Halloween Grinch

I am not a big fan of Halloween. Actually, Halloween is just about my least favorite holiday, second only to Valentine's Day (which I really detest). I have no specific religious objection to the celebration. I actually am a fan of most Halloween candy, especially the tiny candy pumpkins and I will pretty much never turn chocolate down. I like scary movies. I just think that everything regarding the holiday is so over the top and every year, I really dread the "dress up" aspect.

I really, really, really hate dressing up. I am not a very creative person by nature, nor am I very stylish dresser, and thinking of a "cute" or ingenious costume is never appealing to me. I would wear workout pants every day of my life if I could; it takes a great deal of energy for me to put on something more interesting. As a child, I went multiple years dressed as either a witch or (alternatively) a bag of jellybeans or grapes (depending on what color balloons we had on hand) and, while I probably did enjoy Halloween back then, my interest waned drastically after about middle school. In recent years, I have been secretly very happy to "miss" Halloween and its wild parties by either being on vacation abroad or otherwise out-of-town. I was thankful that, this year, we weren't invited to any kind of Halloween get-togethers... except at work (which we couldn't really get out of), where we were encouraged to dress up for clinic and participate in a Halloween potluck!

I was surprised over and over yesterday by the different costumes donned by the clinic staff! We had witches, Elvis, a wolf from Red Riding Hood, Dracula, Superman, a bloody lumberjack and lots more. Not wanting to purchase or go out of my way to get a Halloween costume, I went as a farmer ("just blending in" to normal town dress, per Wai Kiu!) and Kelvin did a concealed-Superman costume, complete with his (actual) glasses and attempted side-part. I was able to borrow a straw hat which, after a few hours, didn't even annoy me anymore, and I think patients got a kick out of their providers being in costume (some kept giggling uncontrollably). Nevertheless, I am thankful that there aren't any more Halloweens for another year. I wish Halloween was like Leap Year.




SuperK

Some more holiday LIKES and DISLIKES:
LIKE: Carving pumpkins

We carved pumpkins on Saturday (Kelvin's first carving experience!). Still traumatized by the smashing pumpkins episode, we kept our carvings sequestered inside until the Day Of, but then did display them on our porch for the evening of trick or treating. The finished the evening intact.

Before

During


After:
(My apple logo)


(Kelvin's scary pumpkin)



DISLIKE: Pumpkin curry

I thought I would be resourceful and try to make some dishes out of the "pumpkin guts" from our carved specimens above. I saved the pumpkin seeds, which I toasted and salted, and they turned out okay. Then the plan was to make a curry with the pumpkin "meat." It was a very, very bad idea. Kelvin, still skeptical of all things "curried" after our trip to India in November of last year, was already not looking forward to the meal. And, to my chagrin, it totally bombed. Even I, who eats just about anything, could not get over the stringy texture. Kelvin was trying to spare my feelings, I think, and picked out most of the chicken to eat with his rice. However, I couldn't really find anything salvageable about the meal and ended up (GASP-- this is how rare this is) throwing most of it out. Let's just say that it will probably be another year before I attempt another curry... and there will be a high bar.

LIKE: Haunted Houses

We heard word that there is a family in McKinleyville that decorates their house-on-a-hill every year for Halloween and invites the public in (raising funds for "Safe and Sober") to tour their Haunted House. Next year will actually be their last year, as their youngest son is graduating, so we were so happy to get a glimpse. It was absolutely wonderful. They had a driveway spiderweb, crawling bushes, a talking-head-on-a-platter (which kept Kelvin scratching his head for about 10 minutes), swooping ghosts, a haunted nursery, a gruesome dinner party, scary clowns, and oh, so much more. I tend to be very scared by things "jumping out," and definitely did my share of shrieking amidst the tour. It was a great way to spend Halloween.

DISLIKE: Greedy children
This was actually the first year that Kelvin and I had the opportunity of handing out candy to trick-or-treaters! We've both been living the apartment life for quite some time, and we were excited to hand out the Halloween candy we'd purchased way in advance. Before going out to the Haunted House (we were probably gone just over an hour), we left out a good sized bucket of candy with a sign asking the kids to please help themselves to a piece. When we returned, all the candy, including the bucket, was gone. It was really disheartening, as we suspected that some teen probably stole the whole thing at the beginning of the hour, depriving all of the other trick-or-treaters of a treat. We had a few more visitors after we returned home, but I think our generosity was a bit tainted by the incident. I think that, next year, we will go to the McKinleyville mansion a bit later in the evening as to be around more for the earlier trick-or-treaters and to keep watch for the hooligans that try to ruin Halloween for all.

LIKE: Scary Movies
I am a big fan of mystery novels as well as scary movies. We watched The Lovely Bones over the weekend which was filled with some good suspense. I saw Tim Burton's Corpse Bride last week, which was really awesome! And, if you have not seen it, Perfect Getaway is about the scariest movie I've seen this year (do not watch it alone, or if you plan on visiting Hawaii anytime soon).

But that is about all I like about Halloween.
BRING ON CHRISTMAS! (Now THAT is a holiday worth celebrating!)