After the parade I washed my face and took off my costume. I think I gave it back to my mom. There was a just a sink in the classroom, so there was no mirror or anything. I think I was walking around the school with a green tinted face. I kept getting comments from the other kids about wearing a witch costume. 

When I was thirteen I attempted to dress as a witch again.

I was shopping with my parents at the Target, and there I saw it... blank, emotionless, and creepy.  I had to have it! I begged my parents to buy it. A Living Faces witch prosthetic make up kit.

I didn't want to look cute, beautiful or flirtatious. I wanted to look ugly!

I imagined myself wearing the prosthetic mask at a Halloween party or something I would be getting compliments about how good it looked. I even imagined people touching my face. Then I would proceed to eat in it. That was one of the selling points of the thing. You could eat and drink in it, but not smoke. The package said it was reusable.

One day my friend came to my house and I was showing him the kit. I hadn't opened it yet. He thought it was cool looking. When you are thirteen you think a lot of things are cool.

The problem was that I had to cut and paint the mask. It was like an extra homework assignment. It didn't even have eye or nose holes. I had to cut them myself. I had to trim down the forehead of the mask because I have a small face. The thing was very hard to paint. The brush they provided was very thick. The mask had a lot of detail work including the wrinkles and warts. I had to glue the eyebrows on it. The kit came with crepe hair to glue on. I didn't really know how to apply it, and it didn't stick on very well. I just left the witch brow-less. I thought it looked scarier that way. I had to paint over the liquid latex that I used to try and apply the crepe hair.

I was going to steal a Halloween costume idea I had gotten from watching an episode of “Newsradio”, and wear it to school; it was called “Man without socks”.  In the episode it was not considered a costume. The episode is pretty funny, but also sad when watched in hindsight. But I thought it was a dumb idea because none of my friends at school watched the show and would not get the reference.

I didn't want to wake up early in the morning to apply prosthetics to my face. I threw together a last minute Gwen Stefani costume, and it was pretty sloppy. According to my algebra teacher I looked like a “workout person”.

According to the price tag on the thing it cost $6.99 in 1997 which according to the inflation calculator would be about $10.38 in 2014.

They didn't stick very well. I was trying to use the included liquid latex in the kit. I was sitting there frustrated trying to attach a fake chin to my face. I never got to wear it for Halloween.

I’m not sure what I was expecting from a paint it yourself prosthetic kit from the Target.

A few years later I wanted to see what it really looked like on my face while I was goofing around. I attached it to my face with white school glue. It actually stuck even if it was brief. It looked pretty good for a prosthetic kit I left sitting around for a few years.

That prosthetic witch mask still haunts me. I don't know why I've kept it for all these years. I keep thinking I can do something with it. Recently I tried to turn it into a sock mask. It didn't work out very well.