Happy Halloween!

Washed out with the tide.
Thursday afternoon I was stoked to be done with my mid-week school crunch and was getting on the metro to head home. Alas, this was my first time to experience a true metro delay. Something happened (I didn't even care to figure out the original problem) so when I arrived on the platform at Metro Center, it was packed. Totally packed. The few trains coming in every 5 - 7 minutes (for non Washingtonians, this is about 2-3 times as long as it should take during rush hour) were already full. It was insane. Crowd mentality took over and it was survival of the fittest. I finally got on a train, only to be washed out at Galleryplace/Chinatown (the very next stop) with the sea of people exiting. Thanks to an arm that extended to grab me back on the train, I made it back on before the doors closed and secured myself a place in the back of the less crowded train. Eek! I'm glad it's not like that all the time! This is the not as crowded train:
Halloween.
Friday rolled around and it was a Halloween Friday! At work we took the little kiddies around a few blocks for the Halloween parade. Masses of children + cute costumes...it was adorable.

I decided to join the roommates and a group of others at the Black Cat for the Bhangraween celebration. We were all pretty unprepared for Halloween, so we went with minimalist outfits. Eyeliner and felt turned me into a cat; some wardrobe choices and a bandanna made Vara into a hippie, and Emily pillaged from her costume from last year to bring back Hermine from Harry Potter.

A little warm apple cider with rum and we were ready to celebrate Halloween.

It was this NY based DJ Rheka, who mixes more traditional Bhangra music with electronic beats.

To say I was a bit out of my element was an understatement. It was definitely a Bhangra party that I seem to have crashed with my non-moving shoulders and unextended arms. I like to think that I can somewhat blend into a lot of different crowds and music venues. This one was challenging, and there was no blending.

Not only that, but it was a pain in the ass to fend of the jumpy little skinny Bhangra dancing guys who were straight out of an Indian version of the Roxbury Brothers. They just kept popping out of nowhere and jumping around like they were hyped up on meth. It was funny, actually. We were lucky to have one very large dude with a shaved head in our group who was actually very nice, but could give the "eff off" look like no other; he took it upon himself to fend off these intruders to our group of gals.

So we danced all night and eventually hopped a train home. Probably more entertaining than the Black Cat was the traveling to and from. The metro an U street brought out some of Washington's finest, clad in their own expressions of creativity. The entertainment factor was pretty high.


Saucy.
The rest of the weekend has been pretty chill. There was a big work event Saturday night and then I stopped by Will's roommates' Halloween Bash. I recognized some of the same people from the Live Painting night at The Space a few weeks ago... the one where Will's roommate ended up winning Danny's painting (weird!). It was pretty entertaining to see that crowd mix with (or at least be in the same party as) the Teach For America crowd. Crossdressers + elementary school teachers...Entertaining.

And I made applesauce! It was time to use up the rest of my picked apples, so I decided to make applesauce. It was pretty simple. I quartered about 6 apples and tossed them in a pot with maybe 3/4 a cup of water, a squirt of lime juice, a few shakes of cinnamon, a tiny shake of nutmeg, and maybe 2 tbs of brown sugar.

Brought it to a boil and then turned down the heat and let it simmer for 30 minutes. Then mash with a potato masher.

I would have recommended peeling the apples, because it was kind of a pain to pick out all of the skins. Then I just grabbed old salsa and pasta sauce jars and filled them up with applesauce goodness.


A sheepish (belated) Happy Birthday to Sara!