Halloween, part 2

I recall being at a Halloween event once, and was asked by a parent that my family knew, to take her daughter to the haunted house set up in one of the rooms. She was often scared by such things, but she nevertheless, she wanted to go, perhaps trying overcome her fears. Off I went with the young Kalynn, to a room with a long, long line. I could hear spooky sounds coming from inside, and I remember Kalynn clinging to my arm, quivering. As we came closer to the entrance, a hand would occasionally come out from behind the curtain, grab my ankle for a moment and shake it. I thought to myself that it was a good thing Kalynn was on the other side of me, because if it had been her getting her ankle grabbed, she likely would have shrieked, jumped ten feet into the air, and zoom out of the room without her shoes ever touching the ground. By the time I would get outside, she'd probably be halfway to Tokyo, and I'd have to break the news to her mother that she would never see her daughter again.

Upon finally entering the place, we walked through the passageways, seeing various creepy things, including a headless man. Kalynn said nothing, though she did stay rather close to me, always clinging to my arm. Upon leaving the haunted house, I found her mother, who was waiting at the exit. Kalynn was all too happy to exchange clinging to me for clinging to her mom.

Halloween, part 1

Over the years I've been on this earth, there has been this curious phenomenon known as Halloween. It's this day at the end of October, when kids are encouraged to dress up in fun costumes and go around begging for candy. For a long time, I engaged in this awesomeness, ending up with an assortment of sweet treats, some of which were eaten ASAP, while those I didn't like were left to rot, until my mother cleaned out the fridge many moons later and threw them out.

While I don't remember all of the costumes I've ever had, I can recall a few. I had one costume in which I was a reptile. I think I remember having a bat costume at one point. Yet another had pink tiger print, and my current one is a gray tabby cat. I think the longest back I recall is when I had a cheetah costume. Now that I think about it, I realize I've had a lot of feline-related costumes.

A great deal of memories come to me when I think of Halloween. My elementary school would have a day when booths were set up, and the classes went around to each booth, playing games to earn prizes, which of course were things such as cheap plastic rings with spiders on them, and of course candy. The prizes given out were brought to the school by various staff members and parents. Despite the school saying a thousand times not to bring gum, it seemed that someone included it, and so gum ended up among the prizes. Gum can be a wonderful thing, although I distinctly remember finding one type of gum that was... bleah. As I put it into my mouth and began to chew, I thought to myself, I've never tasted a car tire, but I imagine this is what it would taste like. Needless to say, it did not stay in my mouth for long.

There's also an event in the area known as Trick or Trunk. People set up their vehicles in a large area, decorating them with Halloween stuff, and giving out candy. Basically it's just Trick or Treating, only the kids go from car to car instead of door to door. Seeing as it's a remote area, and no one wants to walk three hundred miles to get from house to the next, it's a pretty good idea.

Of course, there was also the regular Trick or Treat, going around to houses or even sometimes to stores, in hopes that they would give out wonderful candy. I recall going to stores or other such places, and the things that came of it. Once, walking into a place that my father said probably wasn't giving out candy, I came to a woman behind the counter and said the familiar phrase 'Trick or treat!'.

"You're the first kid to come in here." she said. She stretched her hand out wide, grabbed an enormous handful of candy from the bowl, and dumped it into my bag. It was wonderful.

So that sums up my monologue about Halloween for now. If any of you have some Halloween experiences you'd like to share, feel free to comment below!

The Beginning of Completion

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single ARGH!

But, putting aside the hair pulling-out, the process of learning how everything works, and obsessing over every little detail, I think I might be (close) to getting this blog started. I would have been done earlier, but as mentioned, I have to figure out how everything works, plus the fact that just slapping on a premade layout isn't enough. Oh no, I have to take the original layout and then change the color scheme, background, etc.

I somehow found myself picking colors and a background which is wintery and icy. Perhaps I have glaciers running through my veins and just haven't figured it out yet, or perhaps it stems from the fact that where I live, snow occurs once in a hundred thousand blue moons, and I am constantly longing to see the cold white stuff. If I ever end up living somewhere where it snows often, every winter, I will probably transform into a small child who loves making crude art from snow, throwing misshapen snowballs, making snow angels, and becoming a frost-encrusted being that once may have been a human. But really, who would be able to tell under the thick clothing and the yet thicker layer of snow which cover me?

Anyone who happened across this blog probably doesn't want to hear a fifty thousand word description of my obsession with perfecting layouts and being surrounded by snow, although some may have found my description of being a human icicle a bit entertaining. And still others are probably living in a place with insane winters, and laughing at how naive I am about snow.

"Snow, good?" they'll laugh. "Snow is the thing that buries your car, blocks the driveway, makes the roads impossible to drive on, freezes the pipes. Snow is evil. Beware of the snow. It's coming for you. Muahaha..."

Nevertheless, the point is that I played with options, read random help articles, and obsessed over things like font types, and now I'm finally approaching that point where I feel that everything is coming together the way I want. So I celebrate by writing a long post about snow and color schemes. Now, all I have to do is wait for someone to read it.