Super-late halloween post

So, before I start my "twelve day late" Halloween post, I'll tell you about my day today.

My day today was pretty frustrating. Well, actually, the day wasn't as much frustrating as I was just plain frustrated. I woke up frustrated. 

This was because of several reasons:

1) I miss our stuff. We shipped a lot of things we got for our wedding. That stuff is pretty essential, like our nice china, our good tea-pot, my favorite table lamp, ... anyway - we won't just go and buy stuff that we know we have because then we'll have it double. And if there is one thing I learned from cleaning up my life when we left Holland it's to not accumulate clutter. 

We still haven't received our 50 boxes of stuff because it got stuck in customs. They x-rayed it and it turned out they found something "suspicious". Luckily it's through customs now (we just heard yesterday) and we got away with 140 Euros for their "work". I've heard it can cost up to 2000 Euros so I am totally fine with 140 Euros. Now I hope they didn't break too much because we are not insured for damaged caused by customs. Our stuff is supposed to arrive next week.

2) My social security number. The American consulate was supposed to request a social security number for me. I was supposed to receive it within three weeks upon my arrival in the United States. Well, it's been three weeks today and I do not have a social security number which makes my life quite a bit harder. Not only am I not allowed to work (which is luckily not such  a problem since E started a fantastic new job on Monday - awesome husband!) but I also can't have health insurance (I would be insured along with E with his new job) and I have very limited access to open an account (I do have an account but it's all running via E.). And I am sure there are lot's of other "perks" to my not having a social security number. Anyway, I called the social security administration office today and after about 45 minutes of which I spent 40 minutes speaking to an automated voice (try telling an automated voice who asks you for your social security number that you DON'T HAVE ONE YET. After she asked about 10 times I yelled "I ain't got one b*tch! That's why I'm calling!" to which the robot voice answered "Ok, let's leave this step for now") it turns out that they can't find me in the system. Which means, I have to go to my nearest social security office and fill in forms and wait for another few weeks. I tried to go there today but that's another frustrating story which I don't want to talk about anymore.

3) I have been having a lot of nightmares which I think are due to an unsettled stomach. I have been eating more processed food here than I have in Holland. 

Anyway, I have about 4 different nightmares a night and then I also have about one babydream a night. Yes, I dream I am having a baby. And no, we are not planning to have a baby for a while, nor do we think it could have accidently happened. It's just that we are living in pram central. There are babies EVERYWHERE. The people who don't have a baby are pregnant. I can't go to the grocery store without hearing at least two crying babies. And on top of that - I am going to be an aunt soon which brings me to frustration point number 

4) my sister in law is highly pregnant but the baby is not coming out! So almost two weeks ago we went to visit my in-laws in Ohio and my sister-in-law is 8 1/2 month pregnant and she actually had some contractions just when we were leaving. A week BEFORE THAT the baby (in the belly) already weighed  8 pounds so imagine how much bigger, now, almost three weeks later, it must be. She isn't happy and we are just waiting for the good news that we will be aunt and uncle. I am really looking forward to having a little nephew who I can spoil. I wanna become his favorite aunt. Or maybe the cool, European aunt. Or maybe the second mom-aunt. I guess it will all come naturally. As long as he likes me.

So that might be contributing to my baby dreams too ...

And my last frustration point:

5) I get lost ALL the time. I always first go the wrong direction before I go the right direction. I can NEVER trust my instincts. But I bought a map today so hopefully that will solve the issue.

Alright - HALLOWEEN.

Quick recap:

We had tons of kids coming to our front door asking for candy. Our lovely neighbors took it upon them to hand out the candy. There was lot's of decoration on all the houses. It was pretty. I carved a pumpkin.

Unsurprisingly looking at the grown-up costumes - all the girls were slutty versions of whatever you can be and some of the guys actually had some funky costumes.

We went to a party in a bar where dress up was requested. There were lot's of slutty cops, slutty ... actually I don't remember. Just a lot of girls wearing not much and not being very memorable. Oh, I do remember that there were about 5 million girls dressed as "kitties".

The idea of girls going all out and dressing as slutty as they possibly can is not new to me. In Austria it's all the same. Only that with us it's not Halloween (even though Halloween is getting more and more popular as well) but Fasching - more commonly known as Carnival in February. Fasching is BIG in Austria. When I was still studying my whole class went to a "Gschnas" which is a carnival party/ball room dance thingy. All the girls in my class were dressed as prostitutes. It was not an arranged group thing. They just couldn't come up with anything else. I was the only non-prostitute from my class that night. I was a 70s discoqueen with shiny Farah Fawcett hair, sparkly makeup and clothes. I don't think I was any less attractive than the hookers.

 

See, I don't mind girls wanting to let it all hang out and be totally slutty and having no self-respect for one night. I just expect them to be a bit more creative than that. The guys came up with some really awesome costumes. Our friends were Hall & Oates, that was awesome. Some guy came dressed as Legoman. Guys don't care if they look ugly or ridiculous because it's about fun. It's about showing that you are interesting and creative and "kitty" doesn't shout that to me. I mean - for god's sake - there was a guy dressed up as a turd - yes - literally a piece of shit - and he pulled that night! I saw him go home with a slutty fairy.

Ok, I have to say two things in defense of the American culture - we did spend Halloween at somewhat of a pick-up bar so that might have influenced the choice of clothing for some of 

those girls and I did actually see a few cute outfits that night. My favorite outfits:

*40s soldier with two beautiful 40s style women

*Sexy banana girl (who was dressed in a giant banana)

*Sexy Palin (there were a lot of them out that night, I guess it's

 easy

 enough to copy her)

*Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah in Kill Bill)

All in all my Halloween party experience was not much different from my old Fasching experiences in Austria. And I expected way more bloody costumes, like instead of Sexy Bee - Sexy Dead Bee or Zombie Fairy. 

Alright - next year I'll be sexy, zombie toaster.

Photo: E as Captain Hammer, I was Mia Wallace from Pulp Fiction.