Blog Number 101

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

Well since up until 3 months ago I was a Hoosier, yesterday was my first ever time to "fall back" due to daylight saving time.  This would also be the first time my cat had to fall back.  He didn't.  He was trying to get us up at 4:30 instead of 5:30.  Not really a problem as I had decided that having this extra hour would be a great time to head down to the workout room and add a little exercise to this diet I am on.  So for I am down 8 pounds and with Thanksgiving and Christmas lurking I need all the head start I can get.  There was another person in the workout room but that is a blog for another day.

Since Halloween is so close everything everywhere reflects this.  The daughter and I were out tonight to the grocery store to get some milk (organic), water (filtered) and bread (whole grain).  Immediately upon entering the store we encountered some scary balloons.  The daughter is very observant of these things, pointing out every little scary thing she sees.  I am not sure if she remembers a lot from this time last year so I am sure that to her, things are just getting more scary for no apparent reason.  The wife and I don't discuss Halloween really.  It is not that we are against or for it really, we just don't celebrate it.  Hence, I don't even think the daughter knows what Halloween is.  This makes for awkward conversations in lines at places like (oh, I don't know) grocery stores.  A grandmother behind us was buying 6 or 7 bags of Hershey's Miniatures and asked my daughter if she was looking forward to Halloween.  She has no idea what this nice lady is talking about and could produce only a blank stare.  The lady in front of us was buying some pumpkin carving gifts.  "Are you carving a pumpkin?", she asked?  Blank stare.  The checkout lady then asked what she was going to dress up as - blank stare.

As uncomfortable as this is for her to go through, it cannot be worse than "the look."  "The look" is what people give me after quizzing my children and finding they know nothing about Halloween.  It is a look that conveys that they assume I am some sort of religious kook or something.  I have found that saying nothing is really the best defense.  I have tried the "we don't celebrate Halloween" approach but people then feel like I think they are some sort of heathen for observing it.  I don't know what to say to them that will stop "the look" from continuing.  Oh well, it will be over soon.

The church we are attending is having a fall festival on 10/31.  I have never been into the "fake" Halloween thing.  If you show up with kids somewhere on 10/31 and they give out candy, then that is Halloween, not some sort of fall festival.  Our church is giving away 700,000 pieces of candy tomorrow.  Seven Hundred Freakin' Thousand pieces!  Insane!  I don't really want to go but I am sure I will be suckered into attending somehow.

I still haven't decided what I will tell people though - whether I went to a Halloween party or a fall festival.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon