Happy Halloween!

Halloween has come again! I can hardly believe the month of October has passed us by, and the incredibly warm weather we've had through all of it hasn't helped to convince me that fall is about half over. But here we are again, tripping off to school and work bedecked in costumes while crisp golden and crimson leaves rustle in the wind and whisper of the eerie night of haunts and ghoulish delights ahead. The candy bowl is stocked for the trick-or-treaters (more accurately, for us since we never get trick-or-treaters and know it!) and my Spooky Tree from Pottery Barn, lovingly hunted for and purchased by Kenny for Christmas, is flickering on our bookshelf. Ghost and pumpkin lights flicker in the window, jack o' lanterns leer from our porch, and for the first time in I can't remember how long, clouds lower and threaten sprinkles of rain. Indeed, Halloween is here.

To properly celebrate such a spooky day, I got up earlier this morning than most days when Kenny came in to announce that "the Mummy needs to rise!", showered quickly, and begin my preparations for a thrilling Halloween day. Out came black, white, and gold grease paint to be slathered on my face (which would only make me itch and long to scratch once I had finished painting everything just right) and then came the tricky part - wrapping myself in yards of shredded sheets! I managed to wrap up my legs in a satisfyingly mummy-like fashion when Kenny had to leave for work, making me wonder why I hadn't started with my torso and arms while he was there to help me. I managed to coil and twist enough fabric about myself to suit even fastidious me - Halloween costumes must be perfect! - and shuffled to the door with my backpack, lunch bag, and keys.

I'll admit, I was a little embarrassed to walk out into the road to unlock my car, so I flipped the lock from the passenger's side so I could launch myself into my car without any delay. A trucker drove by, but no one seemed to notice my peculiar appearance. Driving to work while singing "Monster Mash" and "Thriller" out loud, I was a bit disappointed that no one looked over from the coziness of their morning commute to notice my costume. In fact, no one else was dressed up! What kind of a world must other people live in to not want to get dressed up for Halloween? A very bleak, lusterless world it must be.

Upon extricating myself and all my bits of cloth from my car and navigating the stairs with bound feet stuffed into sandals, I was greeting with surprised and delighted looks from my coworkers. "Who are you?" they gasped in wonder. "It's Katie," I chirped happily from behind my shroud, and they applauded me on my creative costume. And mine wasn't the only outlandish getup there. I saw a girl dressed all in black with her hair and face covered in coal-covered paint, her white iPod earphones blazing in contrast - she was the iPod "shadow" from all the iTunes commercials. Another girl had blacked out a few of her teeth, to go along with her farmer girl outfit - with a Sharpie pen! Our HR manager was a flamboyant Elvis, while our Customer Service managers could have taken him on in the spotlight as a disco queen and Jack Sparrow. And the scariest costume of all - one of the guys had dressed up as the Tooth Fairy, complete with the tutu, leotard, nylons, and crown! As we tried to settle into our morning work, coworker parents ushered their tiny kids into our office to trick-or-treat at our desks. All of them were too scared to come over to my desk for a treat and had to be coaxed by Mom or Dad, which convinced them to creep over to me only a part of the time! I guess I did look rather forbidding! We all crowded into the usually-spacious lunch room for a costume contest and a pumpkin carving contest, the introduction of new employees, and cake for October birthdays. I felt pretty chagrined at having left my own pumpkin, carved the night before with Kenny's help, at home on the counter. Kenny called, and when I called him back during my lunch, he wondered why I hadn't called him - he would have been happy to bring my pumpkin to me at work. I don't think entering the pumpkin carving contest would have been nearly as sweet as hearing Kenny say that he would have brought my pumpkin all the way from home if I had asked him to. Nope - leaving my pumpkin at home and missing out on entering it in the contest was definitely worth hearing Kenny tell me that. A prize couldn't have warmed my heart that much. Not to say that I would have won anything - my carving skills haven't really progressed any since I was in elementary school, other than the fact that I discovered pumpkpin carving patterns in high school! It was just a bummer that I couldn't share in the festivities by bringing in a pumpkin.

As I ate some leftover pot roast for lunch, our HR director (free of his Elvis costume - he shook his bald head and declared he couldn't stand the wig anymore, that having that much hair hanging in your face wasn't natural) came in and congratulated me - I had won the prize for the "Scariest Halloween Costume." I was so excited!!! Not only was a $25 gift certificate to the movie theater a treat, but I had really, really just wanted to win a creative contest!

When it was finally time to call it an evening and head home, I vacuumed the bits of string that had gathered on the carpet when I shucked my sweaty mummy tomb of a costume, gathered my things, and bid my few remaining coworkers a happy Halloween. Stepping out into a windy evening, I paused a minute to enjoy the shower of falling leaves that greeted me and the rustling of trees in the wind. A few cool drops of rain even sprinkled my face as I hiked to my car, and the lowering clouds cast a spooky and conspiratorial spell over the night. Kenny and I wrapped up our Halloween festivities with a jack o' lantern pizza, some trick-or-treat candy, and flickering candles and enjoyed the end of a Halloween-y movie and a short story from Stephen King. We even had a few trick-or-treaters, mostly kids who were suspiciously old to be out pillaging the neighbors (and one kid was dressed like Marilyn Monroe, complete with fake boobs - shudder). As I wrap of the evening with a hot drink and cozy up on the couch in the light of my glimmering Spooky Tree, I can't help but long for the next Halloween to come soon!

Have a very spooky and happy Halloween!!!



A crisp Halloween afternoon.





The gusty night that enveloped me as I left my office: