Who Do You Celebrate With?

The Holiday season is a time to celebrate with those closest to you. It’s a time to get together and eat, talk and spend time with your family. For many college students who attend college out of state or away from their family though, it may be a lonely day, or one that does not have the same meaning to those who have family close by.

For people who do not have any immediate family in the southern California area, the holidays are often a time to see who your true family is. It may be your closest friends who invite you to their house, a boyfriend or girlfriend or someone you never expected to extend an invitation to ensure you are not alone during the Holiday season.

From first-hand experience, it is a great feeling when people take the time to invite you to a gathering and make you feel welcome. It can really make the difference between a good and bad day.

If you are one of those people who get invited to someone else’s house for the holidays, make sure you are polite and grateful. Always RSVP ahead time and express your gratitude for the invitation, whether you decide to go or not. It is also always polite to ask if there is anything you can bring or contribute. No one likes a moocher.

Remember to dress nice and try to talk to everyone. If someone was nice enough to invite you to share the holidays with them and their family, the least you can do is be polite and get to know people at the party or gathering you attend.

For those of you who have a lot of family that live close by, and are lucky enough to spend every holiday with them, remember to not forget about your friends, co-workers or classmates who may not have anything to do.

For the upcoming holidays, I hope everyone has people around them to celebrate with and enjoy a great end to 2011!

What Are You Going To Be For Halloween?

This year Halloween fell on a Monday, which meant all the parties were this weekend. Whether it was a house party, bar, rave, or whatever else, this was the weekend to get dressed up and show off your costume skills.

The funny thing about Halloween is the diversity of all the costumes. It’s the one time of year when you are allowed to become whatever you want. Some people take this very seriously and plan their costume weeks in advance and others throw something together last minute. This year, as always, I saw some good, bad, and interesting costumes.

My favorite type of costume is the couple’s costume. These are the costumes that look great when you are together and a little confusing when the people are by themselves. This year was no exception. There were boyfriend and girlfriends dressed as the dorky couple, Danny and Sandy from Grease and even Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love. There were also two friends dressed as Terrance and Phillip from South Park.

There are also the people who put their own spin on a popular saying or have the type of costume you have to think about. I saw a guy with the word “BOOK” written across his face (Facebook) and a girl who was dressed as a cowgirl, but with her clothes on backwards (Reverse Cowgirl). There was even a girl dressed as a chef in an apron with giant letters “Fe” written on the front (Iron Chef).

Then there is always the wide array of celebrities and popular characters from television shows, movies, and commercials. There were some different ones I saw this year like Ace Ventura, Nicki Manaj, Keith Stone (the Keystone Light guy), Black Swan, Green-Man from “Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” and even a guy in a one piece Winnie the Pooh outfit.

Finally, it wouldn’t be Halloween without girls in their racy, barely-there costumes. There’s the girl in the short black dress with her nose black and some whiskers and cat ears who claims to be a slutty cat, the short white dress with wings as the slutty angel, or the short red dress and horns as the slutty devil.I’m not sure what it is with Halloween, but apparently it is the one time of year no matter what the profession, it seems like a good idea to turn it into a slutty costume for girls.

Whether it’s a firefighter, police officer, animal of some sort, pirate, race car driver, devil, hippie, military attire, sailor, or nurse you can always count on a majority of girls to take the opportunity to dress in as little as possible.

There was even a guy who got in on the action this year. He dresses in a prison jumpsuit with handcuffs, but folded the jumpsuit down to expose his chest. He carried a permanent marker around with him and was having people “tattoo” their best prison tattoo anywhere on his chest, back, neck, and face. Needless to say he ended up with some very interesting drawings on him by the end of the night.

With the weekend over, all the older kids and adults have put together their best, or last minute, costumes and had their fun. Now on Monday all the little kids can enjoy the attention of being the only ones in costumes and go around collecting candy and having their own fun.