually, to be honest, I’d probably go as my first favorite Aaron Spelling character – Kris Munroe from “Charlie’s Angels.”  But, regardless of my Spelling character choice, you can bet I’ll have your invitation specially mailed from the 90210 zip code, a chauffeur named Max pick you up, and the dinner options will read like a cruise ship dining room menu.  However, choose your character wisely.  I may pray for that crazy gypsy to come calling on my door that night for sure.  #50WeeksTo50

*If you know me and know 80s/90s TV, you got that joke.  If not, it’s no secret, I have, for almost ½ my life, given my hairstylist various photos of Heather Locklear to use as a guide for my newest hairstyle.