BUT I might love Halloween even more (by a small amount). So I wanted to do a Halloween wrap-up of 2015 before it becomes Halloween of 2016 (my one possibly feasible goal).
I've documented my past Halloweeks for the past several years, some more successfully than others, so this year I will just do a general photo list of all the fun things I participated in!
participated in another Big Day! It poured the entire day so we got less numbers than last year, but it was still fun and I saw a couple of lifers
drank a lot of pumpkin spice lattes
made Dia de los Muertos skulls at lunch
had a Nightmare Before Christmas viewing party at the apartment complete with NBC cake pops (that were SO ANNOYING to make, candy melts are the literal worst)
made roomie dates to look at halloween decorations
the halloween fairy visited and decorated our house!
gave pumpkins to animals for playtime
Kogi went trick-or-treating
carved pumpkins: one super sad pumpkin and a death star pumpkin
watched spooky movies
went to Surftoberfest and drank some delicious beer!
loved taking photos of halloweeny things for my 365 project
visited the Ocearch vessel
got bb chickens and a sloth!
celebrated kitty's bday
megan visited!
went sailing at sunset
went dancing at Roper's, got drunk
went to the beach where it was LITERALLY RAINING SPIDERS, but we read Cosmo out loud to one another and that made it okay
stayed up way too late each night and slept with the door open
made my own Halloween costume, as per usual. Drea and I were KILLER unicorns, so we went for the glittery, beautiful aspect but drenched in fake blood. Our stories were that we seduce men, much like sirens, and then kill them and take whatever money, jewels, etc. they had. My personal thought was my necklace was a gift for the man I killed's wife >:)
went to a BOMB Halloween party! Drea and I were killer unicorns and Megan was LANA from Archer! We played drinking games, created an "air form" of bobbing for apples that were hanging from a hula hoop (that Holly promptly broke), and watched horror movies. It was awesome.
My tradition of Halloweek has stuck for the past few years! That's really saying something considering I change up what I do all the time, but not in regards to TRADITION!
Sorry, you don't actually have to watch all seven minutes of that. So far this October, though not fall-like AT ALL considering I live real close to Mexico and I went to the beach on October 1st, has been FANTASTIC. I am surprised at how much I miss Utah, what with the beautiful change of colors in the mountains and the Rocky Horror Picture Show being played at the Tower, BUT I've still been forcing my Halloweenie ideals onto the people of Texas.
On the night of September 30th, I decorated our apartment after Elise went to bed like some sort of morbid Halloween fairy, including placing streamers in ill-conceived places where they could constantly fling themselves out the door. I also spent an embarrassing amount of money on Halloween decorations at Target (curse you, Target!) Combining the new decorations with my usual Nightmare Before Christmas decor I have up in my room ANYWAYS and my apartment was totally Halloween-afied! Yes, it's a word. No, don't try to look it up.
So far this October I've been watching spooky movies like The Addams Family (thank you, Netflix!), Blood Glacier (a fantastically terrible horror movie about mutations evolving from a blood-like substance leaking from a glacier due to climate change, IT'S REAL, PEOPLE), Phantom of the Opera (my teenaged guilty pleasure), the new Carrie (meh, the old one is def better), and am looking forward to watching A LOT MORE! I still need to, of course, watch Nightmare Before Christmas as well before October 31st is gone (I don't know if I'll be watching it on Halloween considering I have a hoppin' party to go to!).
I spent the first day of Halloweek compiling a Halloween Photo Scavenger Hunt, based on one that I found from another blogger and based on what I wanted to take photos of because I'm a cheater. I went for a walk with my roommate and her dog and took some photos of the neighborhood, where I luckily found some of the photos I was looking for! We'll see if I can complete it by the time Halloween is over!
On day 2 of Halloweek, I had a pumpkin carving party! I lovepumpkincarvingparties! I threw myself in the car after changing into a holiday appropriate zombie-referencing shirt following work and went on an epic journey for decent pumpkins. I've had some issues in the past finding some good ones close enough to Halloween to ensure they don't rot and shrivel on the porch before the main event, but luckily the local grocery store had some nice ones with beautiful curly stems. I still look forward to the day when I can go to a real pumpkin patch, but for now store-bought pumpkins will work. My mam genes also shone through and she possessed me to purchase chips and candy for my guests, despite my invite reading "BYOP. AND BYOB. OR BYOV (vodka)." Sooo I caved and got snacks because inside my heart I am a hostess, even though I rarely act like it. Halloween brings it out in me. So I bought some pumpkins, my favorite $1 disposable tablecloths for easy cleanup, and picked up some sandwiches before heading home to set-up. I put on my playlist of spooky tunes (my favorite) so we could jam out while carving (here is a song I'm really loving right now) and we got to work. I ended up carving a SURPRISE owl. I wanted to try employing the shaving technique again, since I did that last year with my turkey vultures, and I did end up doing it...but it didn't turn out exactly as I had envisioned it. Still, it looks awesome lit up.
(mine is on the far left)
More pictures to come of Halloweek! For now this is my Friday so I'm off to watch a scary movie with Raphael, possibly drink some more, and write some letters to BFFs!! Love!
It seems to becoming a tradition to band owls during the month of October, as we decided for the second year in a row to leave the warm glow of our flatscreen TV to head out into the forest and find some owls. Last year we went to Duluth during Halloweek to attend "Owl Night", where they had an educational program and we finally caught two little Norther Saw-Whets at the end of the night. Then we got to hold them like little ice-cream cones :')
We first headed to Noodles and Company in Steven's Point for the company benefit, 10% of all proceeds went directly to our organization! For some reason, I really enjoy going out and playing around after dark in the city. Steven's Point is an adorable college town, which I also LOVE because there are still people out, people my age, hanging out, riding bikes, walking around in jackets and scarves and boots with their breath fogging their vision. I love fall nights, especially when they're illuminated by lamplight. We cozied up inside of Noodles and ate macaroni and told our infamous drinking stories. I have...more than I realized...
After Noodles, we headed out to Linwood Springs Research Station, which was deep in the woods (my homeland), and took a seat in the classroom. We were treated to an educational program on owls and then released two Northern Saw-Whets that we'd rehabilitated back to health.
Since we were in the darkness since, you know, owls are nocturnal (or crepuscular), there wasn't the best lighting in the world. Also it's hard to catch the exact moment the owl actually flies off, so I didn't get any cool pictures of the owls being released into the great wild woods. Instead I got pictures of people looking amazed or thoughtful as the owl fluttered away. Aka a little bit stupid.
Little guys back in their natural habitat! May you never have to be in contact with humans ever again!
After we'd released them, we headed out to visit the mist nets, where we'd already caught a little Northern Saw-whet! We brought him back inside and took some measurements, like tarsus length and wing chord, as well as judging the age by the wear of the feathers.
The lighting wasn't too great again since it was low and fluorescent, but still. LOOK AT THAT FACE!!
We caught three Saw-Whets and at the end we got to release them. Well okay, Marge's grand-daughter and Kelsey, the other education intern, got to release them. I sort of co-released one with another rehab intern. But it was still cool!
having a complicated camera means that a lot of your pics you get back are going to be blurry, especially in the darkness when there's nothing to focus on
taking some cool pics since the owl was super shocked and didn't realize he was free to go...
OWL!
The person taking our picture didn't even get an after picture of us looking up at the sky, so unfortunately I couldn't add that one to my collection
But I did get this one!
Kelsey waiting for her owl to take off.
All in all, it was another great night filled with owls! I hope this continues to be an annual October tradition!
Day 6 was pretty uneventful, since I taught climbing wall all day, did a raptor program, and then got home and thought "I'M SO TIRED". And then I ended up hanging out with everybody until late into the night (aka possibly midnight). In fact, I TOTALLY REMEMBER NOW! Megan got home from her trip and brought Mulan, but Anna and I said NO to watching it because we wanted to indulge in a scary movie. We tried to watch The Shining, but it didn't work out because it was missing. A MYSTERY. So we watched The Haunting instead. I watched The Haunting forever ago when I was fifteen with Sunny and I have to say that my favorite scene is still this one.
Start at 13:56. The monologue that the creepy caretaker spews about the night and the dark is repetitive and paranoid, which also makes it hilarious. The entire movie is pretty terrible, it's ripe with plot holes, inconsistencies, and surprise characters that suddenly appear to try and fill the aforementioned plot holes. They didn't. We watched The Haunting and then went to bed.
I had Day 7 of Halloweek OFF! Hurray! The day was spent indulging in Halloweenie activities! For instance...
painting (Anna painted this beautiful owl with my watercolors and I painted a mini pumpkin)
receiving an AWESOME Halloween care package from my mom!!!! Remember how I said that she gives us presents on Halloween? It is seriously the best thing ever. Inside, I got some awesome window gummies
sorry, now you have to see my dirty windows too
The Littlest Witch. I get to read my beloved childhood book after all
my pink curly wig
Halloween lofthouse cookies (YAAAAY!!!)
My toucan costume (remember when I was going to be a toucan last year?) )
I also indulged in...
painting my nails for Halloween
making Halloween cupcakes
finding owls in the coolest places
wearing Halloweenie charms I've made on a necklace
Anna and I also watched Hannibal! Terrifying.
I put the final touches on my costume and got ready to go out for our staff Halloween party at the Gaslight, a tiny bar in "downtown" Sandstone that was once a bank. My version of getting ready was putting on eye makeup ("A step up!" as Megan said) and then attempting to create a colorful montage of eye shadow to amplify my toucaniness. It actually ended up blending into a large sparkly, grey mass. So not so much tropical bird as someone going to a fabulous funeral. I forcefully applied last-minute costumes to people who were not planning on dressing up (my favorite was Leeann, who went as a birdwatcher and wore field clothes, wore binoculars, and her Lab of O hat with a fake crow attached to the top of it. Also she kept obsessively staring at Megan (peacock) and I (toucan) through her binos all night). We then left to go to the Gaslight, where things were a little bit rocky for a while. For instance, the bar was out of EVERYTHING. We would ask for a drink and the answer would be, "We're out of schnapps/vodka/rum/water/positivity". The bartender was also IN THE WORST MOOD EVER. I mean, IT'S ALMOST HALLOWEEN. He loosened up a teeny bit as the night went on, but at first he just seemed pissed. We got gin and tonics and joined the rest of our peeps, but as time passed we realized how hungry we were. We hadn't eaten yet, so we decided to all chip in and get a pizza. The pizza took AN HOUR to cook, apparently. We were all ready to go raptor on the bartender and eat his hands along with the pizza when it was finally done. Before this happened, however, I witnessed the first time someone has ever been kicked out of a bar in my presence. I was waiting at the bar for a drink with Troy (because, surprise surprise!, the phone lines weren't working which made the credit card machines not work either) when the bartender started death glaring at someone who had just arrived at the bar. It was a seemingly innocent man with a baseball cap on, staring slack-jawed at the assortment of beers (in fact, the guy sort of looked like Starling's boss from Hannibal, now that I think about it). Bartender marched over to the guy and then stared at him from just a couple of feet away. The guy then said, "Uh, can I get a beer?" to which the bartender responded with, "No, you're 86ed. Do you recall why?" The guy stared dumbly at the bartender and asked, "Why, what'd I do?" which is when the bartender started screaming at this guy. Luckily, it was fairly crowded and noisy at the Gaslight this night due to our party and the fact that it was karaoke night. Unluckily, that meant that the only people who heard this confrontation was Troy and I. We quickly turned away from the bar and faced our friends, pretending to have our own conversation while really just exchanging quiet quips about how terrified we were. With a grand, "TAKE YOUR KEYS, GET IN YOUR CAR, AND NEVER COME BACK" and a lot of swearing, the guy exited through the back door and one of our co-workers gave us cash to pay for our drinks (since the credit card machines ended up not working the entire night). A happy ending! Later, when we went back up for more drinks, the bartender felt bad about making us wait so long for our pizza AND flipping out at a customer in front of us, so he was much nicer to us. We got another pizza (since we had split it five ways before and were still pretty hungry), which took WAY less time this time, AND the bartender made us a DELICIOUS DRINK! This was the best part. I told him I wanted something delicious and fruity, so he said he would concoct something for Leeann and I. He poured in shot after shot of fruity vodka and Malibu rum, and when it was 75% of the way full with alcohol he said, "Wow, this is all booze", to which I replied, "WOO! IT'S ALMOST HALLOWEEN!" He topped it off with pineapple and cranberry juice and grenadine, gave us each a handful of maraschino cherries, and handed them to us. I asked how much he wanted for them and after saying he wanted $1000, he eventually told us just $5, which is amazing considering how much alcohol was in them, as well as how DELICIOUS THEY WERE! Seriously, the best drink I've ever had. I asked him what he was going to call it and suggested something Halloweenie, so he said he was going to call it the Dirty Bird since I was wearing a toucan costume. It was AWESOME.
This is the full costume, btw. I had someone take pictures of me in the kitchen with my phone as an afterthought, since no one had a camera with them at the bar
After that drink, I was pretty sloshed. I begged everyone else to stay for karaoke night, but they told me hell no, so I was stuck going home with the killjoys. Despite desiring to do karaoke and then to have a glow-stick dance party, I transitioned to the tired stage of drunkenness rather quickly and instead opted for watching half of Seven before passing out and going to bed (as you saw from my last blog post).
On Halloween, I had to work. The good news is that my class was cancelled, so instead of teaching Survivor in my toucan costume like I had originally planned, I did projects, learned how to teach the evening program, and looked at Halloweenie pictures online. Here are some of my favorites I found.
Jeff, our wildlife coordinator, told me that his daughter was being a mouse for Halloween and all I could think of was this.
Megan and I taught our newest evening program called Minnesota Wildlife that called for our non-existent rabbit, Arnold the Bull Snake, and Dakota. After the program (which I totally wore my Halloween costume to...for awhile), we went home and watched It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!
I'd never seen it before, and I loved it! I laughed so much that people thought I was way drunker than I actually was (which I was drinking and got a little bit drunk, but not as much as the night before). I adore things that make me nostalgic, even if I've never seen it before, which is totally what the movie did. I think I may even like to own it.
Next up, my usual traditional fare of my beloved Nightmare Before Christmas
I think I've already explained in too many (or not enough) words about my adoration of this movie. So I'll leave you with this.
This is awesome
Two of my favorite things COMBINED
After Nightmare, I went to bed since it was pretty late and I wasn't feeling too hot. But I definitely had an amazing Halloween, nonetheless (though there was no pumpkin carving, but oh well)
I totally had a dream last night that I was at Disneyland and saw that Jack Skellington was there (with no line!) so I ran up to him and gave him a hug. A good end to a good Halloween :)
