It's Halloween and I'm definitely excited. I don't know why I love this holiday so much. I was talking to a good friend from Taiwan yesterday and she described Halloween as "weird." Well, yes, it is kind of weird. But only if weird equals awesome, right?
I mean, when else do you get to sit next to someone dressed as Where's Waldo? all day? (As seen below - he knew I was taking his picture even though it doesn't look that way, for the record.) When else does your office dog dress up as a pirate? (Not pictured due to the fact that he's in the Witness Relocation program.) When else do you get to eat tons of treats almost guilt free?
Here's a little Halloween mosaic to get you in the Halloween spirit. In this mosaic are some Halloween scenes from the last couple weeks, including two of my costumes (a rag doll and Professor Trewlawny), scenes from Bone Heads, the spooky restaurant we went to Friday night (it was awesome), and more.
Are you dressed up today? Are your kids? What are you/they dressed up as?
And lastly, a spooky song from 30 Rock that I've had in my head all morning (the video quality is crap-ola, but the audio is fine)! While flipping through radio stations this morning I heard that one local Detroit station has already gone all Christmas music. Um, wait one more day, how about!?
It has come to my attention that not everyone loves Halloween. Some people can't wait for it to be over, in fact. I don't know why anyone would hate Halloween. Maybe they had a traumatic childhood experience? Maybe they don't like being scared? Maybe they are allergic to Halloween candy? Maybe a witch stabbed them with her broom? Maybe Frankenstein won't take the hint? Whatever the reason, I'm going to try to cure you Halloween Grinches of your Grinchy-ness.
Here are Elizabeth tips for getting into the Halloween spirit!
1. Buy a bag of candy corn. Eat 5-10 candy corns per day leading up to Halloween - no more than that in one sitting or you will turn against Halloween forever.
2. Listen to a Halloween playlist. I made one for you, in fact! Listen to this while you read the rest of the list.
3. Choose a Halloween destination. Not necessarily a haunted house, because if you don't like being scared, that will only make your resentment grow. Next thing you know, you're punching the guy in the mask with the chainsaw and there's no way that's ending well. But I digress. Choose a fun destination to get in the spirit. Last year a couple days before Halloween, I went with a few friends to Hell, Michigan which was perfect. This year I've been to the Greenfield Village Halloween nights, a haunted corn maze, and tonight I'm going to a restaurant called Bone Heads that's reputed to be haunted... I'll let you know if I hear any chains rattling. These destinations put you in that spooky Halloween spirit. Don't hide from it!
4. Take a plastic bag, or better yet, a pillowcase, and stuff it with 10 of each of the following: Smarties, Tootsie Rolls, Snickers, Reeses, Dum Dums, pennies, one toothbrush, and a handful of some kind of gross pink gum. Now shake it all up, open the bag and take a big smell. That's the smell of Halloween night.
5. Acknowledge the pumpkin. I don't care how you do this. You can carve one, you can buy a pumpkin scented candle, you can make a pumpkin recipe, you can go to a pumpkin patch, whatever works for you. But you must acknowledge it or you're not truly trying to get into the spirit.
6. Watch It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! Or Hocus Pocus, or any other Halloween movie that puts you in a state of nostalgia reminding you of all those wonderful childhood memories. Unless you're suffering from a childhood Halloween trauma, in which case, do not do this one!
7. Read a scary story or book. This month we read some Edgar Allan Poe short stories in my book club. Very spooky stuff, and very fun to read. I brought eye themed candies since Poe was obsessed with the scariness of eyes. (I'd recommend The Tell-Tale Heart, The Black Cat, and The Masque of the Red Death to start.)
8. Put up some kind of Halloween decoration - I don't care what it is. A spider web, a fake skull (I felt like I needed to say "fake" just in case), a pumpkin, etc. Just do it.
9. Every night before going to sleep, quietly recite to yourself, "Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat."
10. If you hate dressing up, but people put tons of pressure on you to do so, just put on some cat ears and call it a day. That'll shut 'em up.
Any other tips, Halloween lovers? And to you Halloween Grinches, let me know if any of these tips work!
One of my favorite things about the holidays is the holiday episodes of my favorite tv shows. I almost feel like I should be embarrassed to admit that, but I'm not. Halloween is an especially fun time for holiday episodes, but this week some of my shows have betrayed me with reruns. Not cool. So here's a look back at some Halloween episodes of some of my favorite shows.
1. Parks and Rec, 2. Modern Family, 3. Happy Endings, 4. Full House 5. The Office, 6. Friends, 7. Community, 8. Raising Hope 9. How I Met Your Mother
Today I'm going to share with you some random facts about me.
Shows I've watched all available seasons of on Hulu (that are not currently on tv):
Major Dad
Alf
Newhart
Mary Tyler Moore
I think it's completely inhumane to expect anyone to wear pajama pants (or any kind of pants) to bed. They get all tangled and hot and twisted. I will never wear them! Never! Not even for naps.
When playing Monopoly, I like to be the iron. If I can't be the iron, I'll be the battleship. What playing piece do you choose? I'm curious. The options, besides the two I already mentioned are: car, horse, shoe, top hat, thimble, wheelbarrow, and cannon. Unless you're playing a different version of Monopoly, of course.
Which is your favorite? (I am going to evaluate you psychologically based on your choice.)
I get really annoyed when movies have aliens in them. I'm not interested in aliens in the slightest. They're not scary, they're not interesting, they're just silly. I'll still see movies with aliens in them because I'm a team player, but I will roll my eyes when an alien comes on screen. I'm not saying I don't believe in aliens, I'm just saying I think they're boring and most likely inaccurately portrayed.
I think Kleenex is superior to Puffs.
My top five vacation destinations in the US are:
The Grand Canyon
Alaska, to see the northern lights
Hawaii, to relive the Brady Bunch vacation
The Redwood forest
Wherever you live (of course)
Sidenote: the northern lights were visible the other night in the part of Michigan where I live, but no one informed me and I slept right through it. Heartbreaking, isn't it? I'm not over it yet.
I've mentioned on here before that I consider October weekends very valuable. This weekend was no exception. Considering I was sick all of last week, I may have over done it this weekend but it had to be done - October weekends are too precious to waste! Here's a quick run down of some of the awesome things I did this weekend followed by an overwhelmingly large mosaic. There will be a quiz later.
1. I went to a Hallwe'en nights celebration at Greenfield Village. My friends and I went dressed as rag dolls. I don't even know where to begin in talking about how fun this evening was. We watched a story teller recite the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, we walked through Sleepy Hollow itself, we saw a headless horseman, we walked through a haunted covered bridge, we had our fortunes told by a fake fortune teller (my fortune was that someone from my past will come to visit me), we drank hot chocolate, watched ghostly holograms float across buildings, and wondered if Halloween was always this cold, or if we just didn't care when we were kids.
2. I went to a friend's birthday party which has nothing to do with the "fall" theme but is important anyway. Happy birthday, Janice!
3. I canned apple sauce with my family and played outside with my nieces. This is definitely one of my favorite fall activities. I love spending time with my family, and we have so much fun doing getting together in October to do the canning. Also, I got to see the chickens again which always amuses me. Some of my friends have accused me of being obsessed with chickens but, um, hasn't anyone else noticed that they're hilarious!?
4. I went to a cider mill with some friends. The weather was perfect - sunny but crisp. And the cider and doughnuts were divine. But side note: why do bees and cider mills go together so well? We need to figure out a way to break them up.
5. I went to a super fun Halloween party where we watched "Wait Until Dark" - a very suspenseful classic! Highly recommend! We also ate about a million calories apiece at this party, keeping with the Halloween theme.
6. I helped carve a group pumpkin. At one point six hands were working on the same pumpkin. Surprisingly, it turned out great. And we won the competition. Some people reading this who were there tonight are probably thinking, "what competition? There was no competition!" Well in our minds, there was. And we won. Your pumpkin was fine though, don't get me wrong.
Did you do anything particularly "fall-ish" this weekend?
Whenever I travel, I almost always pick up postcards from the towns or cities I'm visiting. The problem is, I never send them. But that doesn't stop me from buying them. Yesterday I saw a picture of a vintage Michigan postcard and it left me wanting more. I decided to do a little search on ye olde internet and found some fun ones. I thought I'd share some with you. Some are old, some are new. But they all look old, and that's what matters. Hope you enjoy. (And I really do wish you were here. [Well, most of you.])
I don't like this one because Michigan looks weird. Like an amoeba.
Trying not to think about how this was probably done from the perspective of someone in Windsor.
Durand, Michigan? That's not a real place. I've never heard
of it in my life. But if it is real, it deserves a shout out.
Ok, I don't think this counts as a real postcard but I stumbled upon it and I have to complain because the idea that a chicken would invite people to come inside to eat chicken is just ridiculous.I don't believe it for a second! Unless the chicken is making something else, like corn. Then, maybe.
My favorite, of course. The town and beach house that I love, love, love!
Well, it's a good thing I decided to stop blogging every day as of last week since I've been too sick since Saturday to come up with anything original to say. I went back to work today but for four days before that I was in bed almost nonstop so my blog posts would have been something like,
"Sleeping a lot, thank you Nyquil. Went through two boxes of Kleenex. Watched an entire season of Mad Men. Slept more. Coughing a lot. Need more Tylenol. Bored. Entertain me?"
But today I went back to normal life again. And I'm not going to talk more about being sick because being sick makes me so mad! It's frustrating when your body betrays you.
Anyway, back to Wednesday Thoughts (it is Wednesday, isn't it?)
1. I miss Gilmore Girls on ABC Family. I used to watch it every day after work. Now it's been replaced with That 70's Show. Who even likes that show?! Honestly!! It's not funny. I don't know how many times I have to say that. Searching for an alternative to watch after work today, I turned to the local news and found myself very amused by a newscaster who was apparently following a slow tele-prompter. I mean, unless she intended to talk like this:
"She's a mother of two. Children, who just bought a new vehicle."
"The new center represents equality for all. People. And opens today."
2. I don't know if people outside of Michigan or Ohio know this, but Michigan and Ohio resent each other a lot. I was going to say we're enemies but that's not exactly true. But there's definitely animosity, especially when it comes to sports. Why is this? I don't know. Maybe it goes all the way back to the Michigan/Ohio war that ended with us giving them Toledo in exchange for the Upper Peninsula. Maybe they're mad because they want the U.P. back. Tough luck, suckers!!! Either way, there's tension.
Anyway, I'm not sure if you guys have all heard about this or not, but it's been on the news that some guy in Ohio was a collector of exotic animals. He had over 50 of them, most of them pretty dangerous (tigers, lions, baboons, bears, and a monkey with an infection). Yesterday he committed suicide then released all of them. Or rather, the other way around. Police have been hunting down the animals, and killing them (there's still a few on the loose, including the infected monkey). Today on my home from work, I was listening to the radio and the DJ said, "This guy was allowed to keep that many exotic pets and I'm not even allowed to have a dog bigger than 30 lbs in my apartment!? Ohio!!"
The fact that he ended his diatribe with somehow making the problem "Ohio" made me laugh. Though for the record, I think Ohio's pretty ok. I like how it's round on the ends and hi(gh) in the middle.
3. Every year I blog about (and think about, and talk about) costume ideas for Halloween, but I almost always end up being super lame and not dressing up at all. Or being a witch, my ultimate cop-out costume. This year things are looking up, with the help of a group costume idea (which will be revealed later). But I think secretly I don't like dressing up. I always thought I did. It's strange when I make these realizations about myself. Do you like dressing up for Halloween?
