The Ghoulish and the Ghastly

I think Halloween is one of the wierdest events of our culture. You go around to total strangers, dressed in outlandish clothes and demand candy. And they GIVE IT TO YOU!

What's weirder is- I'm kind of enjoying this. This is the first time I've really been in a position of a grown-up handing out candy. It's rather odd.

I have had so many people come...I have lost count. Among the memorable costumes were a flock of princesses, a very cool home-made robot, Darth Vader, the Grim Reaper ( I think he was crossed with Frankinstein because he had bolts sticking out of his head- the goriest yet tonight), Bob the Builder, a camoflage ninja, a glow in the dark skeleton ( it was rather thrillingly creepy to see him descend my front lawn in all his green bony glory), and the last ones who were just here were a bunch of hoodlums that were WAY too old to be doing this- they looked like they could be college age! I kept looking around to see where their children were-- but it was just them. What a crock. They did have a semblance of costumes...But really! For shame!

And guess what! Tonight we got a call from the movers and found out that our stuff is coming on Thursday morning! Yay! I can't wait! Penny and Nate's stuff came today. Hurray! Hurray for stuff! Hurray for not sitting on folding chairs and sleeping on air mattresses anymore! ( Brad just got back from going and visiting Nate and Penny - just so he could sit on real furniture for a while. And to enjoy their charming company, too, of course.)

If this doesn't gross you out, nothing will.

We went furniture shopping this last week and as we tested out a mattress, I noticed a placard/sign/ad thing posted on the opposite wall with a few horrendous statistics listed thereon...such as: The average person sweats FOUR GALLONS a month as they sleep. Now that's just disgusting. Also, the weight of a mattress will double in ten years because of all the dead mites inside. Apparently, these facts were supposed to sicken you to the point of buying an outrageously priced HEALTHY mattress...I guess you could take off the top part and wash it...? Anyway...it caused me to think... So in twenty years, the weight of the mattress will triple? In thirty, it will quadruple? Will there ever come a time when it becomes so heavy, it cannot be moved, because it is so full of dead mites?

I have one word for you: Ew.

Home is Where the Stuff Is

Greetings, my neglected readers. I apologize for the lack of news here...but we've had a time and a half of trying to get online. We still don't have our phone hooked up ( GRRR, Bell South! They said it would be hooked up yesterday but when Brad called our new number from his cell phone yesterday, some man answered and said he'd had this number for eight years! The nerve! Of the man! And Ma Bell!) and I am only able to write to you via a pirated connection. Ooo! Don't tell! We've found a couple hot spots in corners of our house...so if you stand on your head and contort yourself, you can get online! Not really. But almost.

I feel cut off from any sense of normalcy. Our stuff has not arrived and probably won't arrive until NEXT FRIDAY- A WEEK FROM TODAY! Well, I guess that's why we got such a good price. Huh. You'll never see your stuff again, but you won't have to pay very much! Whaaa? So we are bouncing around in this house feeling sort of weirded out by all the empty space...or rather, I am bouncing around in this house...feeling sort of lonely...for Brad has just left for his first day of work. Well, I'm not too lonely because Nate and Penny are here for the next couple days, until they can move into their house. But before they arrived on Wednesday night, and when Brad was out, and I was here, I was a little spooked by being all alone here with not much to do. We've done some shopping and driving around, trying to get to know the area. It's been fun, but I am ready to get established with some sort of routine...and it doesn't look like that is going to be happening anytime soon...WELL...I'm off to seek my fortune out in the great, wide world. Or, to be more specific, I'm going to try to find the local library. Huzzah for Mapquest!