Cassandra Lewis

I usually avoid the Castro on Halloween. People travel from all over the planet to display themselves in revealing costumes and in various states of public drunkenness. It’s awesome. The only thing I don’t like is how the city keeps imposing restrictions, like barricades that bar drinking.

The rules only make things worse. In fact, ten people were shot this year. It was gang-related of course, but the innocent couldn’t get out of the way because of all the barricades blocking them in the middle of the shoot out. Fortunately, no one died.

A little background violence didn’t stop us from having a good time.  Although we couldn’t get to Lucky 13 or Amber’s because of the crime scene tape. We ended up somewhere else as you can see from the picture above.

The Attic, my favorite bar, bookended our evening as we began there and one of us (not me) passed out there. My best friend in high school, Vinnie, visited from Virginia with her beau Matt. She dated him in high school too. Then all of us went on our separate paths, though Vin and I always kept in touch over the years. Matt and Vinnie recently got back in touch and now they’re a couple again–and still a lot of fun.

That’s Vinnie and Matt. Here’s Vin dousing herself in Drew’s fake blood:

Here are some of my favorite folks:

Dennis, Patrick, Marjorie, and Lyon.

And here’s Vinnie and yours truly dressed like a nerdy devil. Drew’s in the background, sitting in the booth. (He’s dressed up as that famous writer Drew McKinney).

Happy Halloween, everybody!