I Love Halloween

As long as I'm on the subject of autumn, I may as well prepare anyone reading this who doesn't know me (if anyone reading doesn't know me!) that I am crazy about Halloween! I love dressing up, decorating the house, decorating the front stoop, carving pumpkins, and I even can enjoy giving out candy (though it gets in the way of watching horror movies). By the way, I watch a gazillion horror movies in the weeks leading up to Halloween, which drives Jim crazy. I also listen to black metal when I drive, read Poe and Gothic horror novels from the 1800s while playing creepy music, and going to the Halloween supply stores to see all the crazy-expensive animatronics that Jim would kill me if I ever bought. I'm 100% bonkers about this holiday!

For a couple of years, I tried to have Halloween parties. My first one was a huge success, but I quickly found that most people are just completely uptight about Halloween. I'd mention I was thinking about throwing another party, and the first thing out of everyone's mouth would be: "Do I have to dress up?" WTF? That's like asking do you have to get gifts at Christmas time, or do you have to eat turkey on Thanksgiving. Except it's worse. How can a Halloween party possibly be fun when that's the first thing out of people's mouths? To everyone's immense relief, I gave up years ago.

Luckily, there is a very active Halloween party atmosphere where I work, and it hasn't been ruined by any bible-banging douchebags crying how it's against their religion (probably because we are very respectful not to press anyone to participate if they say 'no'). One year, we decorated our row with bedsheets to make the cubes look like padded cells. Then we all made ourselves up to be diseased in some way related to our clients' products. Another year, we all came in as dead celebrities. This year, our team has settled on a heavy metal costume theme. Should be very fun!