Halloween '08

A redneck and a cowgirl (with child) were the costumes of choice this year. Sean's ensemble consisted of torn jeans, a NASCAR shirt, fishing vest and mullet wig (which he found more joy in wearing than I think is probably normal). I had to dress western for work so I wore cowboy boots, a brown skirt, Sean's XL flannel shirt (basically since I didn't have a shirt that would work that still fits), a leather fringed vest, bandana and hat (hanging on my back).

So Omniture pretty much goes crazy for Halloween. I had been warned by all of my co-workers, but I still didn't know what to expect. Here's how it works-- each department comes up with a theme and is given a budget to decorate their area around that theme. We're talking over-the-top decorating-- WAY over. Departments compete against one another for prizes and in the afternoon, friends and family of employees come trick-or-treating.

The marketing department came up with "Wild West" and I volunteered to be the Phyllis (or Angela) from pr-- as in I was a member of the party-planning committee. I am still amazed at the transformation of our area. One conference room was turned into a saloon-- complete with a player piano and a bar serving homemade rootbeer. We also had a campfire scene, a gold mine, a jail and gallows and a shooting range (which was really flat screen t.v.'s, Wii's and a shooting game). PR was in charge of the jail and gallows, and I have to say I think we did a pretty fine job. We even covered the entire department floor in straw! We made Channel 2 news at noon-- click here to see the video (the video is on the right and is called Halloween Bash 2). You can see me at the end of the clip when we all yell "yee-haw"-- I'm sitting on the straw bale on the right.

Other departments did an awesome job also. There was a Candyland, Wizard of Oz, cnchanted forrest, mini golf course (that Sean and I both think was better than any mini golf course in Utah we've been to), Gotham City, BYU vs Utah (where they actually built a football field out of real sod) and a bunch of others. It was so fun dressing up and really getting into the spirit of things.

Towards the end of the party I thought I might die of exhaustion. There were literally a thousand or more kids and parents who came trick-or-treating. I borrowed some cowboy boots from my sister-in-law for my costume, and while they were awesome, I thought my feet might need to be amputated at the end of the day. I came home from work and collapsed in our recliner and would have been more than ok with putting on my pajamas and going to bed at 5:30 pm. Don't worry, I wasn't that big of a loser. Sean had to help the young men at our ward's trunk-or-treat so I put on my slippers and hobbled over to join the party. Truth be told, I have never loved the trunk-or-treat idea, but I was sort of grateful for it this year. I don't think I could have walked to my door over and over again to pass out candy!

Hope everyone else had a happy Halloween. Now it's on to turkey day!