I attend Mardi Gras Society Halloween parties all the time. (Live in Mobile, AL. Home of the ORIGINAL Mardi Gras.)

I go to great lengths for my costumes, but don't bother to compete. It's always crappy to spend months on costumes and hours on make up and the award going to some drunk dude who wore his girlfriend's dress and a wig or some drunk Marilyn Monroe wannabe with her tit hanging out. (both actual cases).

Now I just enjoy the party and the compliments, and feel sorry for the competing couple who spent hours on recreating the picture "American Gothic" (down to a portable backdrop) that gets beat by a drunk Society member who spent $25 on a hospital gown and plastic ass.

Sometimes there ain't no justice.

__________________
Last night you were, unhinged. You were like some desperate, howling demon. You frightened me.
...Do it again.

Civilization is hideously fragile, there's not much between us and the horrors underneath, just about a coat of varnish.