Bernadette Benda

(Once more I come back to apologize for not posting consistently. I also have dropped the ball on Instagram once again, but I have “thoughts” on that, and I also have like commented and….two people’s blog this month. Sorry guys. This year has been very wonky for me but that’s a whole other post.)

I’m sitting outside with a candle burning on this All Hallow’s Eve/Halloween. It’s the afternoon, just chilly enough, with leaves scattered across the lawn (just our lawn though. All the lawns across the streets are awfully green). I really should be doing some last minutes prep work for NaNoWriMo which begins in T-minus nine hours from the moment I’m writing this *screams and starts running around and throwing leaves hoping that will magically create an outline for my novel*

I really, REALLY have dropped the ball on planning for NaNoWriMo this year. At least I feel like I have. But I have a rocking playlist (with at least one Creedence Clearwater song like every NaNo playlist must have. It’s been a trend for the past two years so I thought I would keep it up), character names, and a super vaguish outline but I guess that’s good enough.

But even with my over confident “good enough” I really do need to write down a couple more things, so I have some plan of what I’m going to write tonight when the clock strikes midnight (so I don’t just turn into a bewildered pumpkin).

Yet I am here. Writing a blog.

I wanted to write one today because I have this distinct memory from high school of sitting on the porch in my costume, writing a blog, while trick-or-treaters came and went. If I dug deep enough into the archive, I’m sure I could find this Halloween blog, but doing so would require me to stand up, and my bones are too old for that.

(You know you’re old when you can do one jump and determine whether a dance floor is sprung or not. But I did not come here to bemoan my not actual dotage.)

I have a deep fondness for that memory. It’s one of those memories I pull out of the bank when I think of Halloween, along with a handful of other memories and a lot of good vibes. Halloween is fun because of costumes, candy, some good hearted spookiness, the fire pits and the hot cider, but also because I feel like Halloween is a doorway (not like….not to ghosts and stuff. That’s not where I’m going). Because tomorrow it’ll be November, and November throws us headfirst into the holiday madness. Snow, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, everything is suddenly hurtling towards so many good things.

Halloween comes, throws candy, and shouts, “let the festivities commence!”

Depending on your situation, the holidays can be a really stressful and difficult time, but I’m lucky to say that the holidays for me are just fun (which doesn’t mean things don’t get crazy busy and I don’t sometimes think I’m going off my rocker).

And while I’m sad to see October go, and I feel like this year has gone by too quickly and there’s so much more I wanted to do, and I am glad to kiss 2021 goodbye. Actually, I’m not gonna give it a kiss. It was kinda a jerk.

(There’s this little chipmunk who keeps running back and forth, ferrying nuts from the birdfeeder back to his house. He’s so cute.)

Halloween is also one of those few holidays (at least if you live in a neighborhood) where you feel like you are celebrating with everyone. Since you literally go up to everyone’s houses and demand sweet sustenance. You talk to people you never talk to, meet children you never met. For a holiday that is often celebrated by hanging fake dead bodies from trees and porches, it sure is a holiday that brings people together.

Nothing brings people together like death I suppose.

(I feel like I need to put that line in a book.)

(Please tell me someone else though it was funny and I’m not the only one with a dark sense of humor.)

So I’ll dress up tonight (pictures to come), hand out candy, and hang out with the neighbors. (Ok to be honest Halloween is like the only time I come out and actually….talk to people in the neighborhood. Like for real. Maybe I am a vampire.) (The evidence of me being a vampire just accumulates every year.)

Well, it’s time I prep for NaNoWriMo (and….finish my Halloween costume).

Have fun, stay safe. Eat sweets not brains.