Up, Up and Away…NOT.

I left out so much from vacation and even now am going to quickly cover some of the things that happened. The first weekend we were in Mississippi (Nov.9-11), they had the First Annual Tunica Balloon Bash. It was hyped to the nines and we didn’t really know what to expect. Supposedly they were having 10 hot air balloons at 4 different locations (casinos) for a total of 40. They were having “balloon glows” on Friday & Sat. evenings for 2 hours. This is where they turn on the propane torches to light up the balloons while they are on the ground. It looks really cool! We were staying at Sam’s Town RV Park, across the street from Hollywood where they were hosting some of the balloons. Hubby and I walked the dogs over there and we both got some really good pictures and I put some of them on Instagram. They were supposed to be offering tethered rides on one of the balloons but it was too windy. This would turn out to be the case for the ENTIRE WEEKEND. It was basically a bust. Not only were there only about 4-5 balloons at each location, they seemed to be doing it half-heartedly. They didn’t even stay the whole 2 hours. The crowd seemed almost half-hearted about it too. There was a fairly long line for rides and when they announced it was too windy, people just dispersed and lost all interest. I wasn’t particularly excited about the whole thing ahead of time but being that close to them in person piqued my interest. I figured it was no big deal but after seeing how hard it was to control the balloons in the wind, it looked quite scary to me! I would be afraid to go up in one unless it was completely calm. Even then, I don’t know if I’ll ever have the opportunity again unless I seek it out. We drove over to the other casinos to see what they had going on for the balloon glow and it was even less! Either that or they’d packed up early.

 

There was supposed to be a balloon race on both Sat. & Sun. mornings and hubby and I actually got up at 7 am and went out to the location of the start of the race (Tunica National Golf Course). We took the dogs with us in the car over there and everybody was just standing around outside. Finally around 8 am, we asked one of the guys (Dan) who was heading to his truck and he said it was cancelled due to the wind. We didn’t bother going on Sun. morning but heard it was the same situation again. How disappointed the balloonists must’ve been! They had to bring their baskets and gear, only to not even use it. Sidenote: I would never be able to fold up one of those balloons after inflation. I can’t even get something back in the original box once I’ve taken it out. This Dan we met was one of the most friendly people we’ve encountered in the south. His father is a hot air balloon pilot and he’d come along. He does barge maintenance and repair. He’s the first one I met in that line of work. Anyway, he knew what a Basenji was (which is what our dog Ivy is) so that got the conversation going. Then we got to talking about other things in the area, etc. He gave us a business card and told us to call him that night about the balloon glow and that’s when we found out that it was too windy again. All in all, it was a creative idea and I can see the casinos and tourism put a lot of money into it. I would’ve liked to get one of the t-shirts but didn’t see them for sale anywhere! I’ll be curious to see if they try it again next year or nix it entirely. If it wasn’t for the wind, the temperatures were a perfect 72 degrees. If it’d been scheduled for the following weekend, it would’ve been in the mid-40′s!

 

This wasn’t the biggest disappointment while we were there. Saturday Nov. 10th there was a Chili Cookoff at Sam’s Town Casino sanctioned by whoever sanctions those things. It was supposed to be from 8 am until 5 pm. Every Sat. Hollywood has a breakfast buffet (the best around) for 77 cents (comp dollars). We were debating whether to skip it and go early for the cookoff. Who eats chili at 8 am?? Unless you’re working nights, that I can totally see. Instead we decided to go to the buffet early and then head over at 4 pm and still get an hour in at the cookoff. We got there and they were packing up!! It was $2 for all the samples you wanted. They woudn’t even take our money, and told us to go around and see if anyone had any left. We got 2 samples, one without beans (which to me is like gravy) and the other was stone cold. Blech! Hubby had been dreaming of this for weeks. That is one of my pet peeves that things are written/advertised everywhere that it goes until 5 pm and they don’t even stick to it. Maybe it’s our fault for coming at the tail end. This wasn’t 4:45 pm, it was exactly 4 pm. Also we noted how unfriendly a lot of these types of group activities are. The ones entering the contest don’t try to be friendly to patrons, they would rather be downright rude and carry on conversations with their competition. I’ve seen this at anything we go to where we are “outsiders”. Like a dog club activity. We aren’t members but the woman we got Ivy from has invited us to a few things. We went twice and you get there and if you don’t go up to talk to people, no one will approach you and welcome you. For goodness sake! I am not that way. I like to make others feel welcome and can’t stand to see anyone on the sidelines. In the past when we went to some parties for Greg’s work, if someone was a table alone while everyone else was playing darts or some game, I’d be the first to go up to them and chat. I’m sure the alcohol had something to do with it but it’s still in my nature.

 

Other notable things that happened on vacation? I was cleaning the wax out of the tube of one of Mom’s hearing aids with a toothpick and it broke off. Gah! I tried pushing it through with another toothpick and it broke off on top of the other one. No budging it. I panicked at first, then sat down and tried everything until I fixed it. I took the tube out of the aid and manipulated it with a fingernail until I worked it out. Crisis averted.

 

Before vacation my watch band broke. My other watch had a dead battery. So I was wearing Greg’s huge watch (he has 3). I didn’t even care how it looked but while I had the time on vacation, we went to the outlet mall and I got a new battery for the one and a band for the other. There’s a collectibles shop there that has an owner that looks like Santa. He’s always helpful and nice as can be. So put that experience in the plus column

 

The zipper on my silver grey Gloria Vanderbilt (my fave pants brand ever) pants broke. I’ve only worn them a handful of times. I was “saving” them for vacation. I don’t think they can be fixed. It wouldn’t be worth it to spend $10 to get them fixed when I think I paid $20 for them on sale.

 

We got a dehydrator at the same outlet mall. We love the Kitchen Collection store there and always find something cool there. We’d been talking about dehydrating fruit, veggies and meat since getting a ton of beef jerky when we were in Michigan a few months ago. The one we got is a Presto which is made in my hometown of Eau Claire, WI. How ironic. This weekend I’ll get over to the library for a book of recipes so we can try it out. I especially want to do pineapple, bananas and papayas.

 

I’d add pictures to this post if it wouldn’t take me like 2 hours to do it. I just don’t have the time to spare right now. Thanks for hanging with me when I’ve been so scarce on here. BTW, I do realize I said “supposed to be” about a million times in this. “The best laid plans of mice and men” and all that jazz. What kind of plans do mice make, exactly? Bring on the cheese.

Read Full Post »

Gobble, Gobble…Oink!

I’m squeezing in a quick post before anymore time passes. We got home from our incredible Thanksgiving vacation in Tunica, MS on Friday night at 7 pm. We’ve been on the go ever since trying to do all of the things left undone before we left and trying to catch up with everything else we missed while gone. It’s exhausting. Enough to make us need another vacation! Luckily that will be happening soon enough.

 

We’ve been going to the gambling mecca of the Mid-South since Nov. 1998 and have always had a wonderful time. We have to pay gas roundtrip for 600+ miles for the RV and whatever money we decide to gamble with. All of our nights in the RV park are comped (free) and so are our meals! It’s a wonder we go anywhere else. There are so many buffets to be had and we limit ourselves to one a day. OINK! They aren’t just buffets but a veritable food lovers paradise with gourmet foods, seafood, ethnic delicacies, etc. Something for every taste and palate. Unlike my mom and husband, I am not a huge meat eater. I might try a small portion but I founder myself at the salad bar and am thrilled to try soups of every possible type. This trip was the first time I tried egg drop soup and I loved it. I had it 3 times and it was delicious. My plate ends up looking white when I load it up. I told my hubby, I only seem to eat potatoes, bread and pasta. He reminded me I also love “anything covered in cheese”. I was carb loading like I was going to run several marathons. I’m also not a dessert person when I go out. I love homemade goodies but most of the buffets have nothing that rivals my own dessert creations so I’d rather pass. There was one place (Hollywood casino) that had peanut butter pie to die for! They also had cheese grits, bowtie pasta with chicken, bacon and blue cheese sauce. Gah! I could go on but I don’t want to torture anybody.

 

It was a very relaxing time. I packed a bookbag with 5 books that my friend Karen had sent me and some magazines. I love reading in bed but don’t usually do it except on vacation. I was really looking forward to it so I promptly forgot the bag at home. Boo! I had a couple free books on hubby’s ipad2 that I read but it wasn’t the same. I would’ve killed to have a couple magazines but can’t justify buying any (or any books) when I have plenty at home to read.

 

I had to buy my first package of adult diapers. (Not for me.) This was the first trip that Mom’s noticeably been worse. I had to pack for her and lay her clothes out. She’s not able to do things that she was just able to do a few months ago. She can’t sign her name well or cut her meat well. It is sad to me plus she’s not nearly as engaged or verbal as she used to be. We are going to keep travelling with her as long as we can. I hate when she can’t remember places we’ve been or things she’s done before. It’s taking a toll on me but I’m doing the best I can. When that movie “50 First Dates” came out, everyone loved it. I hated it immediately and will never watch it again. It was so sad, not a comedy to me in any way. To lose your memories has to be one of the most awful things in life. Hubby & I joke about us having Alzheimers’ since we can’t remember if we’ve seen a certain movie before or not. That all you need is one movie and every time you watch it, it’s like you’ve never seen it before. I think the worst part is I’m afraid I’m looking at my own future. There’s a good chance I’ll be the same way as she is, possibly even sooner than she was. I don’t have a daughter or anyone else to look after me….

 

Since we got home so late Friday, stupid cars were parked in front of our house. We couldn’t park the RV there, even for a few hours. We had to go around the corner and hubby had to disconnect the Jeep from the Blue Ox towing device and drive our stuff we had packed into the truck home. It went fairly smoothly otherwise. This is the first year Illinois has had a 65 mph speed limit on I-57 for trucks and recreational vehicles. For years, cars had a 65 mph speed limit and the others were restricted to 55 mph. I’m not much of a speed demon since I’m too afraid of getting tickets so I’d go 62 at most. Now with the 65 mph speed limit, I go 69-70. Just that 5 extra miles per hour adds up.

 

Anyway, I got on here specifically to talk about my town going downhill just since we left. Hubby ordered a pizza (with coupon) from Nancy’s Pizza on the south side of Park Ridge Friday night. He went to pick up a gallon of milk on the way to pick up the pizza. When he left Dominick’s parking lot, a couple (man & woman in mid-40′s) approached him. The man said he lived in an apt. in Des Plaines, IL and his roommate was drunk and hitting on his girlfriend. He wanted Greg to help them get a motel room down the street. Hubby was being funny and said he would call the cops to have them arrest his roommate. The guy said no, he didn’t want that. He just wanted Greg to get him a room. Greg said no and left.

 

On Sat. we were at Jewel getting a few odds and ends. It’s 9 blocks away so we go there often. A sketchy looking guy in his 20′s came up to us and asked for $2 to get his medication. He had a whole story memorized about how he’s not a bum, just is short of money for his meds. Hubby said no. Then we saw him approach at least 5 other people!! It totally skeeved me out. We joked that if we went around getting $2 from each person, we could get such and such in our cart for free. We should have taken him over to the pharmacy and found out if the story was true and what meds he was on (or off). All I can think of is that Park Ridge used to be one of the nicer suburbs in the Chicago area. It was somewhat affluent but not where the richest live like Lake Forest or Glencoe or even Winnetka. But it is a huge step up to me from even the neighboring towns of Niles and Des Plaines. At least it used to be. Now panhandling has come to nicer establishments and even inside. I give to charities when and where I can and don’t like to be solicited in any way, shape or form. But to have someone opening trying to scam us, makes me wonder what the world is coming to.

 

At Jewel, since Thanksgiving had passed, they had turkeys for 39 cents/ lb.!! To me, it tastes good anytime, not just on that day. So we got an 18.5 lb. turkey (that was the smallest) for $7.23 and I’m fixing it tonight. We’ll be freezing some and eating on the rest for awhile. I’d only ever made around 12-13 lb. turkeys before and this one barely fit in the pan! It’s ginormous! So I’ve got to get back to making mashed potatoes and everything else that goes with it. Such a busy time. I started the laundry but there’s so much, there really is no end in sight. Tomorrow I take Mom to the ENT doctor to have the wax removed from her ears. Hopefully, I’ll get back online to write a blog post soon. So much to say, so little time!

Read Full Post »

I got you, Babe

Tomorrow is our wedding anniversary. June 21 is the day we met 27 years ago and also the day we got married 20 years ago! The longest day of the year (Summer Solstice) is the most perfect day of the year to me. My favorite season is autumn but if I had to choose just one day, it is June 21st. Usually sunny, not too hot and the longest amount of daylight available before the sun sets.

 

Turning the clock back to 1985, it is hard to fathom the exact set of circumstances that had to take place (in addition to planets aligning just so) to meet my future husband. I was a young pup of 22 and working as a pizza cook at a bar called La Chalet. Pay attention, kids! This is what happens when you party in college and don’t study and flunk out. La Chalet had a great location on Pewaukee Lake in Pewaukee, WI. I took the job until I figured out what to do with my life. Obviously, I’m no longer there but still working on the figuring out my life part. I worked a lot of lunches and then worked at dinners until closing. We only served pizzas but we made our own dough which took time. On a weekend night by myself, I’d have to take orders, make and serve pizzas, collect money, give change, pick up dishes, etc. It wouldn’t be unusual to have 20 pizza orders I’d have to do one after another. I started in April and it had been 6 or 8 weeks since I’d had a Friday or Sat. night off by the time June 21 rolled around. It was a Friday night and I had off. I didn’t go to bars then but I was sick of watching everyone go there and have fun and I wanted to come back as a customer! I was quite naive and would give anybody a chance once. I tried to always keep an open mind about people because you never know. Well, during this time there was an ex-convict sniffing around me. He would always come back by the kitchen to say hi and talk to me. I was always friendly and even though he wasn’t my type (not because he was a murderer either), I was nice to him. He had me fix his pierced earring (get it back in his ear), take him to the gas station in my car to fill his gas can when he ran out of gas, etc. He kept asking me out and I’m not stupid enough to get in a car with someone I didn’t know. (I did that before to disastrous effect but that’s a story for another time.) So I agreed to meet him at La Chalet on Friday night. It wasn’t really a “date” but I’m sure he thought it was. This ex-convict (I keep calling him that because for the life of me, I can’t remember his name!) had been imprisoned for killing his father. The father had been abusing/beating his mother so it supposedly was to protect her. I wasn’t from that area of WI so hadn’t heard anything about it. The ex-convict seemed harmless enough.

 

So on that night, I met him there and we had drinks and not too long later I meet the FH (future hubby). I had a huge crush on the bouncer at La Chalet, he was a Big Guy (6’4″, probably 300 lbs, dark hair & eyes) and painfully shy. I think besides seeming like a softie, the shyness was a challenge. FH happened to be the cousin of Big Guy (whose nickname was Lumpy). That was the initial draw for me, I thought I might have an “in” with Lumpy. So FH and I spent until closing talking, drinking, etc. much to the chagrin of the ex-convict. He was really upset! I kind of feel bad for ignoring him but he could’ve joined our conversation… When it came closing time (which back then I belive was 2 am), FH & I went out to my car (parked on the street) and sat inside and chatted some more. We kissed some too but nothing beyond that. We sat out talking until 6 am when the sun came up! FH was the opposite of Lumpy, he was 6′ tall, 220 lbs., blonde hair, blue eyes, funny as hell and a great conversationalist like myself. ;-) I knew I had to get home so as I was getting ready to leave, FH handed me a small notepad and told me to write my name and number on it, I grabbed it and was going to until I realized what this meant. He’d been talking to me for the past 8-10 hrs. and  had forgotten my name. That is one of my pet peeves! I expect people to remember my name (at least it used to be, I’ve gotten more forgiving over the years). I called him out on it and he got huffy and left. I thought that would be the end of it. Of course, he knew where I worked and pursued me relentlessly. One of his finest qualities is knowing a good thing when he sees it!

 

FH came in for lunch one day and we talked a bit and he asked me on an official date. He promised he would never forget my name again and luckily for him, he hasn’t! Our first date was to Summerfest (billed as the largest music festival in the world) in Milwaukee. After that we were hot and heavy and by mid-August he had asked me to marry him. We didn’t announce our engagement until Nov. 2nd at a belated Halloween party. We were fully committed to each other after only knowing each other 4 1/2 months, yet we waited until 7 years after meeting to marry. The long engagement was due to financial reasons and if I had to do it over, I wouldn’t wait. However, when we finally married, I was as sure as anyone in the world could be! I had no doubt what I was doing was what I wanted to do and he was who I wanted to be with. We had fallen in love early on but the kind of love that lasts is the love that grows over time. By our wedding day, our love had multiplied 7 fold. And today after 27 years, it is 700 fold.

 

Set the time machine for 1992 and you’ll find us on June 21st in Nashua, Iowa. In the middle of nowhere (all of Iowa) in the NE corner of the state, lies the Little Brown Church in the Vale. The church was built in 1864 and the song “Come to the Church in the Wildwood” (a hymn later performed by the Carter Family, Alabama and Charley Pride) was written about it. After the 1920′s, it brought thousands of visitors from all over to get married there. The day we got married, we saw several other couples there who had been wed on that exact day 50 & 60 years prior. FH had been traveling through Iowa for business and found it. He knew I would like it so I agreed (sight unseen). I had originally wanted to get married on the french island of Martinique. I had been there before on a cruise and thought it was the most beautiful place I’d ever seen! I even wrote to the embassy and got the paperwork. It was not to be since I needed medical documentation that I was a virgin and that was asking the impossible. In rare form, my groom planned the whole wedding! It was very small, just the 2 of us, my mom and our Husky/Malamute mix dog Nookie. We rented a Lincoln Town Car and drove from Sussex, WI to IA. We stayed overnight at the motel next to the church. Then got married on a Sunday and after pictures, drove home. We stopped for our wedding dinner at The Gobbler Supper Club halfway between Madison and Milwaukee. It was the coolest place ever with a revolving floor. Sadly, it went out of business the month after we were there! The main thing I remember about our wedding reception was that the waitress couldn’t figure out how to open the champagne so my groom had to do it. The following Monday we headed to the airport in Milwaukee to catch our Midwest Express flight to San Francisco for our weeklong honeymoon. We rented a convertible and drove up the Pacific Coast Highway to the vineyards. It was heaven!

 

We get along about as good as any couple I’ve seen. We are compatible in most ways like food, movies, tv, dogs, travel, gardening, etc. We have enough in common to keep us companions forever. Of course we are 2 different sexes which means we still see the world differently and communicate in different ways. We have never broken up even once since the day we met. We have never slept in a different room or bed because we were mad. We fight like cats and dogs at times. We tease each other a lot and he humors me. I go along with his wishes as much as I can. He likes to surprise me and I like to wait on him. For his sake, I didn’t buy a huge outdoor stone with the following words etched on it: “We’re staying together for the sake of the dogs” even though I found it hilarious! He is too sarcastic for my tastes and I have a weird sense of humor. Although we BOTH love Family Guy. Right after we met, I wanted us to have a song that would be “ours” like couples do. We had to choose “Suspicious Minds” by Elvis Presley. No, neither one of us is the jealous type but both loved Elvis and got a kick out of that song. Irony, people. My other song for us as a couple is Sonny & Cher’s “I got you, Babe”. I can’t be a babe in my own right so I married one! My hubby’s last name and also mine for the last 20 years is Babe. I’ve got to say I love it, it’s very cool.

 

What has allowed us to last 27 & 20 years together? We don’t quit on each other or the relationship and we don’t give up. We have been through a ton of good and plenty of bad stuff as well. Meaning: we don’t throw in the towel when our basement floods for the first or 12th time. Just like the rest of life, there’s going to be times when one or both of us are unhappy. We work on our marriage or wait it out. Eventually, we always come back to happiness and always together. A perfect example of compromise and our marriage is that my hubby was willing to give soap operas a try. He watched Santa Barbara & Sunset Beach with me and occasionally watches Bold & Beautiful and Young & Restless. To return the favor, I took a class in scuba diving and learned about football. I didn’t do this halfheartedly, I became a huge football fan and we’ve been able to add that to our list of things we enjoy together.

 

To conclude, I’d have to say for those of you who haven’t found your soulmates, you have to look where you wouldn’t normally look. At the guys who you wouldn’t normally be drawn to. You can build a wonderful life with someone who wants the same things in life as you do and loves you to the moon and back. You can’t always see that person unless you’re willing to give the unexpected a go. I have to end this because it’s sounding like dating/relationship advice. I’m no expert and people have to do what’s right for them. Some people are perfectly happy being single forever! I think everyone deserves what makes them happy, whatever that may be.

Read Full Post »

Halloween: Get off my lawn

I was over at Jeez Louise’s blog earlier this week for her Eden’s Fantasy giveaway. She asked for comments telling about our best Halloween ever. As usual, I started writing a super long comment and decided that wasn’t the place for it. I kept it short (for me) and concluded I had better write my own blog post about Halloween.

 

I’m not exactly a huge fan of Halloween. As a kid I went to Halloween parties, dressed in costume, bobbed for apples, trick or treated after dark (on the night of the holiday), answered the door at home for the trick or treaters, etc. The usual stuff. My mom made my costumes and I remember being a witch a lot. I’m a witch a lot now but I don’t wear a costume. Things are definitely not the same now with kids trick or treating during the daytime, on a day that’s not even Oct. 31st. I trick or treated every year with my friend Kathy who lived less than a block away. We didn’t go to school together (she went to Catholic school) but played together all the time. Back then, you went out without parents or any adults along. You also went only in your neighborhood and only as far as you could walk in a set amount of time. You got your sack or plastic pumpkin full and you went home. The candy was safe and didn’t have to be inspected or xrayed for razor blades or foreign objects. Now kids are being dropped off in different neighborhoods by the vanfull. They fill their bags, drop them off and go out again to fill another bag. That’s probably what gets me the most: the greed. Kids think it is owed to them. We were taught that we didn’t get anything unless we said “trick or treat” and always had to thank the person giving out the goodies. Nowdays, the kids will hold out their bags without saying anything & at least half don’t say thank you. You hear complaints if they don’t care for the specific sugar rush you are handing out and if it’s their favorite, they ask for more! I’ve had that happen several times when they ask if they can have a 2nd one. I tell them to trade with their friend, which is what we would do to get what we wanted.

 

I remember being one of the kids who had to carry the small box around and “trick or treat for Unicef”. Each house would put a single penny inside. Even then I wondered how the few pennies could make a difference.

 

Years ago, Halloween was a scary holiday. The costumes were all made to frighten. Now there are as many “cute” costumes as scary. I never cared for giving out the candy at home. My mom was always working and my dad was home but he used to pawn the job off on me. I only trick or treated a few years, I’d say from ages 5 or 6 to 10. I started babysitting at 11 so thought I was too grown up to trick or treat. I kept running into the problem of answering the door and kids that were 15 (in 10th grade) trick or treating. They weren’t even wearing costumes but had a pillowcase for the candy. You were afraid to turn them down or they’d egg your house. That’s what you get when you live in a “tough” neighborhood. On the other end of the spectrum, now you get kids under a year old trick or treating. I realize the baby looks adorable and you want to show him off but if the kid can’t walk, he has no business trick or treating, let alone eating candy. The parents carry the baby up to the door and have a little bag they hold to put the kid’s candy in. There’s a good chance the parents are eating the candy themselves.

 

I think what bothers me the most about Halloween is that you’re not given a choice. It’s expected that you participate and I’ve always rebelled at anything I was told I HAD to do. It’s not the giving part that bothers me or even the expense. A lot of it is the inconvenience and how uncomfortable it makes me. I’m pretty unconventional when it comes to all holidays and want to give to who I choose and not be dictated to by society.

 

My Halloweens as an adult have gone from wild to tame. The best one was when I was in college in Madison, WI. My mom was with me and we walked among the throngs of revelers on State St. from the capital to the area by the university. It was so crowded it was just a mob that moved as a sea of bodies. A lot of people were dressed in ghoulish costumes but plenty were not. Anything went and it was a feast of people watching and mingling. The only costumes we wore were headband type things with antennae or eyeballs shooting off the top supported by springy wires. It was so fun! I don’t recall if at the time they allowed alcohol (beer in plastic glasses) but it wouldn’t surprise me. I went to several parties on State St. during other times of the year where everyone carried beers from one bar to another. The same went for block parties at other Madison locations. Anyway, that stands out as the highlight of my Halloweens past.

 

My husband’s older sister has been throwing an awesome Halloween party for decades. She goes full out with decorating her home inside and out and her and her husband’s costumes are always over the top. We’ve gone several times. Since we live 1 hr. & 45 min. away, it’s not that fun knowing we have to drive there during bad Sat. traffic, stay from 7-12 or so, not drink and drive home being so tired. We’ve tried taking turns drinking and the other one drives. It’s not fun riding in a car when you’ve got to pee bad either or if you’ve drank too much and everything’s spinning. We usually end up skipping dinner so we can leave at 5 pm, to get there by 7 pm. We like seeing everyone but neither one of us gets into dressing up. For one thing, I can’t see spending a ton of money on an outfit I’ll only wear for a few hours. I also can’t  handle spending a lot of time thinking about what I’m going to be. It’s not that I’m not creative but I just don’t feel inspired. If someone else wanted me to help them think up a costume or make a costume, I’d be really into it. But to do it for myself, no way. I can’t put my finger on why. I guess if someone just GAVE me a costume (that fit) every year, I’d wear it and be glad. I’d love a full body cow costume complete with udders. Hubby & I bought costumes a few years ago–a nun outfit and a prisoner outfit at Spencer Gifts. We took turns, the first year I was the nun, he was the prisoner and the next year the opposite. It was hilarious seeing my husband as a nun! We’ve also been fishermen, a TSA agent, a blind person, etc. Whatever we can be without spending a ton of money.

 

Our very first Halloween together was also our engagement party. My hubby had been cohosting a Halloween party with a friend of his for a few years and we decided to combine it with our celebration. We went as an engaged couple! He had his best friend from college and his girlfriend come for the weekend. They wore a combined 2 person costume where they were literally side by side in the same suit. Greg drove my car at the time, I sat in the passenger seat & the suited couple sat in back. When I got out, I slammed the door and the girl in back had put her hand over the piece of metal that framed the car and divided the front from the back. She was trying to get leverage to pull herself out but I hadn’t noticed. My head was in the clouds with all the excitement, I had shut her hand in the door. Obviously she shouldn’t have put her hand there but I felt TERRIBLE. The door was locked and it took a minute for hubby (who had the keys) to open his side and pull up the knob to open the door. Needless to say, we ended up taking her to the ER at the hospital instead of the party. Nothing was broken but we spent most of the night in the ER. I think we might’ve made an appearance late into the night at the party but only for a few minutes. That’s the worst Halloween in my memory bank.

 

Some other fun Halloweens were when hubby and I first got together. A year or two after the debacle above, I went as Mrs. Butterworth. A younger, hotter version of Aunt Jemima. I wore a short black wig, brown face paint, a brown dress to the floor, etc. Everybody knew who I was which made me think it was a success. This is in the days before political correctness. The following year I went as Oprah (her early fat years). Shockingly, I really did look like her once I dressed up like she did. Those were the most fun costumes. My other favorite costume was a toga made by just wrapping a white bed sheet around you to look like how the Romans dressed. I love any excuse to wear a toga. They’re sexy.

 

I love looking at others’ Halloween decorations and admire them for their creativity. When we first moved here, I went all out decorating inside the house for all holidays. Somehow it got to be too much trouble for me to bother with. The holiday comes and goes so quickly and I hate putting decorations away. It’s easier to just not put them up. I don’t know if it’s laziness or me being cynical. It just seems like in the long run it doesn’t make a difference if you do or don’t. I wish I could get enthused to start decorating again.

 

I’ll be giving out the candy this year for trick or treat since hubby is working on Monday from 3-8 pm. Hubby says he doesn’t mind giving out the candy yet somehow he is always either working or away on a business trip. The 5 hours it goes on makes me feel like it’s 5 hours I can’t get back. We don’t have a doorbell now (long story) but when we did, it would put me so on edge to have it rung like mad. I feel like I can’t start anything because the munchkins will come along. So if the weather’s nice, I get Mom to sit outside with me on the step and we chat inbetween giving out candy. I’d love to have the dogs outside with us but so many are afraid of dogs. We usually get over 100 kids and it’s all spread out over that time. After an hour or two of that, we come inside and I stand by the door until my nerves give out.

 

I want to wish all my internet chums a Happy Halloween however you choose to celebrate it! In the comments, please tell about anything Halloween related: your best or worst costume, your favorite Halloween, a nightmare of a Halloween, if you enjoy giving out Halloween candy, etc. Oh, and by the way, get off my lawn!

Read Full Post »