Halloween

Once again, Nick stood me up on Halloween night and I was forced to hand out candy to the trick-or-treaters all by myself. I’ll have to admit it wasn’t as bad as it was in previous years. In the last two years we had 40-50 kids spread out over the entire night, which makes it really hard to do anything like watch tv, go to the bathroom, or just get comfortable on the couch. This year there were only 14 kids until about 8:30, then the night concluded with three very large groups, so it was a pretty relaxing night. Let me interject here that I have a completely irrational anxiety about answering the door. It just plain creeps me out. So top that off with knowing there are going to be small children on the other side… eeeesh. I’m not saying I believe in past lives, but if I did live in a previous life I was probably murdered by someone who rang my doorbell.

Anyway, one of the first kids was in a giraffe suit, and I like giraffes, so the night started off on a good foot. Not to mention he was a polite little giraffe. He said “thank you” even though I really couldn’t decipher what he said. But hey, I give him props for actually walking on his own and not having his parents carry him around. Although it was early, and I don’t really know what goes on once I close the door. And it’s funny how parents do things differently. Some walk right up to the door with their children while some hang back a ways. Then of course at the end of the night the big kids show up. This group of guys showed up with so much candy they asked if I could spare any plastic bags. The last person I had was a girl dressed up like a bunny. She was all alone and looked to be about 14 or so. It made me think, who trick-or-treats alone? It’s one thing if you’re a small kid accompanied by only your parents, but to go completely alone? It’s just weird. The only logical conclusion I could come up with was that none of her friends went trick-or-treating because they felt they were too old. Or maybe it was a dare. Or maybe she lost a bet.

Anyway, moving on, I think the fact that we are still in daylight savings time messed up the trick-or-treating schedule. Usually I barely have time to get candy and get home before the kids start showing up. I’m sure it sucks for the kids, I remember the wait for it to get dark out was long enough, but patience is a virtue, so we’ll be raising a well rounded society of people going door to door demanding candy.