Halloween Die-ary: October 9, 2018

I woke up this morning at about 5:30 and thought for sure it was time to take Lindsey to the hospital. She was up and pacing and obviously in fourteen types of discomfort. She shook her head, though, told me she didn’t think it was time yet. But according to the doctor, the baby’s ready to escape any moment. Cue up the opening birth scene from It’s Alive!

I stopped by the liquor store on the way back from work today. Lots of cool spooky and seasonal libations that I’ve never tried (cue up the Kris Kristofferson, “there's still a lot of drinks that I ain't drunk. And lots of pretty thoughts that I ain't thunk”). It’s been a weak season for seasonal cocktails at my house. That’s mainly because Lindsey is pregnant and can’t have them, so she’s been sticking to wine and beer and cocaine. As for me, it’s not too fun a ritual to enact by myself.

Every year we find complex cocktail recipes that either taste like Autumn or look like Halloween, gather the ingredients like we’re searching out rare substances for a spell, head home to carefully craft those cocktails, and then sit down to watch a horror movie. We’ll usually pause halfway through to craft another. And then we’ll grab the giant bag of Halloween Oreos and eat them all since our self-control has been eroded just enough by those two drinks. We’ll also really love the movie we watch, even if it’s Trick or Treats.

Actually, things are getting a little soft Halloween-wise here in general. Partly because we’re ready for that baby to introduce itself, but really with the long Halloween Season, this is when it gets soft anyway. You start out in September ready to burst after an August of anticipation. By the middle of September you’re on the doorstep of October and the weather has finally gotten cool. At the beginning of October, it’s like kicking the season off again. But by early-to-mid October you’ve probably done a lot of the classic activities. For instance, we’ve already done corn mazes and apple picking, we’ve eaten monster cereals, watched horror movies, chose our pumpkins, tried new treats, decorated the house, went on road trips, stopped by graveyards, visited Salem. Like a whole Halloween Die-ary’s worth of stuff. And now, at this point, you wonder if you’ve spent your season already.

It’s also the time when things become…kind of normal. You’re used to the ritual of turning on all the Halloween lights. Hitting the switch for the giant inflatable ghoul. Knowing for sure tonight will be a horror movie night. Seeing commercials for Halloween programming. It’s not so much a rut, as it is a cozy groove. Like you know this is life from here on out.

But soon, we’ll feel the end coming like an icy blast from the north, like a store shelf stocked with reindeer candle holders. Like pumpkin guts in the trashcan. Then we’ll pull ourselves up by our grave dirt and start mashin’ with some monsters.

It’ll happen this weekend. Just you watch. You know, unless the baby comes and kills us all.