Halloween Die-ary: October 2, 2018

Another drizzly October day, and I found myself in a random suburb of Boston for work. It was on the drive there that I started noticing the foliage. It was changing. Without a doubt. And not just the few unhealthy trees that blow early and drop their leaves. Thick boughs of red and orange and yellow were bursting from the walls of green like the forest was exploding. Makes me want to break north, but with the baby imminent, we really need to stay close to home base.

I got to my destination early, and when that happens, I usually find a Starbucks or a Dunkin’ or anyplace with wifi, where I then settle down and prep for the meeting/watch YouTube videos about old magic acts.

This time, however, I went to Target. Not because I needed anything. But because October.

I’d already checked out the store’s Halloween section at a store closer to my house, but I still wandered around it here. As always, seeing so much Halloween merchandise got me to wondering how I could buy something this cool or that cool or that cool and only put it out for two months (one month at this point) and then store it in a plastic bin in my basement for the rest of the year.

And that always makes me wonder what it would be like to go full Halloween. To just make a lifestyle out of it. To always have my house decorated with orange jack-o’s and black and green witches. To always have popcorn balls and caramel apples on the dessert menu. To always be dressing up and walking up to strangers porches with an empty bag held out in front of me.

Now, I already do spooky all year round, but I don’t do Halloween all year round. There’s a nuanced difference between the two.

But, as I had to admit to myself in that Target seasonal aisle, I could never do it. Even though I’m gluttonous with Halloween for a full two months of the calendar, at some point it has to go away for me. This moment has to be ephemeral. This part of the year fragile and held carefully. That’s what’s special about it to me. If Santa came every week, he’d be a lot more boring.

Now that’s not to say that I don’t totally respect those I’ve met online who do make it a lifestyle. I think they’re great for doing that. I’m a big fan of that kind of commitment (in other people) and a big fan of contrarians in general, who won’t be confined by any calendar thrust upon them by some mall kiosk. Who will fill their socials with colored leaves and black cats when everyone else is showing toes-in-the-sand pics and blurry fireworks shots. You guys kill.

Back home, I spent most of the evening working on a writing project and then practiced my talk for the next day in Westhampton. Fortunately, both projects count as spooky, so I was still on brand today.

But I need to get both of those off of my pumpkin-shaped plate, so that I can free up a time for a few macabre OTIS visit posts for October!

For October!