Releasing My Inner MJ

Well, it was a month in the making, but “Thrill the World” finally happened on Saturday. I have to say, this is probably the most fun October I’ve ever had. We had our last Thriller class about a week ago. Jen and I both agreed that we had an empty feeling this week without it – Katie’s classes were so much fun.

Oh and props to Joe, who took all of these pictures:

There were at least 50 people in the last class. Niki, Adam and Jaime showed up for the last one. They learned the dance in an hour and totally rocked it. Fist bump!

Saturday was the actual event. Getting ready was tons of fun. We got to rip up our clothes, pile on spooky makeup and play with dirt and mud. “Thriller” was playing in the background the entire time, so people would wander over to practice every now and then. I liked running out in the hall and scaring the cute basketball players.

Getting ready for zombie dancing with Jen and Niki reminded me of getting ready for parties with Rachel and Lauren. They used to primp forever and while I am not a primper, I liked giggling in the mirror with people. Zombie primping is more my thing.

Unfortunately, I forgot the most important zombie element: Kool Aid Mouth.

I still looked fairly spooky in person, but in pictures I look like a tan battered housewife.

Honestly, it doesn’t matter what any of the zombies looked like because FREAKING LOOK AT FREAKING KATIE you guys:

It took Jen and I at least 10 minutes before we realized it was her. Amazing. Just… amazing.

I like to call this one “The Fiercest Foursome”:

Then it was time for the dance! We had to lay on the floor at the beginning, and I was right by Jen, Niki, Adam and Jaime. Adam wistfully remarked, “I wish we could wear zombie makeup all of the time.” Then he wondered if zombies could jump up from their backs like Bruce Lee, and we all got the giggles.

DUH-DAAAAA! DUUH-DUH-DUUUUH!

Here is the video!

I was in the back, so you can’t really see me. I’m the one high-fiving everyone at the end, in the upper-right corner. However, here’s us doing the Zombie Roar. This is what I look like when I’m totally into it and grooving:

All in all, there were about 45 zombies. It was seriously a great time and I had a weird sense of accomplishment from being a part of it all. Afterwards we had free pizza because we were CW 11’s Team of the Week. Amanda and Niki discovered a bunch of gymnastics equipment in the back of the gym. Zombies LOVE the uneven bars.

Later on that night, Katie, Joe, Jen, Ron, Niki, Dustin, Hannah, Meg and I went down to the Central West End. There are a lot of snooty bars in that part of town, and they have a big outdoor costume contest every year. It costs money to enter the contest, but Katie decided we were too cool for that. We took it to the streets:

Ron brought his kick-ass boombox, Joe and Dustin would be all like, “Oh my god, do I hear Thriller?” and then BAM – a crowd would form around us.

The first crowd was pretty big. We were afraid that people would just watch the contest, or that the big group of policemen would yell at us. However, everyone stopped and walked over and started cheering.

In the picture below, you may notice someone behind Jen. I swear to god this happened:

Someone jumped in and started dancing to “Thriller” with us in perfect synchrony. It was straight out of a movie. He knew every step, and when he jumped in all of the cheering got louder.

And? He was dressed like Urkel. I swear to god.

After the first performance, the crowd exploded in a way we didn’t expect. Other group-costume people like the wrestlers and the Spartan cheerleaders were inspired to do on-the-spot performances as well. All of the cheering and high-fives were intoxicating, so we immediately wanted to do it again.

We went to the street that actually faced the stage and had the most people. People were already approaching Katie to tell her that they loved her costume, and she was like, “Just wait.”

I wish I had pictures of the front of the crowd because there were so many people. I was totally freaked out, which I guess worked with the zombie ensemble. There were tons of people on the sides of the street, too. Then the crowd got bigger…

And bigger…

And then we were totally surrounded.

People were cheering and yelling, “Oh my god, they’re doing Thriller!” the whole time. During our best moves, the crowd would go “Whooooo!” Someone threw money at us. Everyone was smiling and clapping and taking pictures.

And then when we did the final pose, the crowd exploded again, only this time it was even louder. I will never forget that noise. We high-fived too many people to count. Katie officially became the coolest person in the Central West End and we were all so proud to be in her zombie posse.

I was really proud of Jen and Niki and everyone who was involved. I am now addicted to synchronized dancing and super amounts of attention. That was something I would have never done a year ago, and now I can’t wait until next year to do it again. The Year of Awesome is officially ready for the holidays, y’all.

Hey Katie – during November, can you give lessons on how to be a Total Badass? Cuz you are.