It’s October!  I love Halloween.  And I finally get to go trick or treating again!  Yay!  One of the perks of having a kid.  (Oh sure, someone short like me, if you wear a mask you can get away with trick or treating for a while, but the neighbors catch on eventually.)  I mean I have to show him off, right?  And he can’t eat the chocolate, besides needing to confiscate any suspicious looking candy.  (Yes, I’m going to be a bad mom and steal candy from my children.  I can’t help it.  My mom would buy dum-dum lollipops to give out at the door and then hide a big bag of chocolate for herself.  And she didn’t share!)   

But it’s not just about the candy.  I find the spirit of Halloween thrilling.  When you were kid, running around by yourself at night, anything could happen.  The world was wide open and everything was possible.  It’s the same feeling as when you or your friends first started getting drivers licenses and you’re finally allowed to drive around at night un-chaperoned.

I’m hard-pressed to find moments that capture that feeling in the adult world. (Well, OK, maybe when you first bring your baby home from the hospital and suddenly realize his whole life is literally in front of him.  That kind of smacks you in the head.)

Of course I want my children to be safe, but it does kind of suck that they won’t get to experience Halloween the way I got to as a kid.  Everyone is too scared.  A different type of fright than ghosts and ghoulies.  I will be mourning the spirit of the holiday even as I drive my children to the mall for trick or treating.  How do I keep managing to feel gleeful anticipation and melancholy at the same time?

As I’ve mentioned before in the discussion of acceptable times to wear capes, I’m thinking of going as a super hero this year. Yes, even though I haven’t technically trick or treated (for myself, at least) I still dress up every year.  Last year I went as a bee.  Actually I was a pregnant bee.  It worked out surprisingly well.  I wanted to go as a knocked-up angel, with trailer trash cut-offs and a crooked halo, but I wasn’t quite pregnant enough to pull it off.  You gotta be really pregnant to pull off that look.  This year I’m thinking… Uber-Mom!  Now with bottle-laden utility belt, snarky attitude, and kung-fu grip. 

Originally I thought about going as a milk-maid because we found this cute little cow costume for the baby so, of course, I want to coordinate.  (Even though I’m not sure what a milk-maid looks like.)  But then me and Keen ALSO found a space-program jumper and we thought OMG, can we fit him into both costumes?  Then he could be a COW ASTRONAUT!!  That’s much more fun than coordinating.  Poor kid.  Carted around in not just one but two stuffy costumes, meeting a bunch of strangers who’ll keep trying to get him to hold his bag out when he really only wants to chew on it.  I’m sure he’ll relate this in therapy years from now.

What are you all wearing?              – the weirdgirl