Yes, you read that title correctly. This is a story about how yours truly dressed up as a raccoon beanie baby to a 90’s costume party.
Let’s flashback to about 4 p.m., when I was on the phone with one of my best friends, Kori (or I rok spelled backwards). We were discussing her and our other friend’s upcoming road trip to visit me in the wonderful town of Auburn, when I expressed to her my dilemma over what to wear to this party. See, I was originally thinking grunge, because grunge is awesome and it was a 90’s party, so that’s pretty much option number one for one of these things. It was also a party where I happened to know no one, and I wasn’t too keen on sticking out. However, there was a costume contest, and the top three winners received Chick-fil-a gift cards.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I love Chick-fil-a, and there is a whole lot of embarrassing stuff I would do to win free Chick-fil-a. So I wanted to wear something that would guarantee me a top three spot. Kori understood this, and suggested I look up costumes on Pinterest. So I went on Pinterest, and started surfing through costume ideas from the 90’s. Halfway through a Buzzfeed list, I saw it, the perfect outfit: a Beanie Baby. The most 90’s toy ever, after Furby of course. Excitedly, I suggested it to Kori and she said, “Dude. Yes. DO IT.” With that, I was sold on this costume idea, especially since I had a raccoon onesie. Why did I have this onesie? Well, because the raccoon happens to be my spirit animal, which is another story for another time.
Anyway, so I started to gather everything together when I began to debate over whether or not to wear the onesie. After all, I was not going to know anyone at this party, and since I just moved here, I wanted to start making some friends. I was worried the onesie would ruin my chances of that, so I asked a whole lot of people if I should do it. Everyone’s answer was yes, even the girl running this thing that I messaged through GroupMe. The cacophony of yesses really settled it for me, so I rolled out, costume in hand. I didn’t feel like wearing it to the party, because I was still apprehensive about rocking out raccoon spirit animal style amongst strangers. However, when I got there and people began to question me about the contents of my bag, I began to get less and less apprehensive about it as they seemed very excited once I told them what my costume was. Finally, after multiple people told me to put it on, I decided to “grow a pair” and just do it.
I emerged from the bathroom, a blast form the 90’s toy past and I gotta tell you, it was great. Sure, some people looked at me like I was a psych ward patient out for a visit to their party, but others who were after my own heart loved it and took pictures with me, laughed and talked with me about my costume. The night continued on like that, meeting people, talking, playing 90’s games and dancing along to classic 90’s music, i.e. the Beastie Boys. At the end of the night, when it was time to announce winners, I got second place of the girls division! I had won a $10 gift card to every Auburn student’s favorite college food stop, Chick-fil-a! All in all, when I look back on that night, I’m really glad I listened to my friend’s advice and dressed up how I wanted to, not how I felt I should. So, that’s the story on how I dressed up for a 90’s party as a raccoon Beanie Baby, I hope you enjoyed yourself. Oh! And I’ve included some pictures below. Hope they make you smile. War Eagle.