Top 10 Reasons Why I Love Halloween

10. Leaves: Halloween would not be Halloween without the fall season. It wouldn't have the same penache. The bright reds and golds of the leaves on the trees and ground. Classic. Plus if you're out trick-or-treating or otherwise cavorting about the crunchy noise fallen leaves make is the best!

9. Campy Films from Childhood: Seriously I can't pass them up. It's like at Christmas I have to watch a claymation piece. Some of my favorites are Hocus Pocus and Halloween Town.

8. Sense of Community: Call me a sap if you want but I love that on Halloween everyone gets involved. People are out with their kids or their friends. Or they are staying in and giving out goodies. Either way there is a warm and fuzzy element to Halloween that I ccan't resist.

7. Mystical Critters: Don't you just love how on this one night all the spooks and spectors make their appearance? I do. I love that suddenly there are witches flying on brooms, or vampires out for a bite. Like they just wait for Halloween to do it. But that seems to be the consesnus that they let their hair down on Halloween alone. More power to um for their patience I suppose.

6. Soundtrack of the Season: Two words...Monster Mash. That song always makes me ridiculously happy. I have a soundtrack full of Halloween songs. It has Little Red Riding Hood, Werewolf of London, and the purple people eater song on it. Good times. I feel like this is only appropriate at this time of year. I have to restrain myself the rest of the year though. Seriously.

5. Ghost Stories: Personally, I'm always up for a good ghost story even if the good ones scare me shitless. But they seem to have special potency on Halloween. There is this mysticism that rides the air on Halloween and a good story just soaks up that energy and sends it back to you ten-fold. If it can't give me shivers it a'int worth it!

4. Carving Pumpkins: This one is a family tradition. It sucks in college cause I haven't been able to carve pumpkins with my Mom for the past two years. That actually makes me really sad. But I love carving pumpkins. Ugh. Scraping out the pumpkin guts is always perfectly creepy with the stringey goo clinging to your wrists. Bleh. Awesome but still. And then we always buy those carving kits. So you get to do something really cool. And I like using the poking stick. I know I sound really mature right now, but Halloween has never been noted for its maturity.

3. Corney Jokes: Halloween is filled with the kind of jokes you find on a candy bar wrapper, which is quite naturally appropriate. My friends and I always had a rotation schedule on who got to tell which joke. We were cool like that. But I've come to really enjoy listening to little kids tell me lame jokes even if I just heard the same one two minutes ago. They have such unadulterated joy. It's contagious and I am open to the disease of laughter.

2. Candy: Ok so there was an epic mental smackdown going on in my head for the top spot. I'm still kind of wavering as I write but I have my reasons for putting free candy second. For one thing candy is not such an epic novelty that I can't walk down to the store and get it. That's the sad truth that keeps it from being number one. But it made it all the way to number two because it is free. Think about it, this is the one momment when your parents tell you it is okay to take candy from strangers. And you can do it in abundance. I always judge people based on what they give out. And you can be ostracized from a neighborhood if you don't leave your damn porch light on. I know, I've seen it happen. Kids are serious about there candy, but then again so am I.

1: Costumes: I always loved playing dress-up when I was a kid. And they gave me a holiday devoted to it. I adore planning costumes. I start way in advance and agonize over what I will be. After much debate I am being Autumn (the season. God help me I had to clarify this to my dad). Halloween gives you the opportunity to be whatever you want to be. It a professional day of pretend. When you're little it's about being a princess or a favorite cartoon character it's phenominally innocent. And then you hit puberty and it becomes a slut fest. Don't get me wrong I enjoy that aspect to a certain degree because I sure as hell don't walk around in vinyl or plastic mini dresses on the other days of the year. I remember one year I was a 50's girl with a poodle skirt and everything. I had a wig on because I had cut my hair really short that year; it looked a little weird. But we went up to this house and the woman tried to guess what we were. She takes one look at me and in this nasal expression of 'eureka' she says to me, "Oh I get it! You're a BOY dressing up as a GIRL!" She thought she was pretty funny. I didn't. It crushed my prepubescent ego hardcore. I got extra candy out of it though because she felt like a bad person...gee I wonder why? Needless to say I don't support wig usage on Halloween. Or any other day really. Such is life.

I hope you all have a fabulously haunting Halloween!

Fangirl

There is nothing cooler for me than being set loose in LA. Except perhaps winning the lottery and then being set loose so I can shop but I'll take what I can get. I got the amazing opportunity to leave school and go to Los Angeles for the Screenwriters Expo. Honestly people, if I were a chiwawa I'd be shaking with the excitement things like this bring me.

The dork in me happily says that I learned a lot and it was a wonderful experience. The rabid fangirl in me says to shut up and tell you about the good stuff. Which I shall because it is much jucier. In truth, I didn't even realize I had a fangirl attitude in me. I should have seen it though in the long sighs of Johnny Depp and the trivia hoarding of Director's movie secrets. So essentially, like the naive thing I am, I was unprepared for her hostile takeover when we reached the city of the stars.

I started out fairly normal. There is this woman named Pilar Alessanda whose instructional dvds we watched in screenwriting last year, so naturally I had to see her in real life. She was a much better speaker in person, very active. At the end of one of her seminars I ended up shyly walking up to her and asking for her autograph and a picture. I think I stunned the woman. She said that no one has ever asked her that before. I'm sure I was blushing. The scenario clearly called for a blush. So I got my picture and autograph and scuttled back to my seat feeling happy but bashful.

Yeah I don't know where the shy thing went because after that it was essentially out the door. A group of us went to the discussion panel  with the writing duo who our responsible for this summer's major blockbusters--Star Trek and the Transformers series. They were mostly talking about how they got started in the business and then they revealed that they had written the Hercules and Xena television shows back in the day. You have no idea to what level I was obsessed with those shows when I was younger. Xena in particular was one of those shows that I could not allow myself to miss, and was the only show my mom would let me stay up and watch. (Somehow Xena was appropriate but the Spice Girls were not which is a whole other rant). I'll admit I wanted their autographs to begin with, but more for my dad because he's a huge fan of those films. Nope they're mine. He can't have them. God help those imbeciles who stood in my way because I'm pretty sure I was fixing death glares on them. Enter rabid obsession.

Then my epic momment. I still can't get over it because I can't freaking believe. This is what makes me a fangirl. I got John Cleese's autograph! But I will take it one step farther and say I got to touch his hand and he spoke! Pardon me while I pass out. This man is brillant. He knows comedy like no other. And comedy can be such a touchy thing. If you don't know who John Cleese is stop reading this blog and crawl out from under your rock (how are you getting internet anyway?).  He's a Python for one thing, and he's a phenominal actor as well as a writer. And I got his autograph, damnit! I never thought I would get it. There were so many people crushing around to get to him. And then the were leading him away and I thought it was over. But he came out into the corridor that we were waiting in and the fangirl took over. She rushed up all big shiney eyes and thrust my notebook into John Cleese's hands. And he signed it so casually, said something polite, and kept walking. Now everytime I look at my notebook I get this giddy sensation--it's the fangirl rearing her starry-eyed head--and I just feel so cool.

That in and of itself is enough celebrity interaction to last me for a good long while. But not too long my notebook needs more signatures.

(Sorry for thequality of the picture it's the best I can do)