Halloween

     Today is Halloween. For the second year in a row I have decided to dress in a costume for the day. Most of the teachers on campus don't dress but I have seen some nice outfits on the ones that did.
     There was a witch of course, actually a couple of them. One of the English teachers wore his kilt. One teachers wears a grim reaper every year. It is seriously creepy. One of the science teachers wore a doctor's outfit.
     Last year I donned a 50's outfit complete with poodle skirt in red with a black poodle, a little black sweater, red scarf, saddle shoes with white socks and even a class ring worn around my neck. It was very fetching but the black net crinoline was difficult to sit in all day. This year I decided to dress as a house painter. I found, after two attempts, a company that sold white overalls on the web. I found a little white cap, and dug out my old white sneakers. I already had a white t-shirt that had paint on it from a summer project so that was all ready. I took acrylic paints and splashed different colors on the overalls and hat and shoes. But it's all in the details. I stuck a big paint brush in my side leg pocket, a pair of rubber gloves in my bib pocket, a purple bandanna in my back pocket and hung a roll of painters' tape (the old blue brand) where the straps connect to the bib. Pretty cute, I think. and the best part about this costume is that it is comfy to wear all day!
     This is the first year I have not visited the pumpkin patch at Avila. I was planning on going but it was so hot last weekend that I just was not looking forward to the heat and crowds. The weekend before Halloween is the worst time to go and I had had other things to do the previous weekends. So last Friday night on the way home I stopped at Von's to get a couple of things. They had beautiful, large pumpkins for $6.99 a piece. So I bought 3. I also bought a white pumpkin for $7 (I think I'm going to do something different for my mantel this year), 3 small speckled ones for $1.49 each (not the tiny ones about the size of an apple but ones 7-8" across) with nice curly stems. And I picked up a couple of pounds of apples, all different kinds, also for my fall mantel; I have a wooden compote that Doug's grandfather made that I think they will look very fallish in. And I got all of this for under $35. I usually don't get out of Avila for under twice that amount. and I didn't have to battle the crowds or the heat.
     My pumpkin will be cut today after school and will be ready for trick-or-treaters tonight. And this weekend I will take down the Halloween mantel decorations and put out the Thanksgiving ones. And they will look just fine, even though I broke the long standing tradition of pumpkin patching and saved myself a bunch of money in the process.