Halloween, and why I love it

Halloween has always had a special place in my heart. At what other time of year can you let your imagination run wild? And the candy's not bad, either ;)

I think I can remember every one of my costumes. Some were handmade, or assembled from pieces bought at Value Village - which I still count as 'handmade', because they weren't packaged costumes. I've been a clown, Sailor Moon (made by Mom), Pebbles (from The Flintstones - also made by Mom), Baby Spice (of the Spice Girls, of course ;D), a ladybug, a witch, an angel, a kimono-clad Japanese lady (which was tricky to emulate, as I didn't have a proper kimono - I used a housecoat-type garment), and a kind of haphazard sorceress. The only packaged costumes were the ladybug, the angel and the witch - I'm not sure about the clown costume.

And then there are the experiences. Like when I went trick-or-treating with my brother, my sister, and one of my sister's friends, and our neighbour's son had scared us by hiding in a pile of leaves and jumping out. That same year, my brother decided he was too tired to do another street, so we went without him and gloated about our massive amount of candy.

Of course, I'm too old for trick-or-treating now. But I get to hand it out, which is fun because I get to see some cool costumes. I was thinking of dressing up as the Tenth Doctor (from Doctor Who) to hand out candy, but I don't think anyone in my neighbourhood would 'get' it.

Still, I can have fun by watching Halloween movies and handing out candy. I've got Red Riding Hood out of the library, so I might watch that. And maybe Hocus Pocus, if I can find the DVD - I own a copy, but it's hidden somewhere. I watched a bit of The Rocky Horror Picture Show last night, which was fun, as always.

Speaking of movies, I'm going to follow the trend set by my fellow bloggers and compile a list of my favourite Halloween movies (year made and rating are in the parentheses):

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975, R) A cult classic. To explain the plot would not be doing it justice. Stars Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick, Meat Loaf, and Richard O'Brien (whom also wrote the original stage musical), among others.

Hocus Pocus (1993, PG): A fun movie about three witches who are resurrected after centuries. Stars Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy and Sarah Jessica Parker.

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966, family-friendly) I know it's not actually a movie, but it deserves to be mentioned. I love all the Charlie Brown TV specials, especially this one.

Ghostbusters (1984, PG-13) I couldn't find an MPAA rating for this, so I used my best judgement and put down PG-13 (IMDB just says TV-PG, so I'm not sure what that means). This movie is awesome, plain and simple. Stars Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray and Sigourney Weaver.

There you have it. Have a happy Halloween! :D

Post-Thanksgiving,,, post.

That's right, I'm attempting to be witty today.

The holiday weekend went fairly well. Dinner at my grandparents' house was oddly civil (the roast beef was a bit dry, but my mom said that it had to do with the cut of beef my grandfather cooked). Sunday was nice. Thanksgiving Day was nice, too, because I got to eat turkey without the extended family squabbling over something stupid.

And my brother kindly gave me a new computer! Yup, I have a new rig now, and it's excellent. Now I have to get used to Windows 7, which is interesting - I've managed to freak myself out on more than one occasion. But at least I can now participate in National Novel Writing Month without worrying about my computer crashing.

I'm definitely knitting something for my brother for Christmas :) It's the least I can do. I'm thinking of knitting him a hat, because he lost his Noro hat that my mom made for him. I'm also thinking of making something for his girlfriend/fiancee, like convertible mittens - that might be a bit beyond my skill level, though. We'll see. If I can't manage convertible mitts, I can always make her some fingerless mitts.

I'm also thinking of making a scarf for my dad, since his cowl got eaten by moths. I think I'd make a scarf for him out of acrylic, though, so that he won't lose it to insects. That, and acrylic is machine-washable, so he wouldn't have to worry about washing it by hand.

Wow, I have itchy fingers. I should look at patterns...

Family dinners

So, I have to go to my grandparents' house for dinner. It shall be interesting. Certain Relatives ducked out, of course (funny how that keeps happening! /sarcasm). I'm not too enthusiastic about this dinner (which is a sort of pre-Thanksgiving dinner to work with people's schedules), but I'll bite my tongue.

I don't think I've ever liked holiday meals with my extended family. Dinners with my immediate family and their SOs are fine, but I've always hated the big family holiday dinners. Here are just a few reasons why...

1. I always got shunted to the 'children's table', even as a teenager. And eating at the 'children's table' with your cousins isn't fun when you don't like two of your cousins isn't much fun. I'm on better terms with them now, but I still am not crazy about taking supper with them.

2. If I bring a book, I'm deemed as 'being rude'. Even though I'm bored to death and my grandfather is more interested in watching hockey than being with his family.

3. This is sort of a companion to #1. For some reason, when we have turkey for Thanksgiving or Christmas, my grandfather carves it all wrong. By the time it gets to the 'children's table' - or wherever I'm sitting, actually - the turkey is cold and has lost a lot of it's flavour. I don't think I really loved turkey until we started having holiday dinners at home, actually.

So you can see why I'm not totally pumped for tonight. Granted, we're having roast beef instead of turkey, but I've never liked having dinner with my grandparents regardless. Even now, there's a 'pecking order', and I'm at the bottom of it - and that sucks. A lot.

I've been contemplating ways to slightly freak out my grandfather, from whispering to myself like Brick from The Middle to talking like Lauren Cooper from The Catherine Tate Show. Of course, whenever I do something slightly eccentric (like when I bowed and said 'merry Christmas' in Japanese), my grandfather just kind of smiles at me as if I'm a little kid. Never mind that I'm old enough to vote! (Speaking of which, I have a semi-prepared argument in case somebody pulls the 'you're to young to talk about politics' scheme.)

Meh. I'll find a way.

I really should eat something, and clean up the house a bit.

Tune-ups

I'm on my computer today, because I needed to 'tune it up' to get it in fighting shape for NaNoWriMo - basically, I needed to do updates. It's slower than my dad's computer, but it still works fine. That makes me relieved, because the guy at the computer shop told me I'd only get six more months out of my computer when the power supply had to be fixed.

However, there are little things that I miss when using my computer. For instance, my keyboard is clunky and rather gross-looking (I think my brother had spilled Pepsi on it previously - I still need to find a way to clean it), and my mouse has no 'back' button. And you don't realize just how complacent you really are until you hit the 'magnifier glass' button expecting it to take you one page back.

As for knitting, I've been making another dishcloth. I'm in a real 'use up the yarn' mood, starting with my scraps of cotton. I might make myself a hat afterwards (because the only winter hats I have are my knitted hood and a bright orange Thinsulate toque), and I've been thinking of knitting Christmas gifts for people. The selfish side of me doesn't want to, but the generous side does. If I do make something like hats or scarves for people, I might buy new yarn, because my stash is kind of peculiar - I have either a lot of one colour, or not enough. If all else fails, I know my brother would be grateful if I gave him hand-knit dishcloths ;)