2004-10-29 - 2:16 p.m.

I made non-maggoty soup for dinner last night. That’s one point for libbyfish. It was a lovely clam chowder. I just cannot get enough of that lately. I crave it like a starving pregnant woman. Fear not, gentle readers… I am not in the family way.
This will be the first year that I have not had a costume to wear for Halloween. I used to start planning my costume in July, but this year with the move and all, my heart wasn’t in it. Besides, I don’t really have anywhere to go, I guess I could just sit in my apartment in a fairy outfit, but that’s just sad isn’t it? I may do though. Come over on Sunday and find out what libbyfish has decided I will serve you some kind of witch brew (actually, it will most likely be a beer).
I just like to play dress-up. When I was just a little libbyfish there was a trunk devoted to dress-up clothes. Basically they were my mom’s old clothes, some of my ice show costumes and a ballet tutu thrown in for good measure. There are photos of my sister and I in our winter boots with sparkly sequined ice show costumes on holding batons. Because really, when you are seven, the best job in the world is a majorette. You get to be on TV in all the parades, you can probably get Santa’s autograph then too and what other job allows you to wear boots and sequins? What? I was seven, I didn’t know about strippers and Vegas showgirls then.
My sister and I were always putting on elaborate shows for my parents. Shows with costume changes, dialogue, multiple characters and sometimes a plot. For my parents tenth anniversary I thought it would be fantastic if we put on a show for them. It had to be romantic, dramatic and most of all a musical. We decided on a song from West Side Story called, At the Dance. For reasons I have forgotten we also decided that it should be a striptease. After re-reading that statement, my parents had to feel a bit dirty watching their youngest shake what my momma gave her for their entertainment.
We spent weeks in rehearsal. My sister was going to be the dancer and I, of course, would choreograph it, do wardrobe and makeup. Basically, wardrobe consisted of my sister in a sweater and skirt of mine, then she would strip down to a sweater and skirt of hers then down to her bathing suit that I think we pinned some sparkly things onto. Oh! She also had on these very big Foster Grant sunglasses from the seventies that she was meant to throw on the ground at a precise musical cue. I was like a seven year old Bob Fosse (without the cigarette though); the choreography was very intense with lots of kicks and poses. At the time we thought it would just knocked their socks off… looking back now they probably thought we were a couple of perverts.
In addition to the stress of planning the show I was also responsible for the hor d’eourves. I wasn’t allowed to use the stove or microwave by myself so American cheese, various lunchmeats on toothpicks and grape juice served in their crystal was the menu. I know you are thinking, “libbyfish? How did you become so sophisticated at such a young age?” To that I can only respond, “I must have been switched at birth and my real parents are royalty.”
Ah that is just one of the many “shows” my parents had to endure. I have to thank them for being so patient and not having us committed. I think back now and my parents had to be in bed at night saying things like, "You will not believe what those two did today. libbyfish painted her sister with her water color paint set and stained her skin purple" or maybe it was, "libbyfish tried to stage the entire production of Annie for her third grade class for extra credit." Yeah, good times.

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