the lamest and the funnest

one of my favorite anecdotes to recall is about one of my college roommates, who i will call mimi. mimi got her MA in english at a major research institution, and in the fall of her first year there she was invited by phd students to a costume party. feeling somewhat flattered and excited that she was being accepted into grad student life so quickly and hospitably, she set about making a great costume. she got together with a fellow newbie, and they went as salt and pepper shakers, complete with giant cardboard "S" and "P," and some kind of engineered silver helmet, perhaps fashioned out of a collander or something. their torsos were wrapped in aluminum foil. together they went to the costume party.

when they got there, though, mimi and her friend discovered that what was sold as a costume party involved very specific types of costumes--namely Renaissance costumes. they were what i used to call "ren fest" geeks, a.k.a., members of the Society for Creative Anachronism, the renaissance equivalent to trekkies or civil war re-enactors. so they were in brocades and hand-forged suits of armor and serving actual mead and giant legs of mutton and all that. and there was mimi and her friend dressed as salt and pepper shakers, with collanders on their heads. who, i ask you, was more lame in this situation??!!

such was my feeling last night (though to a far lesser degree), when i sashayed into what was advertised as a st. patrick's day party, dressed head to toe in green, including green jeans, green eyeshadow and green socks. and there were my senior and advanced junior colleagues, as well as professors from another (more prestigious) university, standing around wearing blue jeans and with nary a thread of green to be seen, let alone a crumb of green eyeshadow. i don't think i am exaggerating when i report that i got more than one discreet but pitying look. and once again, i beseech you: who, in this situation, was lame??!!