My most memorable Halloween could have been the year Mandy and I found ourselves in San Fransisco's Castro District. I was dressed as Meg White, Bridget was dressed as a zombie lifeguard and I forget what Mandy was- but it was total chaos. People everywhere. It was like an alternate universe, like a dream, like Hell even. We were surrounded by people decked out in the most serious costumes I'd ever seen. To me, the holiday had always been about jack-o-lanterns and trick-or-treating, and parents were with kids in their parent costumes, and most kids were Power Rangers or Barbie, very mild, non-scary costumes. But in the Castro, there was no telling men from women, young from old- anyone could have been under there. We joined a crowd gathering around this fire-juggler and I turned around to make sure Mandy was still next to me. But instead came face-to-face with this thing. It was a monster, or alien, unlike anything I'd ever seen. It had a long beak-nose, a black face, and was wearing a black nun-like garment concealing it's whole body. Lit by the fireballs, the effect was especially scary. I turned around and tried to forget it, tried to rationalize that it was just a person under there, but couldn't. I could feel it breathing on me. So I grabbed the girls and pushed my way out of there.
But I shouldn't rule out the year that I tried to face my fear of all things scary and see the re-release of The Exorcist. In the dark theater. On Halloween. While it was brave of me to try and see one of the scariest movies ever, it didn't help me face any fear. I drove home doing eighty, convinced that if I drove fast enough nothing that might be following me could catch me. I slept with the light on for the next two nights, and for the next two months I swear to God I could feel my bed shaking.
I really don't like being scared. I am such a scary-cat that I run away from turkeys. Literally. So I was extremely excited to last minute join my friends Erin and Hillary to the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor to see the Arcade Fire play a secret show. They were, and possibly still are my favorite band, and how appropriate to see them on the night before Halloween, because a lot of their songs were about funerals and death. We got there and took the haunted tour of the College, since there was time to kill before the show. The tour was scary- the campus alone would do the trick, but if was very foggy out that night. You couldn't see two feet past the dock to the water, and they had some girl in a white dress follow us. It was totally scary.
So I was really glad to be home this past Halloween, in no danger of getting scared. Josh was gone, so even though I was home alone, I planned on cooking dinner, showering and watching a non-scary movie. I had just finished the shower part of my night, walking out of the bathroom in only a robe, when someone knocked on the window, hard, frantic and relentless. I jumped three feet in the air, my breath was caught in my chest and my heart skipped two beats. Someone was be getting chased. Someone was murdered and they need me to call 911. It was a trick my some crazed rapist dressed as a werewolf. I ran to the door and opened it, unsure what I'd find... and it was my neighbor, a full grown man dressed as a dinosaur. Holding a drink. He wanted to invite me to his party, but didn't see my doorbell.
