When I came in to work on Friday morning, I got a lot of confused looks. No one was quite sure of what to make of me in a blonde wig and a tie with a construction helmet on. Someone hesitantly guessed Bob the Builder, but I reminded them that Bob was bald. No, my costume wasn't well known to most of the adults in my life, but the important people got it.
This year, I dressed up as Graham Burns from the show Rescue Bots. Maybe that's an odd choice for a woman, but I am really happy that I chose it. When my four-year-old son announced to us that he wanted to be Kade from the show, we breathed a collective sigh of relief. We already had fire fighting gear in the appropriate colors left from his birthday party in September. We knew that Rescue Bots were the hit of this season in his life and constructing a Heatwave costume out of cardboard boxes or some such was far more Pinterest skills than we claimed for ourselves. A Kade costume was perfect- no cost and no hassle.
Now, I don't always dress up for Halloween, but I knew that I would be handing out candy at the preschool's little parade on Friday morning, so I might as well do something, and if I am going to have a costume, why not match my son? We are going to be Trick-or-Treating together later anyway. So that left me with a few other options- Chief Burns, Dani, or Graham.
It seems that Dani would have been the obvious choice. If you aren't familiar with Rescue Bots, Dani, Graham and Kade are siblings and they operate and drive the Transformers known as Rescue Bots in the town of Griffin Rock. Dani, the only sister, is a helicopter pilot and operates Blades. She's spunky and has awesome short brown hair. The problem is, I look nothing like her. I mean, we are both white females presumably in our twenties with brown hair, but the way that she is drawn in her pilot gear, I could never pull off. Sorry, I just do NOT have those curves. If I were to put on an army green jumpsuit with orange stripes, I would look bloated, not awesome like she does, and I know that without even trying.
Who would I honestly look like the most? Graham. Graham Burns is a super smart, socially awkward and kind guy who works with Boulder the bulldozer. Graham and Boulder bring a slice of science from Graham's engineering background to the rescue team, as well as a go-get-em attitude. Personality aside, Graham is an unassuming looking fellow in a white button down shirt and slightly disheveled tie, a tool belt and jeans, all of which I had laying around the house. Pop a blonde wig from Walmart and a green hard hat on top of my head and Graham Burns emerged looking like he never had before.
I think it's interesting that it's easier to look like a male cartoon character than like the girl on the team. I would have loved to represent Dani because she's awesome and looks super-fly (helicopter pilot pun intended). But at the end of the day, Lennox was excited that he and his "brother" were going to be doing Halloween as a team. For me, that made me way happier than sorting through sexy nurse and or some other "dolled" up costumes that are marketed to girls. It's a costume that not only fit me and didn't make me the least self-conscious, it brought a huge smile to my son's face. And THAT is what Halloween is about for me.
