I was always excited to go door-to-door trick or treating with my kids. When I bought my first house and my oldest was still a baby, I was stoked to get trick or treaters. I bought a ton of candy and not a single child came to my door. I ended up leaving the candy in a bowl with a sign that said, “Please take one.” Obviously, all the candy was taken by one person. When my kids were younger, we went to the Grass Lake downtown pavilion for trick or treating. Kind of like trunk or treat, so everything was in one area. My costume was a fuzzy ladybug onesie as a costume. I wore that several years in a row.
I love Halloween and used to binge on a lot of horror films in high school and college. I own every Leprechaun movie and saw House of 1,000 Corpses in theatres. This October I purchased a used box set of Nightmare on Elm Street. I used to want to get a Freddy Krueger knife hand tattoo across my back, but I’m glad I didn’t follow through with that idea.
The first time my dad got really mad at me I was a freshman in high school. Okay, probably not the first time but this one stands out. My boyfriend came over to watch The Ring with me in the basement while my parents weren’t home. My dad came home early, and I had my boyfriend hide in the basement bathroom. My dad found my boyfriend sitting on the toilet. I got grounded. I did end up finishing The Ring by myself since I had a lot of alone time being grounded.
I’ve worked remotely since I moved back to Michigan from Colorado. When I was in HR, I liked making my coworkers laugh on Teams by dressing up for Halloween. During the covid pandemic everyone was watching Tiger King. I showed to a work meeting dressed as Carol Baskins with my cat wearing a lion’s mane costume.
I separated from my ex-husband when I lived in Colorado, before I had my kids. After a brief stint living in my boss’s basement, I rented a 340 square foot basement studio apartment in Cap Hill, on Penn and Colfax. I was a dispensary manager and didn’t want a roommate, so this was what I could afford, I had coin laundry in building. I got quarters from an arcade down the street. I used to play so much skeeball that I would use up all my laundry quarters and have to go back to the change machine to get more.
My friend came to visit me in Denver shortly after I separated from my ex-husband. It was Halloween, so we went to bars in Denver, dressed up in costumes that we made last minute compliments of a thrift store. She was pumpkin pie and had a π symbol over an image an orange shirt with a jack o lantern face on it. I was a cat call, with cat ears and a landline phone. She won a costume contest at one of the bars we went to.
Earlier that day we hiked St. Mary’s Glacier. I’ve done this breath-taking hike four times. Three times with different now ex-boyfriends and ex-husband. (I liked taking guys up that glacier). I always listened to Meatloaf’s Bat Out of Hell album on the drive there. I’m not a Meatloaf fan per see, but that was the fire up album I always listened to before that hike. I always think of the glacier when I hear Paradise by the Dashboard Light.
This year for Halloween I wanted my kids to have the experience of trick or treating door to door. It would have easy to suggest we so the Grass Lake pavilion again. I could keep up with the kids there using my walker. There was no way I would be able to keep up with my crazy kids door-to-door in this neighborhood. So, their dad took the trick or treating while I passed out candy. I got a Cat Women costume for Halloween, but couldn’t wear the mask because I still had to wear my glasses for my double vision. It was freezing on the porch, so I had a fleece blanket over my lap. I definitely gave more Cat Mom vibes than Cat Woman. We definitely got too much candy, and at the end I was telling trick or treating preteen to take handfuls of candy just to get rid of it. It was really fun handing out candy and my oldest proclaimed when he was done that this was the “best day ever.” My oldest dressed as the Grim Reaper. His brother was Ryder from Paw Patrol.
I had a blast putting together a playlist for Halloween, which I played on my porch through a Bluetooth speaker. I included horror film title songs (including the Exorcist and Psycho), the Ghost Busters theme song, Rob Zombie, and songs from the Nightmare Before Christmas. In creating this playlist, I discovered the Broadway musical I want to go to (if I wake up rich and childless). There’s a Beetlejuice musical! This musical reminds me a bit of some of the fast raps in Hamilton. Apparently, this musical has been around since 2018, so I’m a little late in discovering the album on Spotify. It’s been on Broadway on and off since 2019.
Check this clip feature the very talented Alex Brightman:
It’s November now, so I texted my family a Christmas playlist, took down the Halloween decorations and ordered a holiday table cloth, which I will resist using until after Thanksgiving. Spooky season out, Christmas season in.
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