Rust-colored leaves scrape ominously across a deserted West 23rd Sreet. The light of the full moon dimly illuminates the night sky, and a chill is in the air. Suddenly the sound of footsteps invades the eerie silence. A dark shadow, slumped and hobbling, stumbles into view. It begins to gag and crumbles to the ground. The clock strikes 2 a.m.

And then suddenly it’s back to 1 a.m because it’s daylight savings time and passing car headlights reveal that crumbled mass on the ground to be a vomiting University of Northern Iowa student, donning a naughty schoolgirl-turned-nurse costume minus one missing stripper boot.

Clearly it’s Halloween. But for most of us, this isn’t the same holiday we spent weeks mapping out the neighborhood in order to fill our hard plastic pumpkins to the brim as young’ins. Sure, it’s still about the costumes and the frights, but they’ve taken on a whole new language.

With the exception of that awkward 14-to-18 year-old stage in which dressing up was the “uncool” thing to do on Halloween, many of us can remember each year’s celebration by our costume.

But why is it now that we are older, much of our Halloween costume legacy creativity has only plummeted?

According to www.associatedcontent.com the most popular children’s costumes are pirates for boys and witches for girls. Not much has changed from when we were 5 years old, including the amount of fabric in the costumes.

Maybe its because in a small college town our costume purchasing locations are limited, especially the week before the big holiday.

Nonetheless, never fear, the Northern Iowan is here to supply UNI with a few quick and easy costume ideas that deviate from the 10 typical varieties most commonly running rampant on College Hill. (By the way, if you’ve got visions of shocking the masses with your-oh-cool dead celebrity costume think again – www.Collegehumor.com projects the most common male costume this year will be a dead Michael Jackson at 30 percent or a dead Billy Mays at 20 percent.)

A budget cut: wear an old shirt and jeans you don’t care to wear again and cut out large portions. Those who are aiming to show a little skin this holiday can still do so on the cheap by getting creative with their snips.

Blasphemy Day: wear a gray or white plain t-shirt and have friends write blasphemous messages and/or responses in sharpie. Go all out with this costume by allowing some of these messages to be placed on the face.

A parking ticket: This costume requires strict and continuous use of the color orange. Sharpie an orange t-shirt with horizontal return address lines, the UNI Public Safety address and a beautifully illustrated stamp. Mix things up a little and wear yellow instead to become a city parking ticket.