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This was the suitcase in which I had to fit all of my costume. Also, Alyson's costume (she went as a tide pool). Also, clothes for a weekend. The big suitcase in the lower left was the suitcase. We have a lot of suitcases, but you can only check one without it costing a billion dollars.

For comparison, here's the suitcase with one of the legs in it. This was going to be a daunting task.

But I was able to fold and pack and cram it in there. Turns out a costume made almost entirely out of crumpled paper is pretty easy to flat pack.

The torso looked pretty great, but I was very concerned about cramming it all into the little container.

Elliott insisted that it wouldn't happen.

Hey, I packed it all in. I started to think that maybe this would work out, after all.

From this angle, however, it didn't look so great.

I shoved and packed and stuffed and crammed it in there, though, and here you see that it all worked out. We headed off to the airport and made our way to Nashville, Tennessee to a super sweet party.

This has nothing to do with the costume, but it is a sweet jack-o-lantern that I made the day before the party.

I was holding on to these decorative leaves for a long time (though not as long as I've been holding on to this picture). I had to glue them to my sticks to give myself some Autumn realness (trealness).

So I did that. This was the last step. The costume was done. All I had to do was put it on, which - granted - was a process in itsself.

Without further adieu. I went back and forth thinking about how to do my hands, but ultimately decided that I would sacrifice a bit of realism to be able to eat candy. I just found some sticks and held them. I was also going to paint my face to look like an owl's face, peering out from the hole in the tree. At the last minute I decided that I had done enough. At another last minute I had a brilliant decision to attach the foot roots to my shoelaces with wire. It made it much easier to walk. This thing was actually pretty impressive, walking across the room. I was stuck in this room, of course, because at about twelve feet tall, I couldn't fit through any doorways. I thanked the Halloween Gods for granting me a room with an ample ceiling.

Here is our prom picture. We both went as habitats. You can see here that my shoulder branches were already drooping. My "brilliant" system for holding up the shoulder branches was kind of a dud. To be fair, it was just made of paper. That ceiling fan scared me all night.

Here's Alyson with two of her friends. In the middle is a luminescent squid, and to the right is an angler fish. The angler fish was the host of the party. I had her to thank for getting a house with high ceilings.

Alyson is introducing herself to this girl with a pretty great monster face-on-her-face.

Here's a closeup of Alyson's sea urchin headpiece.

Alyson is explaining something apparently awkward to this witch girl and what was actually a really great Edward Scissorhands made at the last minute.

I was a pretty stationary object at the party. I was almost, you could say, a tree. That's just how I am at parties, though. The costume was surprisingly mobile and comfortable, and I found that I could get down pretty hard when the right music came up. The dancing tree was the life of the party.

The crazy lighting at the party made for some interesting photographs.

The little dangler sticking out of the angler had a real LED light on it. It was a pretty great effect. Actually, it was a brilliant costume, because it was just a hat.

The pictures kind of get arty, now. I think they actually came out pretty great.

Each shot sort of captures not just one, but several moments in time. It's a great way to show the energy and excitement of a party.

Ikea lamp.

This guy in a camouflage onesey was a pretty cool dude.

You can only just see it in this picture, but the girl on the right had an entire sleeping back attached to her. She was a slug.