That Mummy is Invaluable

Happy November to you all! With the warm, balmy weather we've been having lately, it's been hard to believe it's fall. But this morning when I rolled out of my toasty-warm bed and let Otis outside, there was a fine dusting of snow on the crispy, dead grass of my back yard lawn. I could see my breath fogging up the chilly air and Otis' outside water dish was crystallized with ice. Hopping from one bare foot to the other, I hugged my arms close to my body and shivered as Otis happily crunched through the snow.

I know some people will be sad to see the nice weather fading away, but I love it! Late fall and winter is my favorite time of year.

I was, however, happy that we had pretty nice weather for Halloween! This was the first Halloween in a long time that I didn't dress up or anything. I just wore a Dunder-Mifflin t-shirt and pretended I was Dwight Schrute!

I was sort of disappointed in myself for not doing more! Last Halloween, I braided my hair, put on my renaissance festival crown, and carried around some plastic dragons, my version of a Khaleesi (Daenerys Targaryen) from Game of Thrones! Not too much work involved, obviously, but at least I did something!

Even back in mid-school when I and all my friends were in the inevitable "I'm Too Cool for This" stage, I at least put on some drippy eyeliner, because, well, I'm not sure. It seemed like a good idea at the time, okay? Shut up!

But to be fair, over the years, I did have some cool costumes. I was the Joker one year! When I was really, really small, my mom made me a tiger costume. I was Hermione from Harry Potter. When I was in about first grade, I was Meg from the animated movie Hercules!

Halloween is just cool! I've stated in previous blogs that I really love when they put out Halloween decorations because most people's "Halloween" decorations are my everyday house furnishings. And you know what? My neighbors told me the other day that the life-size mummy I keep on my front porch quite possibly prevented a minor theft from occurring! I had an empty (though the potential criminal did not know this) box left on my front porch and the crook came up to inspect it. Suddenly, they looked up and saw my mummy, got scared shitless, and hauled ass out of there!

Three words: Muah. Ha. Ha.

But, even though I did not dress up this year, I did (through work and trick-or-treaters) get to see other people's costumes! Costumes, and, of course, older women's Halloween sweater vests.

When I was younger, I trick-or-treated with friends, and sometimes my parents would have Halloween parties! We'd play games and hang out, and it was just fun. However, I missed out on one thing: giving out candy! Up where I lived, there were no trick or treaters! So when I got to be a little older, I went to my friends houses and finally got to experience the phenomenon. One of the funnest Halloweens I ever had, I was at my friends house and we sat on the roof of her garage and threw candy to kids and strangers, and twigs and small pebbles at people we knew.

For the past couple years, it had become kind of a tradition for me to hang out with my sister on Halloween, watch ghost-hunting shows, eat junk food and pass out candy. We tried to keep track of the trick-or-treaters and we usually got about 70 to 80. Well, this year I was on my own! It was kind of scary, I won't lie. You probably know by now I have anxiety when it comes to people, and I was pretty scared to be on my own! But, you know what? Not one single kid mugged me! It probably helped that Otis was in the house WOOFING like a maniac.

I got home a little later than usual, so I know I missed some trick-or-treaters, but I still had about 45! I tried to take inventory of costumes. There were:

• a LOT of pirates! Which is really cool, but kind of unexpected
• a couple evil clowns
• a few fairies
• one or two vampires
• some monsters
• a TON of girls wearing Day of the Dead skull makeup
• several princesses
• three or four superheroes
• some ghosts
• a couple Ninja Turtles
• a cowboy
• a ton MORE girls wearing Day of the Dead makeup
• and many more costumes!

I'll be honest, I turned off my porch light at 8:00. Most trick or treaters were gone, I was almost out of candy, and it seems like later in the evening you get the mid school and high school kids who are bored and want candy so they find a mask somewhere and carry plastic KMart bags "trick or treating." I suppose there's nothing really wrong with that, but sometimes it's like, "Come on. Get your own candy!"

Now that Halloween is over, Christmas stuff will be ALL OVER! And I'm fine with that. With the holiday season comes cooler weather, pretty bright lights, family crowed around the table for Thanksgiving, deep snows, City of Bethlehem, luminarias, creative Christmas crafts from Hobby Lobby, kids letters to Santa, the Christmas Carol at the Shuler Theater, candy canes, and my favorite, CHRISTMAS CAROLS! I'll be singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" til Cinco de Mayo.

I SWEAR I will take my Christmas tree down this year!!

I think.

Happy November!
Sarah