I’m back in Oxford after a quick and unexpected trip to the states. I almost wrote home, but it doesn’t feel like home anymore. Then again, neither does being here without John. The cats are driving me crazy. Well, just Icarus. He won’t stop whining. I think he misses John. That, or he wants me to give in to his pleas for endless amounts of wet food. Maybe a little of both. Zora is getting fat, and was reported to be trotting around with a tail hanging out of her mouth, sometime last week, by our neighbor. I think she’s been getting mice across the street. That’s enough about the cats, though.
I don’t want to write about the other obvious thing on my mind, because I’m afraid it will sound cheap, sentimental, not good enough. I guess I’ll just say that I’m angry and sad to lose my mother-in-law so soon. And very lucky to have my parents alive and well. It was nice seeing them again, though briefly. I hate when people make promises of changing their lives after someone dies. Like, “I’m going to be super healthy and do everything I can to avoid disease.” Or, “I’m going to call my friends/family more often, because one day they’ll be gone.” So I’m not going to do that. Instead, I will keep doing what I always try to do, in the back of my mind– enjoy life, and continue learning how to deal with everything it brings.
So, on to the title of this post. Halloween was my favorite holiday growing up. I think it had something to do with candy, the thrill of being scared, and the opportunity to be someone else for a while. My most common costume was probably a vampire or witch, though I made a mean Cinderella one year (and won a costume contest thanks to this amazing dress my mom sewed).
One of our last, and best, parties in Philadelphia was for Halloween. I think we held it in November, so that attests to my desire to stretch the holiday out longer. I was a German zombie in my dirndl, and John was just…a German person, because I forgot to do his makeup. I loved seeing my friends dressed up and having a good time.
This year will be a lazier, low-key celebration, probably involving lots of terrible horror movies on Netflix and hoping for no trick-or-treaters because I don’t feel like buying candy. That might sound boring, but to me, holidays are more about reminiscing about how you spent every previous holiday than making the current one bigger and better.
I’ll report back with the movies I watched on this quest, and a rating. First up is (was) Sinister, which (spoiler alert) was pretty terrible.