All Hallows Eve

Hi,
tomorrow night is Oct. 31st... where is 2010 disappearing to? What do you mean it's almost November? That allows 2011 to sneak up on me that much faster. I will not allow this. I demand a recount (hey, they do it all the time with elections, why not calendar dates?). I think we are getting gypped this year: someone has been double-dipping on dates and short changed us. It's the only explanation I can think of that explains how 5/6 of the years is already over and I'm just getting used to signing my cheques with the correct year in the corner.... and yes, I still write out cheques, Internet payments make me nervous, especially when I see how the bank messes up money transfers and other simple transactions... that's a whole other rant.

I have no plans to celebrate All Hallows Eve. I don't need an excuse to dress up funny. I do that every day, it's just called a bathing suit, swim cap & goggles. If you don't think that's a far-out look just try walking around on a busy street and see how many people stare in disbelief. Especially in February in Saskatoon. Gets them every time!

I forgot this weekend is "Halloween'' and I ventured into my local Walmart yesterday. Big mistake. There was a frenzied rush on bad candy and ugly costumes... wait, sorry, that happens in Walmart everyday, why was I shocked??? Just for the record, I don't get any trick-or-treaters' coming to our place. We live on a rather busy street where the houses are very spread apart. That means any kids who may try to collect candy around here have to walk the acreage properties only to cover 3 houses in a half hour of trudging around in funny clothes, schlepping a pillow case with dental nightmares. It ain't worth it.

Personally I don't really get the excitement about all this. Is everyone so hard up to get cavities? Does it fulfill some deep seated perversion to dress up like Snookie? Have I missed something? As a kid I liked getting a fun costume made by my mom or zadie. Playing dress up was okay with me for one night. Going out for a few hours of door knocking with my friends was also a blast, as long as we showed up back home before it was too dark out to see the street signs. I don't remember who ate all the candy we retrieved. I think most of it was consumed by my mother who kept it in a big bowl in the kitchen that we couldn't reach.

My favorite part of Halloween was carving out a pumpkin and toasting the seeds to eat. Kids don't carve pumpkins, it seems that had been declared a dangerous thing to do. Here you buy 'pre-carved' or painted versions of scary faces. What fun is that? No nicked fingers, no near death knife slashes? Dull, dull, dull. Now to get a good scare they pay a small fortune to go to a haunted house and scream at stuffed scarecrows that fall from the rafters. Real blood is so much more frightening when it's your own from stabbing yourself as you engrave an innocent squash. Now that's a blast.

So this weekend I'm hiding out, keeping the house dark and not gaining 5 lbs by avoiding the candy aisle in Walmart... which wasn't easy since at least 5,000 sq.ft. in the store was stacked with Hershey boxes. I do love my Almond Joys but I plan to buy them November 2nd when they are marked down half price. Anyone need a vampire cape? They're a real bargain in November.

xox
m