Halloween in Philly

Well it wasn't quite Halloween, but Hannah and Heidi (my two cousins in Philadelphia) and their roommates were having a costume party this weekend in Philadelphia, and Shelly (their sister) was flying in for it, so that's where I was this weekend. It was so much fun. Everyone that came really got into dressing up, and there were some great costumes (but I think ours were the prettiest). Here we are below. Hannah (far left) was Esmerelda, and her friend Farley dressed up as Quasimodo (Hunchback of Notre Dame) - they both looked great. Between Hannah and I is Shelly, who was a Moulin Rouge dancer. On the far right is Heidi, who was a colonial lady, and found the prettiest dress at this costume shop in Philly.

*****

The party was a lot of fun - their roommate Anne, who teaches ESL at Penn, invited a lot of her students, who all came, even though they had no idea what Halloween was about. Thankfully, Hannah once had to write a paper on its origins, so she explained to them what it was all about. Apparently the whole Jack-O-Lantern thing comes from a Celtic tradition where they'd carve gourds and put them in front of their houses to ward away evil spirits. Anne had two students, one from Japan and one from South Korea, who came with digital cameras in hand, and took pictures with literally everyone in costume at the party. Now I bet we're all on Japanese/South Korean blogs and/or MySpace sites....

The next day we went out to this cool little diner, and then went to the Edgar Allan Poe House. I'm glad I went, so I can add it to the list of things I've done and impress maybe, oh, one person at a party 30 years from now, but other than that it was a bit of a disappointment. The Poes only lived in Philadelphia for 6 years, and during that time, they moved 5 times. The only reason this house is known as "THE" E.A.P. house is that it's the only structure they lived in that's still standing. However, it's been extensively remodeled, and is completely empty. Apparently they had no records or receipts to tell them what was in the house, and decided not to guess. So you walk through a completely empty house. One room is furnished according to what one of his characters said he preferred in a pamphlet, but as many of his narrators are 180-degrees opposed to Poe's true sentiments, it's hard to tell whether he really liked this sort of decoration, or whether he thought it was the ultimate in tacky. Kind of funny....It would be like me writing a short story with a character preferring, say, Austin-Powers-esque decorations, and then 100 years from now, a tour guide leading guests through my old house, pointing out that I really loved plastic furniture and formica.

The one redeeming quality was that in the one furnished room, they had a CD player with recordings of Christopher Walken reading "The Raven," which were quite entertaining and more than made up for any lack of decor.