On the First Day of Halloween…

The shine and sparkle of the holiday season wore off for me long about my 12th year on the planet. It was around that time that I realized the holidaze (Thanksgiving and Christmas) were being sold not celebrated. It began to be all about how much food people could consume and how much money was spent on gifts.  And the fact that the Christmas decorations and ads started showing up earlier and earlier created an overall feeling of blah.  But now, Halloween…

There was a holiday I could get into. No gifts to buy, no huge crowds at the malls or fights over this year’s “must have” toy; no cooking or eating too much.  Nope, just the opportunity to indulge in some sweets, dress up in whatever fun stuff I had in my closet and letting my inner monster hang out without any repercussions. I could pop

Halloween, 1993

in the fangs and not be stared at…Oh, and let’s not forget scaring myself silly with all the horror movie marathons on cable (had to watch them on the channels with the commercials and most of the scary stuff taken out, lol).

For some reason, out of all the holidays on the calendar, Halloween is my favorite. Veteran’s Day, Memorial Day, the 4th of July – I celebrate those with reverence due to the nature of the celebration; the “why” behind them makes sense to me and I can celebrate without pressure to prove something to someone else. Valentine’s Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas on the other hand were way too loaded with the “if you love them you will buy all this crap”. Bah, and humbug.  Halloween allows me to be, well…me. Despite the costumes, I’m most at ease, more MYSELF, when my fangs

Halloween 2000

are in, my corset is on tight, and my hair (the hair I’m wearing, rather) is elaborately colored and styled. In other words, Halloween is the one day of the year I get to dress how I want and not be considered ‘weird’.

Anyway, in celebration this year, I’ll be attempting to post a little something Halloween related for the next 12 days, culminating in an excerpt from Aphrodite’s Twin, featuring my first and only vampire.

In the meantime, enjoy this bit of spooky micro fiction I wrote a while back.  And uh, let’s hear it for Halloween!

Did’ja Hear?

Over heard at a coffee shop.

“Have you tried that new bar-b-que joint out on Harris?”

“Yeah. Didn’t like it. The meat tasted funny.”

“Yeah, I thought so too. Me and the wife went out there last night. She’d heard somewhere that the meat was ‘humanely butchered’, whatever that means.”

“The night we went, the guy, owner I think, was out front talking to customers. Think I overheard him say the same thing, only that he’s the one who does it.”

“What do you mean?”

“He apparently owns a farm off route 35, where he raises the cows himself, does all the butchering right there on the farm. He opened the restaurant just for kicks. Said he wanted to give corporate ‘murica the finger, or some such nonsense.”

“Hmmm. Well, I doubt he’ll be in business long enough for that to happen. That meat was off. If that’s what fresh, ‘humanely butchered’ meat tastes like. I’ll pass.”

“Me too. Hey, did’ja hear the news where another couple went missing from that camp site t’other side of 35?”