HAPPY HALLOWEEN! :)


Your a big-ole-monster. Always ready to scare
Which Popular Halloween Monster Are you? brought to you by Quizilla

BOO!

So, did I scare ya? Did I? HeHeHe.

I am proud of my many forms. There's my mystical centaur form where I'm half The Green Fonz and half mini race car, as you can see in the above picture (which was taken after I won the Monster Truck Mash last Halloween). Another form is vampire, where I have pale white skin and wear black garb. Like today. Well, my jeans are blue, but everthing else is black. And I'm very white. Scary white. Which helps when I want to change into a ghost. BOO!



Take the What Halloween Costume Are You? quiz at Kisaki.net

I want to dress up as Superwoman! Mainly for the cape. And the sexy red boots. And the big red S across my boobies. And the yellow utility belt.

And no, I don't buy any of that macho male crap. It's too expensive and I'm on a budget. Don't mess with this assertive feminist non-lesbian today. I'm on a search for candy (and I know there's a stash of Nestle's candy around here, there always is!) and no one better get in my way!

Oh. And about The War of the Warm and Fuzzy Vampires, The Count vs. Count Chocula. I'm glad my favorite won. Blah!

Starbucks Saga - Part 2

I went to Starbucks again today. It's all Jodi's fault. She mentioned candy corn cookies with eyes in a previous comment. I went and Cute Smiley Coffee Guy took my order. Today I was Lina.

"L - I - N - A?" he asks.

"Sure." Heh. Why not?!

Loony Hint #3 On Using Fake Names: Be sure you can spell it at the drop of a hat.

Nothing makes the food service person more suspicious of tomfoolery afoot than you having to think for a moment on how to spell your name. Unless you're five years old.

I paid for my grande ('grande' my fat frappuccino ass! what a fucked up size naming system they employ at that place) mocha frappuccino and tasty snack with money I pulled out of my Winnie the Pooh wallet.

"You like Winnie the Pooh, huh?" says Cute Smiley Coffee Guy.

Possible comebacks for that question:

A: "Like Winnie the Pooh? Hell No! I hate that tubby bastard."

B: "Duh!"

C: "Who?"

D: "What? The wallet? I just stole it ten minutes ago from some second grader walking home from school."

E: "Yep."

All tempting answers but I opted for option E, the least offensive one. I used up all my fun talk coming up with a fake name I guess.

I think Cute Smiley Coffee Guy might be on to me. This is the third name I've given him. My visits are fairly spaced out. I doubt he remembers me. Or my name(s). But who knows. he was extra smiley today. Maybe he was just so smiley while admiring my taste in wallet fashion (it features Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore and Tigger too!) Maybe he has stalker tendencies and remembers me by a different name and was trying to figure out if was totally mental. Maybe he was just flirting with me. It's not that implausible! If he was flirting, I wasn't flirty back. If I were I would have bought the oatmeal cookie like he suggested. Instead I opted for the half-stale almond bear claw (which is still quite yummy half stale.)

I would have bought a candy corn cookie with eyes but they didn't have any more. Cute Smiley Coffee Guy said he'd sold the last one just a few minutes before I got there. Damn! Always a wedding guest, never a flower girl.

Starbucks Saga - Part 1

A week ago I was hanging out at the bookstore, looking at books I wanted to buy but knew I couldn't because of my little self imposed book buying ban (because I have enough books to last me awhile. A few months at least). I was also checking out a California Writer's Group meeting where members got together and read from different stories. It was interesting. For the first half hour. I stayed another twenty minutes then got up to leave. I saw a Starbucks across the street and thought "Mocha Frappuccino! Yum!" I hopped in and started the car. Barry Manilow's song 'Copacabana' was playing on the radio, so naturally I cranked up the volume and started singing at the top of my lungs.

Her name was Lola
She was a showgirl
With yellow feathers in her hair
and a dress cut down to there.

Have you ever listened to the words to that song? It's kind of a depressing song. The chorus is upbeat, but it not so much the ending. Lola looses her love. And her mind! Drinking herself half blind in the same bar she used to cha-cha in. Way to bum us out Barry. Lesson of the Copacabana song: "Don't fall in love." Also, don't let men named Rico who wear diamonds in their ears hit on you when your hot tempered boyfriend Tony is busy tending bar within visual range of any potential groping.

So anywhoo, by the end of the song I was at my destination. I walked up to the store with a spring in my step, Barry Manilow in my head, and my cool new boots clomp clomp clomping on the ground (they're very loud cool new boots.)

Now, a little background info before I continue. I have this obsession. No, not with Mocha Frappuccinos, for which my already fat ass thanks me profusely, but with giving fake names to food works (i.e. restaurant hostesses, fancy shmancy coffee shop order takers, etc.) It started a few years ago. I don't remember why exactly but one day when a restaurant hostess asked for my name so she could add me to the waiting list I gave her a fake name. And it was fun. Like playing make-believe. I played the 'fake name game' a few times and it remained fun, even when certain friends laugh at the perfectly good made up name, cueing the girl in about to seat us that it wasn't really my name.

Lately I've noticed its become a habit. Especially when I go to Starbucks. I don't go often, but when I do, and they ask me for my name, pen poised near the cup, I say the first name that comes to mind. It's become a natural thing for me to do. I just can't help myself. Maybe because its fun. Really. Usually. Except for certain instances like last week.

So back to the original story. Remember: books, Barry, boots. Okay, so I walk into Starbucks and give my order to Coffee Girl. She grabs a cup and a pen and asks for my name. And what's the name that pops to the front of my brain before all others you ask with nail biting anticipation? Lola. That's right. Lola.

I'm about to say 'Lola' and I think to myself, "What? Lola? I'm not a Lola?"

I'm not sure how long that inner monologue lasted, but while it did Coffee Girl is still waiting for my name.

"Uh... Maria." I used a fall-back name, one I've used before. I see myself more of a Lola than a Maria, but oh well. I say it's healthy to look like a twit who can't remember her own name every now and then. Especially since I occasionally blank when trying to tell someone my real name. Maybe next time I'll stick with Lola. I wouldn't mind being a Lola for a few minutes. Or maybe next time I'll hear 'Mandy' on the radio. I can see myself as a Mandy. "Well you came and you gave without taking..." Yeah, I know, I'm a weirdo. :)

People on third shift who buy a box of donuts and then, when the donuts are all gone, leave the box in the trash can so that when I get to work the next day the office smells like sugary goodness, and all I can think about is how good a Krispy Kreme donut would taste right about now... they annoy me.

People who thought Britney and Madonna should do a duet together... they annoy me.

People who think they need to play that awful Britney/Madonna song on the radio over and over again forcing me to be constantly changing the station... they annoy me.

Spammers... they annoy me.

People who are in such a hurry that they have to cut you off in traffic without so much as an, 'Excuse me, pardon me, may I cut in? Thank you ever so much. I've got a Road Hogger's Anonymous meeting to attend and I'd hate to be late'... they annoy me.

People who think it'd be fun to start forest fires... they annoy me. They really annoy me. *

[spaz]

omg omg omg I'm supposed to start writing my fake wannabe novel in just over 41 hours and I still don't know what I'm going to write about. Sure I have a general idea but not the specifics but I have this anxious feeling that I need specifics because when it comes time to write the specifics and I have to suddenly make them up or pull them out of my ass like some crazy magician I'm going to blank, hit a wall, come up short, get stumped and not think of anything but I've got to write something so I'm just going to write crap and crap is never good. Never good. I've got to write something but I don't want to write just something I want to write good stuff. Good crap. Lots of funny good crap. 41 hours. AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

[/spaz]

me enjoy yearly yum meal love eating great treats short triangles so orange every yellow white even nostalgic candy yum! **

3. What scary movie scared you most as a child? Why?

I can't think of a scary movie that scared me as a child. I must have stayed away from them until I got older. Or they just didn't traumatize me enough so that still remember how much they scared me. I'm sure there were a few that scared me - I'm just drawing a blank right now.

Oh wait, I remember one movie that freaked me out a bit. I don't remember how old I was, but I believe I was fairly young. My aunt had rented a bunch of movies for us cousins and put one in while we all made cookies. I went out into the living room just in time to watch the beginning of some Jaws movie (2 or 3) where a guy is sitting in a boat, and a shark jumps out of the water and bites off the guys hand. Eek! That scared me. And my cousins. Even my aunt. I guess she didn't know what kind of a movie it was (heh heh heh). She quickly took out that movie and put in Fletch. A much better movie for all to enjoy.

4. What is your favorite halloween memory?

A particular Halloween memory doesn't stand out amongst the others as a favorite. I do remember that when I was younger and in elementary school, I used to come close to having panic attacks on the day of Halloween, being all dressed up in my costume. I was so afraid that I'd gotten the day wrong and would be the only one at school dressed up. That would have been mortifying! Every year I worried. And every year I wore my costume on the right day. Go me!

One favorite Halloween memory is from high school where my youth group went on a hay stack ride around someone's farm. Then we carved pumpkins. That was a lot of fun, though my pumpkin carving skills are very lacking.

Another fun Halloween memory: collecting chicken mcnugget toys in my mcdonald's happy meal. Each one wore a short little Halloween costume. And the costumes were interchangeable!

5. What kind of candy did you like to get the most? The least?

I love eating candy corn! Yum! Those little orange and yellow sugar triangles were my favorite candy to find in my trick or treat bag. That, and Tootsie Roll Pops. In fact, I'm sucking on a tootsie roll pop right now! (I grabbed a few from the candy pile yesterday, before they were all gone) Least favorite candy to get? Yearly I'd get Three Musketeers bars, MilkyWays, Milk Duds. I'd trade them with my brother for Kit Kat bars. :)

6. Ever toilet papered/egged/soaped/etc. someone's house when you were a kid? Why'd you do it?

Nope. Never did. I feel so sheltered and inexperienced. :) Though this one time, in band camp the sixth grade, I was invited to go on a t-p-ing escapade. We were going to work our class's booth at the school on Halloween night for a little bit. Then we were going to take off. But I got sick and had to go home. And missed my chance to be an annoying troublesome adolescent on Halloween. Darn it.

7. List some of the things you dressed up as when you were a kid.

In kindergarten I was a bride. Or a ghost bride. I wore this white plastic thing (like a ghost costume) over my body with my arms and head sticking out of it, and on it was a drawing of a bride's dress. I think. Or something like that. And I had the coolest glitter nail polish on, which is what every ghost bride can not do without.

I was a pirate in the second grade. That costume rocked! I need to find an adult version of it sometime. And instead of an eye patch I wore a glitter eye mask. Very bitchin'! In fact, I think I wore that costume for Halloween for a few years after that, I loved it so much. I could describe it in great detail, I remember it that vividly. But I won't. Your welcome. :)

I don't remember dressing up much for the rest of my elementary years, though I had glow in the dark lipstick and glow in the dark nail polish that I would wear. Oh, and I had a really cool pair of skeleton earrings.

In the seventh grade I wore nothing but black and orange, and made a little spider out of yarn and pipe cleaners (very last minute, but very well done). I carried my spider around with me on a string leash. I tried to enter the costume contest during lunch time, but they wouldn't let me. Don't they know brilliant originality when they see it?!

I only dressed up one year in high school (that I can recall.) Can't remember what year it was but for some reason I think it was my senior year. I was a blue crayon. A blue crayon! How cool is that? (No need to answer. LOL) I loved that costume. I also had crayon rubber band barrette thingys from grade school that I used to make pigtails. I was so cool cute weird looking.

Last time I dressed up for Halloween I was a freshman in college. I dressed up as a female she-devil type creature. So did my friend Niki. I wore red, she wore black, and another friend, Ben, dressed up as a pimp. He might have been dressed up as something else, but when the three of us went out to a party together he looked like a pimp standing between the two of us. Steve also tagged along. Then fell asleep at the party. How do you fall asleep in the middle of a living room packed with people dancing and talking and yelling to be heard over the blasting music? I guess some people can just fall asleep anywhere. I have a picture of all of us and am suddenly feeling all nostalgic. When I get home I think I'm going to have to peruse the photo albums. :)

8. If an older teenager or an adult came to your house trick or treating, would you give them any candy? Why or why not?

I would give an older teenager candy only if they were in costume. And not a lame costume either ('Hey, I am in costume. I'm dressed up as a 'pedestrian' man!'). A real costume.

I'd give an adult candy only if they were accompanied with a little kid, because they're probably helping the kid get more candy. More candy is a good thing :). Any kid older than, say, 8, can collect enough of his/her own darn candy treats.

Bonus: If you are participating in NaNoWriMo are you going to start work on your novel at midnight?

Start writing at midnight on Halloween? Probably not. Saturday morning is soon enough to start putting myself through the rigorous writing torture. But who knows. If for some reason I'm awake at midnight and playing on the computer I just might. And then not go to sleep for several hours.

Note to self: stock up on lots of caffeine.