All Hallow's Eve

Woo hoo! October 31st! Why is Halloween so dang great, you ask? I will enlighten you...

Yay for eighties hair, black cats, Harry Potters, and stealthy ninjas! Hoorah for grinning jack-o-lanterns, haunted houses, and spooky cemetaries! Yipee (I'm running out of excited expressions!) for mummies, pirates, and the chance to be a kid again! Yeehaw for the start of November!

And of course, a big whoopee for candy! Chocolate, please. :)

I really can't remember the last time I dressed up for Halloween (I'm just not creative in that way), but I love seeing everyone else's costumes, especially the little kids! They just get so darn excited! Dress up! Take pictures, and trick or treat!

I'm addicted to National Geographic, and of course they have an excellent Halloween article! Enjoy! http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/10/081027-halloween-facts-costumes-history.html

PS: Starbucks hazelnut hot chocolate = barf!

Spice Muffins

My boss keeps cramming spice muffins down my throat. It's true! She grabs me and with inhuman strength forces my jaw open, then shoves the muffin into my mouth!

Okay, that might be a bit of an exaggeration--but she might as well be! She keeps bringing the plastic container full of muffins (which she acquired from another department and did not actually bring herself) up to me, holding it right in front of my face, and saying "Take one! Come on, take one!" Then, she comes up again, minutes later, and says "Have another! Take one more!" When I tell her that I am not hungry, she simply repeats the action again, most likely in hopes that during the second-long interval that has elapsed since she last assaulted me that my hunger would have mysteriously increased ten-fold. So, I take the muffin, and I eat it, because I for some ridiculous reason don't have the heart to throw it away. Oh well, at least they're not banana nut muffins.

On another note, there have been entertaining conversations in the office this morning.

Co-worker 1: I wanted to make Halloween muffins, with spiders on them, but couldn't figure out how to make the legs.
Co-worker 2: Use liquish.
C1: What are you talking about, liquish?
C2: Isn't that what it's called? Liii-quisshh.
[it was later determined that liquish = licorice]

C1: We need some music in here!
C2: Yeah, so you can go ahead and bust a bruise!
[translation: bust a move]

All of my co-workers are bright and intelligent. It was just one of those days. :)

Thoughts on the coming November

It's Halloween on Friday, and that means November starts this very week! I can't believe how quickly this year has gone from April on (I'll be honest--my pre-Carolina days this year absolutely dragged). I don't know why it is, but once the calendar is flipped to November, I consider the year over. It's stupid, because there are still two entire months left, but it's what I do. Once you hit Halloween, things go full speed ahead straight on into New Years, and then we start the whole wonderful mess all over again (not that it ever really stops)!

I like the fall; I like November. It was always my favorite month growing up, a brief and novel respite from the balmly Carolina evenings, sweltering summer days, and sand-gnat infested Spring afternoons (are you supposed to capitalize seasons? I dunno...). I like the coolness of fall, and even a bit of the chill. I probably relish it only because it really doesn't last long here in the lowcountry, and never gets quite frigid enough to deter me from wearing my ever-favorite flip-flops. [ugh, my boss just interrupted me for 5 entire minutes--how dare she bother me with trivial things pertaining to work when I'm busy with my oh-so-important first blog!]. Yes, even in my youth November captured my heart because of Thanksgiving. It was always my favorite holiday, and still is. I wrote a paper about that very theme in the 5th grade (those were the days: What is your favorite holiday, and why; must be 5 paragraphs minimum-oh, how daunting!). I love food, and the absolute most glorious bite on earth consists of turkey, gravy, stuffing, and mashed potatoes all somehow crammed onto a single fork. Furthermore, for my child-self there was something wonderfully fascinating about the Pilgrims and the Indians coming together to partake in one of the few rituals that is found all across the vast cultural spectrum of the single human race: meal-time! It was a greatly romanticized tale of my youth, and I imagined a beautiful Indian maiden passing the maize to her grateful buckle-wearing new friend. Only later did I learn that things didn't turn out too well for the maiden, and that her Pilgrim friend wasn't grateful for long.

I wish childish whimsies weren't squashed by knowledge of the real world. Disillusionment is a bear, and sometimes I ignore it and and pretend it never happened, and act as though the world is mostly right. It's funny, but in pretending things are good, they usually really become that way. How's that for a philisophical quandary? Oh, it takes me back to my high school Theory of Knowledge class (TOK, we cool kids called it), the same class during which I had the misfortune to plant my behind firmly on a chewed wad of gum (so thoughtfully left in my chair by a student in whatever was the previous class), inspiring a teacher-student bridge building experience with Goo-Gone (this was with the majority of the class; I was lucky enough to win a bathroom pass to scrape what remnants I could off of my awesome LEI jeans).

Anyway, I've gotten off track, but the title of my blog should have warned you. Happy Fall, Happy Halloween, and Happy November (almost)!

PS: Herman Melville got it all wrong--there could never be "a damp, drizzly November in my soul"--at least not as long as I'm here!