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

Halloween, NaNoWriMo, and other happenings.

Wow, I haven't posted in ages :p I never did write a Halloween music post. Sorry! I'll try to remember to post Halloween songs next year.

First, I'll write about Halloween.

My Halloween was a little different from last year, because I went to a coffee shop in the afternoon for the local NaNoWriMo kick-off party. I hadn't seen some of the local NaNo'ers in two years, so it was cool to see them again; and a lot of the folks at the party were unfamiliar to me. I brought my handknit eyepatch with me, but it was a pain to wear because I made the patch part a little bit big. I had a lot of fun at the party, and came home with an awesome party bag (with chocolate in it!).

We had a timer set up to change channels to America's Funniest Home Videos that night, so I didn't get to put on Rocky Horror at 7:00 on Treasure HD. I put it on halfway through, at the 'Touch-a Touch Me' scene, but then my dad changed the channel and pretty much hogged the TV for the rest of the night, so I couldn't put my Rocky Horror DVD in :( I did listen to the soundtrack later that night, though, and I did the Time Warp :D

We didn't get a lot of trick-or-treaters - about 42, I think, was our final count. One of the kids that came to our door was adorable - she got her fairy wing caught on our screen door, and said, "My wing is caught AGAIN! It keeps getting caught on things!" It was really cute :)

The only problem with having very few trick-or-treaters is that we have a LOT of Tootsie Rolls leftover. I'm pretty sure I'm going to OD on Tootsie Rolls pretty soon.

And now, for NaNoWriMo.

NaNoWriMo (short for National Novel Writing Month) started on a Monday this year, and a lot of people on the boards felt a lot of pressure because of it. I was all right, though, because I'm not enrolled in school right now. I have been neglecting my GED work, though :p I started out with a pretty good word count, and now I'm at 11,904 words. Needless to say, I'm pretty proud of myself :)

I really like how my novel is going so far. Last year I wasn't too happy with my novel - it felt a bit like a silly soap opera. I really liked how my novel from two years ago turned out, though. I totally didn't know what I was doing with my idea, and it kinda morphed into an urban fantasy. My novel for this year is a werewolf urban fantasy, which I find is easier to write than vampire urban fantasy because there's less lore to memorize.

And now, Other Happenings.

Aside from NaNoWriMo, not a lot has happened. My sister came up to visit, and my brother and his girlfriend came up as well, and we ordered Chinese take-out for dinner. We had fun chatting about cats and other stuff, and we had fun teasing Steph (my brother's girlfriend) about going back for seconds, because she's really tiny :p

That's all, folks. I'll try to post regularly, but I might not post a lot because NaNoWriMo takes up a lot of time.

Maybe I'll be a pirate.

I don't have a proper Halloween costume, but I do have a hand-knit eyepatch that I made for a House Cup assignment. I think I'll wear it tomorrow.

I wore it for a bit when I went to see Grandma at the nursing home today. We went downstairs for their Halloween happy hour, and I drank 'Pumpkin Guts' (a non-alcoholic peach drink) and snacked on cheese puffs.

I went to the periodontist's yesterday, because he has me coming in to get my teeth cleaned between my usual cleanings at the family dentist's since my dead tooth was removed. The hygienist told me to remember to floss, and we had a small conversation about Lady Gaga's meat dress and George Michael. It was interesting. I couldn't really say much in reply, considering that I was having my teeth scraped with metal instruments, but it was still interesting.

So tomorrow I'm going to the local NaNoWriMo kick-off party, and I think I'll wear my eyepatch. It shall be rockin' :) I'll probably post some Halloween videos tomorrow.

In which Merenwen goes bowling, knits a fishnet-like wrap, and eats Halloween candy early

I haven't posted in a while, because my computer is sick. It's at the repair shop.

On Wednesday I went bowling with the youth group. It was pretty fun. I had a headache (I get weather headaches), which was foul, but I dealt with it. We all went in two cars - I was in Riley's mother's car, along with Riley, Adria (Riley's friend), Laura and Peter, who is our new advisor. Or soon will be. What was funny was that we wanted to pass Stephen's car, and when we did Riley rolled down the window and yelled something at them. And we did beat them to the alley - me and Laura even ran to the entrance! ;)

My wrap is done, which makes me happy. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to get the pics put up on Ravelry, but I did. Huzzah!

And the other day Mom sent me down to get the Halloween candy (a box of Reese Peanut Butter Cups, Reese's Pieces, and Oh Henry! bars), so we were snacking on a bit of Halloween candy. And me and Mom watched most of Rocky Horror yesterday - we put it on just as Magenta yells, "YOU'RE lucky, HE'S lucky, I'M lucky, WE'RE ALL LUCKY, HAHAHA!" It was greatness. And we might watch Hocus Pocus tonight. Because I have the DVD.

NaNo

So, have you noticed that my NaNo meter on the left-hand side of this blog has updated?

That's right, I started writing yesterday. I updated my wordcount today. Pretty cool :)

We bought more NaNo snacks, this time at the British imports shop. I got a raisin and biscuit Yorkie bar (it's chocolate with raisin and biscuit), some Munchies (chocolate, caramel and cookie squares) and a small bag of Dolly Mix, which is a candy mix. Plus, we have leftover Halloween candy.