Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

Before I say anything else, let me just remind you to get out and vote.

Those who have questions about their polling place can go to MyPollingPlace.com for that information. It is lagging today, but it does eventually load. If you encounter problems voting, call the Common Cause hotline, 1-866-MYVOTE1. They'll document where problems are occurring, watch for widespread voter suppression, and provide real-time legal help to the hot spots.

For serious problems, call 1-866-OUR-VOTE. This hotline has been set up by a coalition of nonpartisan groups to deal with the most serious problems on Election Day. It's the "911" of voter suppression hotlines, so don't call unless your problem is serious enough that you need to call a lawyer immediately.

We actually had quite a drive to get to the Halloween party after leaving the Grape Street Pub in Manayunk Saturday night. But I knew that with The Gryphon navigating, it would be little trouble.

What I didn't count on was the headlights coming towards me and blinding me. With my contacts in, my night vision isn't as good; lights get a halo around them. But I just took it slow and easy.

When we got there, there was no doubt which house was having the party. Not only were there tons of cars out front, but you could hear voices. I thought, "Don't tell me it's outside." It didn't seem to make any sense to have an outside party the end of October. But honestly, it was such a mild night that I'd left my jacket in the car.

The front door of the house had a sign, saying the party was around back. So we went around back, and sure enough, there was a tent back there, a D.J. station, a selection of beers and sodas on the porch and inside the tent, all sorts of food. Everyone was milling around in costume, checking out us new arrivals.

I stayed in character for the first part of the party, trying to get people to guess what I was. This was difficult. People knew I was old-fashioned but little more. Dionysus asked me if I was Miss Daisy. Somebody else asked me if I was my grandmother. Usually, it took me bringing over The Gryphon, who told them that I was his creation, "the perfect wife." He was dressed as a mad scientist, and we'd even made him a name tag giving his name as "Dieter Van Syko."

I went to get The Gryphon a drink. Dionysus and Bacchus were seated on the stairs in front of the beer, so I had to toddle past them, careful to make my face appropriately vapid. I chose a dark beer for The Gryphon and a Smirnoff Ice for myself and then made a big fuss about needing a cup. "Ladies don't drink out of bottles," I complained.

The pirate kindly opened the bottle of beer for me, and when he did I felt his arm and said, "Oh, you're so strong!"

Before I knew it, I had a group of guys gathered around me hanging on my every word. That was a little scary! Happy Halloween.

I toddled off and gave The Gryphon his beer. Although we'd bought him a remote control to use on me, he seemed uncomfortable using it and only pulled it out a couple times when people were particularly confused about who I was.

But then I got a brilliant idea. All I had to do was mention Stepford in some way and everyone would get who I was.

Our friend The Dormouse was there, dressed as John Belushi's samurai. This meant that he would mime and talk in gibberish. Great fun. He got into a couple mock battles, which I documented. The one with the pirate was probably ill advised.

A friend of ours who helps with Otakon was wearing a saloon girl dress. But early in the evening, everyone started calling her Lizzie Borden, so she'd found herself an axe. All night she was threatening to do violence to me, apparently disapproving of my traditionalist views as a Stepford Wife.

As evening wore on, a lot of the women got cold and had to put coats on, since most of us were just wearing dresses. Most of the men, it seemed, had dressed a bit warmer.

Dionysus had a simple plan to get warm: sidle up to women and put his arm around them.

He said to me, confusing me for a Southern Bell, "Things are different above the Mason-Dixon line, aren't they?"

I said, "I wouldn't know. This is the first time I've been out of Stepford." And I wiggled out of his grasp, tiptoed over to The Gryphon and started running my fingers through his hair, giggling.

Later, when I told him about it, The Gryphon asked me if he had to have a talking to with Dionysus. "Oh, no," I said. "I can take care of myself. But thanks for asking."

I stayed away from the food tent for a long time, but then my feet started to get tired, so I wanted to go sit down. The Gryphon came in with me. I decided I would only try some of the food if it was homemade or there was something special about it. I wasn't going to munch on ordinary chips or chocolates. There was some homemade fudge there, and I had several small pieces throughout the course of the night. Still, this was better than I might have done if I hadn't set rules for myself.

Inside the tent, we got to talking to some other people. A Butterfly, who was one of the hosts for the party, told me that she's moving to England soon. She has a job lined up, acting for the BBC. Apparently, her boyfriend, whom she met on vacation over there, has a father who's a BBC voice actor and a mother who's also in the biz. So she's going over on a guest permit and will try for a working visa. She was very excited.

The Butterfly was dressed appropriately, because she was definitely a social butterfly, flitting around and making everyone feel welcome. She took a nice picture of The Gryphon and I.

Her older sister, another of the hosts, is an independent filmmaker who had a short film shown at the 2004 Philadelphia Film Festival. She was dressed as Vampirella, I was reasonably certain.

I walked up to her and said, "I loved that movie you did with Ed Wood. It was one of my favorites."

I could see by the light in her eyes that I'd guessed right. "Thank you," she said. "I'm very proud of it."

The Dormouse joined us for awhile, talking about everything under the sun and moon. I started talking to a Dominatrix who had been in the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society for a long time, which was one of the groups participating in the party, as well as PAGE, which is a Philadelphia gaming group, and various friends and associates.

Apparently, the Dominatrix' parents lived through the Holocaust and escaped to the United States, so she grew up speaking both English and Yiddish. We talked about the elections and the 2000 Florida recount, then about her doll collection, which is rapidly taking over her house.

One of the best things about the party was that everyone was so into the costuming. I've been to parties before where people's idea of a costume is a mask that ends up on top of their head all night so they can drink.

The DJ was dressed as a surgeon, and when I took his picture, the light from his computer reflected up and gave him an ominous look.

He played a few entertaining '80s songs, which I danced to, in character, taking tiny little steps and doing cute things with my hands.

The women were happy to see me "breaking out of my shell." All night long, they'd been coming up to me, trying to convince me to leave Stepford. I kept smiling sweetly at them and asking them why I'd ever want to leave.

In the waning hours of the evening, The Gryphon and I sat around the fire and talked to Hera, who was going off on how Michael Moore shouldn't call his films documentaries, since they're opinion pieces. I didn't really feel like getting into an argument, but I did point out that he gets a lot of information out that people wouldn't ordinarily hear.

Hera was there with her husband, dressed as Bacchus.

Things were getting quieter. The DJ was playing mostly filk music, which are fan parodies based on science fiction themes. I didn't know any of the songs, but a few die-hards were up dancing.

Then the zombies showed up. You know it's getting late when the zombies show up.

Soon it was way too late, and we had a long drive ahead of us, so we said our good-byes and then got on the road. I took my contacts out first and put my glasses on, to aid my night vision. The Dormouse followed us as far as I-95 and then sped around us with a cheery samurai wave.

More from Halloween eve:

November 1, 2004 - Stepford's Ghost

Copyright 2004 by Alyce Wilson

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