Dancing through life...

This is the first time in a long, long time that I haven't been excited for Halloween. I didn't have the time and resources to get my costume made. Our Funkin* is sitting on the dining table, un-carved. Rich is going to be working most of the day and into the night on Saturday; I don't feel like traveling terribly far on my own, so I probably won't go to any of the parties to which I have been invited.

We don't get any trick-or-treaters, so there's no candy in my house. I shall have to pilfer from my parents before they run out. (Translation: before Dad finishes it all.)

Maybe I'll go take some photos in the cemetery if it's nice enough out. I haven't done that in a few months, and it's appropriate for the holiday, no?

The post-Halloween holidays, on the other hand, I am stupid-excited about. Even though Thanksgiving in my family is traditionally held at my parents' house, and our apartment is way too teeny to host the event, I'm looking at festive table linens rather wistfully. (Hm. The one that would fit my table is only fifteen dollars. I just got a five dollar coupon, too...)

I have Plans for the biscuits this year, even though my mother nixed my bacon-biscuit idea. (Perhaps I shall do half plain and half bacon? I think this may be an excuse to perform some experiments. Delicious, delicious experiments!) I'll get to break out my super-nifty potato peeling device, as well.

Then there's Christmas. Cannot. Wait. I've already got a pretty decent wishlist going, (I like to put a lot of stuff on my wishlist, so that I may still be surprised when gift-opening occurs. If there were only one or two things on it I would know what I was getting before I opened any of the packages, and that would not be fun!) and have been harassing my family members to provide me with theirs. Mom wants a TV; Dad is usually the most difficult, but I have a bit of a plan for him. That leaves Steve. He tends to buy himself a lot of stuff, which limits my gift-giving options.

I'm going to pull out our decorations the minute Thanksgiving is over, and start getting the apartment in holiday-mode. (Unless, of course, we end up moving. Or something.) The lights, the garland, the scented candles, the festive table linens, the holiday movies...

I guess Halloween just seems sort of inconsequential when compared to the feelings that the other holidays elicit. Not that it's not fun, but I'm just more in the mood for that homey feeling these days.

This may have a lot to do with my desire to start shopping for a house to buy. To me, and I think to many people, the holidays mean home. We already know that our little apartment won't be "home" for too much longer. If we can get a mortgage, we'll be buying a house, most likely on the other side of the Hudson. If that doesn't happen, we'll probably move anyway when our landlord raises our rent. For what we'd be paying if that happened, we could get a much nicer, bigger place. (Preferably with a dishwasher and laundry facilities. A girl can hope!)

Part of the problem is that I get bored at work, and start looking at real estate listings online. I keep seeing adorable little houses that we could totally afford! In fact, according to the little calculators on the real estate websites, (which may or may not be accurate,) the mortgage payments on some of those homes would be less than what we are paying in rent right now!

Methinks I must learn some patience. It will happen soon, just not necessarily as soon as I would like.

Also, I really really REALLY want a LensBaby. They just released a fisheye optic! How freaking cool is that??

In short: I'm really sort of "meh" when it comes to Halloween this year, but I want the rest of the holidays to get here, darn it!

*A Funkin is a carvable fake pumpkin. We got it for two reasons: 1. I kept hearing about pumpkin shortages due to fungus, and 2. we don't have an appropriate porch to store a Jack O'Lantern on, so last year we put it on our table. It went moldy and gooed all over the place. It was gross.

Happy Turkey Genocide Day, everyone!

Now go eat yourselves silly.

Happy Turkey Day to one and all! May you all stuff yourselves silly, and enjoy every minute of it.