Christine and Johnny Walker

Creativity, fun, camaraderie, sweet treats--those spell out my favorite holiday--Halloween!

Yes how I love dressing in costume and not be myself. This time the opposite happened. I exposed myself, took off my mask of Christine Michaels and showed my true colors, my inner essence and unleashed the animal in me.

Ok so much buildup when you probably guessed my not-so-secret secret. I was Sexy Cat Lady the honorary title bestowed on me by the neighborhood. So if you guessed Cat Woman--you were heading in wrong direction--she was one of the villains in the Batman series. I'm a heroine--or hope to be!

At my office, I went solo and used the occasion to elevate, celebrate and educate the ignorant about the beauty, grace and intelligence of Black Cats. Yes my goal is to turn around the misperceptions of the black cat. So I furiously worked on creating posters of stunning black cats to cover and grace my wall and cubicle "windows". For effect--I brought Johnny Walker, a foster black cat. Was he scared? Of course not! Johnny welcomes humans greeting him like a king. He behaved well and walked around with his striking diamond collar and leash. For the rest of the day he napped on his cat bed under my desk and woke up a few times to ensure I was working diligently (guess who's the new boss?) and turned around for a different sleeping position.

The good news is that more and more retailers are NOT making "scary black cat" fixtures, decor as America is learning that black cats and dogs are the least adopted and the most euthanized. Halloween hurts their image and chances for a furrever home. We still have a long way to go.

Black cats are graceful, elegant and intelligent!

Poster 1

Poster 2

Poster 3

Desk display--diamond frame requesting donations. Video: myths about black cats, and book about Homer

Statue of Egyptian Goddess Bast--a Black female cat Adorned with encircle 5 diamonds (yes these are from my home)

Posters covering cubicle windows

Signed photo of Christopher Coppola and Biker Cat

Gypsy--one of the cat models that strutted down catwalk of Black Cat Gala

My new vanity license plate!

Homer is famous black BLIND cat from Miami Now resides in NYC. Survived 9/11 after 3 days without food

Christine Cat Lady with Calex, the Matador!

Frank the Monk & Joe the Plumber

My workers in Halloween costumes

More coworkers in Halloween costumes. In the front row, Zamir (in green shirt) is dressed as Carlos, the guy to his right. He took a color photo of Carlo's face to use as a mask.

At night, I morphed into ISIS--the goddess of the underworld dripping in gold. This is actually a home made costume. Well the dress belonged to my mother in the 1970's and I used to play dress up in the black and gold thread dress as a little girl. Then about 10 years ago, I adopted the dress as my permanent ISIS costume for Halloween events. The cape is hand sewn by mom.

Our first stop--The Forge. That night was SWOON night and gothic candles illuminated the normally, dark dining room. SWOON is a new dinner event, hosted every other Friday night. A pre-fixed three course dinner is only $50 and accompanied by an infusion of culture--opera singing, a collection of original artwork...

Cecilia as the Hippy and Christine as ISIS

On our way back to my condo, we decided we needed to dance off the martinis. We stopped at Segafredo in Brickell, a quintessential Italian cafe. Segafredo converts into a discotheque at night, only a handful in Brickell, my neighborhood. Walking up to the entrance we ran into my neighbor Peter Smalley on his way out and thus he returned for his second bout of dance fever.

70's nurse and retro boyfriend

Hippy sandwiched between two Peters

(Peter Smalley, Cecilia Paz, and Peter from El Paso, TX)

Martial artist defends his goddess

Overall we recommend Segafredo for Halloween. It was not too crowded, with elbow room to dance-- a requirement when I go dancing. We stayed until 3am. I can't remember the last time I partied that late. By the way, we only drank water after The Forge, so we could dance!