There Was No Party This Year
By: Adriana Vazquez
Tags: Halloween, Halloween Decorations, Party, Essay, Partying

I wanted to write a love letter to Halloween. This seemed on theme for the past couple of weeks. But I kept getting stuck. Maybe the nostalgia and sentimentality just became too much to bear. Maybe it was way too much to try to cover in a single essay and I got stuck with trying to parse out which parts I wanted to include. The truth is my love letter to Halloween could be split into several pieces — my childhood costumes, my growing love of horror films, and of course The Upper Glen Halloween parties.

Halloween this year was on a Saturday which would have perfectly aligned for the Glen’s annual Halloween party (although to be honest, I much prefer Friday parties, more time to recover.)

But there was no party this year.

We may have ushered in the darkest timeline, sorry.

It’s weird to feel sad over that because I kind of always knew that I wouldn’t be at this year’s party. I had intended to move this year and didn’t expect to even be in the Bay in October. But I wasn’t at this year’s party because I left Oakland (although I did do that.) I wasn’t at this year’s party because there was no party this year.

It’s both weird and entirely satisfying to have been the founder of an annual rager. We became THE go-to Halloween party and I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that. The party took on a life of its own and by the third or fourth year, there were people at the party who I didn’t even know. A few times people just wandered in off the street.

But there was no party this year.

By the third or fourth year, we figured out how to properly throw a rager — order a pizza before the party starts, order a keg from Bev Mo (but the one in Jack London Square, not the one in the hell hole that is Emeryville.)

Each year had a theme that was a weird blend of obscure references and overt pop culture (Stanley Kubrick meets Stranger Things.) Each year, Kathleen went overboard with the decorations (Papier-mâché pumpkin kings and life size Babadooks).

Each year, we let our downstairs neighbor know we’d be throwing a party and to tell us if it got too loud (we would undoubtedly get too loud but he always told us that we were young and should just have fun. He never once complained.)

Each year we took roommate shots — tequila with lime and salt — the group of past and present roommates ever expanding over the course of 7 years. And I participated in those shots, despite my assertions that I am too old to take a shot.

Each year, the party devolved into dancing in the living room at 3am and/or crying into Jack in the Box chicken strips.

Each year, we spent the next day recovering, sprawled out on the white leather couch we inherited from Tessa’s childhood.

Each year lingered into the next holiday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, as decorations stayed on the walls, making us a permanent Halloween house.

But there was no party this year.

I always think of the Upper Glen Halloween party an annual event. The truth is that this isn’t the first year that there was no party. We threw the first one in 2013, partly as a housewarming party. Fresh out of college in our “grown up” Oakland apartment. The theme day year was Day of the Dead (I think Friday landed on November 1.)

Tip jar from the first party.

That night we partied too hard. A few hours in, I fell asleep on the floor of my room and woke up after everyone else left. The party was too big. Someone actually took money OUT of the tip jars (wtf.) That party was big enough to last for 2 years.

There was no party in 2014.

But when we came back in 2015, we had a better game plan. We realized we should invest in a keg. Turns out people are way more willing to donate to beer money when a keg is involved. I’m pretty sure in 2015, we actually made money. So, in 2016 we started donating any money over the price of the alcohol to charity. While there was no party this year, there is still a fundraiser. And if you want to get a little glimpse into what The Upper Glen Halloween Party was like, just visit the fundraiser page.

There have been a lot of good parties at the Glen — surprise 23rd birthdays, Christmas open houses, Cold War Party — but no party is the Halloween party. Whenever, if ever, the next one is, I plan to be there.

I guess I did get a little gooey nostalgic after all.