Someone asked me recently what my favourite Hallowe'en costume was when I was a kid.
At first, I just laughed, because I could not remember a costume that I wore during my Alberta childhood that wasn't ruined by having to wear a parka over it. COME ON, ALBERTA.
After some reflection, though, I had to answer that my favourite costume was probably the princess costume my mom made for me when I was in kindergarten.
I fucking LIVED for that thing. It was sparkly. There was a cape. It was long and flowy and pouffy and perfect.
In December of 2015, my awesome cousin Caro took it upon himself to begin scanning our grandfather's prodigious collection of slides and put them up on Dropbox for the fam to check out. There were several boxes. But Caro is a man of infinite patience.
Over the years, Caro has uploaded some super cool photos. There were some sweet travel shots from my grandparents' various trips to Europe in the '60s and '70s, but there were also a number of family shots from the '50s and early '80s. Last week, he uploaded the final batch.
I looked at all of the travel shots in this latest round, but then I got distracted, so I didn't finish going through some of the final folders.
And last night, my brother Jaro sent me an email with the subject line "Have you ever been happier?" and this picture of me. In my favourite costume. Of ALL TIME:
My poor mom. She worked SO hard to not aggressively gender me as a kid but at every turn, I was like "Make with the frills, bitch!"
If you look closely though, I AM wearing a pair of lesbian overalls under the princess ensemble. Because on some level, I must have known the crinoline wouldn't last.
I was also a master horsewoman.
