Taking Elmo to the next level aka my evening as Katy Perry

For some reason (ah hem, Tom), T's annual boy's weekend fell over Halloween. Since it didn't make much sense to come home when he was gone, I planned to stay in Cactus Land for the high holy holiday of weird costumes and candy. Of course, this meant actually doing something festive, so my roommate and I planned to attend a friend's costume party. Matt swore he was going to be Bert & Ernie with another grad student and I thought: Perfect! I'll be Katy Perry from her recent SNL spoof. Since the Sesame Street debacle came so close to Halloween, the costume companies didn't have time to capitalize, so I was left to my own devices. After a few trips to local emporiums, I found a perfect, but gi-normous Elmo t-shirt and some nerd glasses. With Matt's t-shirt tying expertise, I was in business. (Of course things were a bit less perfect when Matt informed me he ditched the Bert & Ernie idea to be a pumpkin, but whatever.) As I'm rarely in town for social functions, it was pretty cool to hang out with department friends and let our hair down as it were (or for me, cork screw and lacquer it).

The inspiration. If you don't get it, please watch the video above.

Before.

The magic man. Apparently there is an entire t-shirt tying art out there. Go Matty!

During this time, he was also turning into a pumpkin. (See below)

The part featured fabulous costumes like these heathens (Chase & Lisa), and Luigi (Gino).

Voila!

Although the spoof includes a TON of gum-smacking, I couldn't bring myself to do it all night long.

Grad school ladies! From left: Erin is a prison escapee or a mental patient (I can't remember what her shirt said); Jen is belly dancer with stuffed purple snake (not pictured); moi; Jenn, purple fairy sprite with wings!