Halloween Memories

Yay!!! It's October, my favorite month of the year! The air gets cooler and crisp, and that smokey crunchy leave smell starts to waft through the breeze. But most importantly October means Halloween, my favorite holiday of the year!

 Halloween is awesome. I mean seriously, what other time of the year do you get to dress up anyway you want and get away with it? And let's not forget candy. How amazing is it that one night a year you get to dress up in crazy fun clothes and then get paid to do it with candy???? Yeah yeah, candy is for the kids. But in our house, we have whats called a candy tax. If I take the time to take my kids out at night I feel that it is only fair that I get a little treat too. The candy tax is determined by hold old the child is and how much work I have to do for them. If Im holding their bags or light sabers or masks from house to house, I get more candy. It's simple, fair, and my kids have never known anything different. It's pure genius (I think so at least). Everyone is happy!

One thing I noticed about myself though, is that over the past few years I've held back on dressing up. A part of that is due to having more kids to wrangle into their costumes and its just easier to throw something together that's not exactly what I would really want. Another reason is that J is not the dress up type and I feel odd being the only adult in full regalia. But this year I got to thinking about how much I love dressing in costumes, and my kids are still young enough to not be embarrassed by me. In fact, Ashe pleaded with me to be Robin this year as he has a Batman costume. And I realize that wont be the case for much longer. But the memeories of childhood Halloween last forever.

My favorite memory as a kid, was probably the reason why I love Halloween as much as I do now. When I was growing up we lived in a small town on a farm and our closest neighbors were at least a half mile away. It made for poor trick or treating. However one year my mom got this great idea to make it easier for us kids. She decided that we would use my pony as transportation. I wanted to be a Princess for halloween, and my mom and I decided to transform my pony into a unicorn. We made a horn and got nontoxic wash out pink hair dye spray which we sprayed on my ponys mane and tail. She was beautiful and fit for a princess.

Riding my "Unicorn" down the dark streets with my mom nearby, stopping to get candy was just awesome. And after Halloween, we tried washing out the hair dye on my pony but it wouldnt come out. So my poor pony had hot pink hair for about a month until it faded. The cars driving by our corral would stop often and people would stare. I still giggle when I think of that. It eventually faded with no ill effect.

And now as an adult I think about that memory and kind of wish my kids had a pony to have a memory like that. But since we don't (and won't) I think it's time to grow up a bit and do what I can to make my kids have an awesome Halloween. I want them to love it as much as I do so that when they have kids of their own they'll say to their wives "Man, my favorite holiday is halloween. I remember this one time, my mom was cool enough to dress up as Robin when I was Batman. It was so awesome!" If I can pass on that love of fun, and the knowledge that Halloween is for all, not just kids, I'll feel like I passed on an important lesson. Life can be fun/ you just have to take advantage of it. And have a candy tax!

Downhill to Domesticity

I have been struggling with an aspect of myself that I'm not sure I'm ready to face. I mean, I know I am, but that doesn't mean I have to admit it. Do I?  When I think of myself, I use the terms Sarcastic, Coffee Lover, Gamer Chick, and Mom. But a recent event struck me full in the face of something I never wanted to own up to. I still don't, but I'd be an utter lier if I didn't face the fact that I have to officially use the term (once in a blue moon)

  Domestic.

UGH! I even hate typing the word, let alone adding it on to the adjectives that can be used to describe me! And yet there it is. I looked myself full in the face through my bathroom mirror the other morning, and after a few minutes of rebelling against the truth, I mentally admitted to my inner self that yes, I am domesticated. how did this realization come about? It has to do with a vacuum cleaner...


I have never had decent luck with vacuums, but I have also never bothered to purchase a decent one. Vacuums are an annoyance, a have to, something I didn't want to waste precious finances on if I could spend it instead on other fun things when we had a couple extra bucks to spare. Our last house was mainly hardwood floor so it became even less of an issue for years. When we moved to NC, I purchased a little electric floor sweeper that did the job alright enough for me. It did ok enough on the few carpeted areas we had that I never really cared about having a real vacuum. We did get one once, and it died after 5 months, probably from consuming too many Lego pieces left behind. Im sure it choked to death.

But then we moved to our new home and this place is covered in carpets. WHITE carpets! (Ok maybe not white anymore, but they were white when we moved in...) And seriously any little crumb on the floor was visible from the other side of the room. What sucks even more is that for some reason, some idiot thought it would be a REALLY GOOD IDEA if the dining room floor was white carpet. Obviously these morons are not parents. But I digress.

For a few months I made do with my little electric sweeper. It took 4-5 sweeps to get all of the crumbs off the carpet, but I made do as best I could. Until it got to be too much. I found myself bouncing between trying to vacuum everyday (not fun) or going a week without vacuuming, because let's face it.... the crumbs would be back in 5 minutes with 2 little boys in the house, and I didn't have the energy to spend 15 minutes a day cleaning one damn carpet. I recognized something needed to change. And that change meant I needed a real honest to goodness vacuum. One that I could pull out and clean the carpets in 5 minutes instead of 15-20. One that got deep down and pulled up any dust meshed into the fabric. One that survived Legos.

So I did what any Mom in my situation would do. I asked my friends. I popped on TM and asked all the moms to tell me about their vacuums. Which did they like? which survived for long periods of time? How much did they cost? Was it worth it? within a day I had 2 pages of women all over the triangle telling me about their vacuums. and the one that won the most raves hands down was a Dyson.

It was eye opening, in a funny way, reading the posts, to realize that I had no clue what the hell a Dyson was. People who had them LOVED them! People who didnt, knew they were good. Me? I had to google what a Dyson even was. Now I knew they were going to be expensive but my eyes nearly popped out of my socket when I saw the myriad of price tags. Holy hell!!! Vacuums are flipping expensive!!!!! But everyone said that it was totally worth the investment. and when you have that many women all agree on one thing, you have to take note.

So I took my information and laid it out before J. I needed a new vacuum for my happiness. My happiness equaled his happiness. He would also be happy because I could actually make our floor clean(er). And if we were going to get a real vacuum I wanted one that would last longer than 5 months.I told him I asked around for reviews and had a bunch who said Dyson was the way to go. I warned him they were expensive, but it was a good investment. You know, for clean floors and our mutual happiness, etc.

He listened to my case, said he would do his own research, and we would talk that night at dinner. Come dinner time, a pale faced J walked upstairs, sat down for dinner, and said that he had done his own research.
 "And" I ask?
"Holy hell those are expensive."
"Yeah."
"But all the reviews I read also said it was worth the investment. You sure you want this?"
"Want? No. Need? We need it."
"OK then."

~~~~~~~

And so my dilemma began. I actually got excited to purchase a vacuum. Like it was some trip to a day spa or something instead of some $300 tool that sucks up crumbs and scares babies with its loud noise. I was impatient as I waited for our new vacuum to arrive. I couldn't wait to try it out!!! I was gonna suck up all that dust and dirt and crumbs in no time flat! But as I thought this, there was a small inner voice inside my head mocking me. Seriously?, it would say. You're THAT excited over a vacuum? What the hell happened to you? You're as excited as you would be if you were off to see your favorite metal band play. Wow, B, you have really fallen low. You're like, domestic or something. How adult of you. How sad...

No matter what I did that voice was always there. And it hasn't shut up. I think I have to come to terms with the fact that yes, I am domestic before it goes away. I'm a Stay at home mom with 3 boys, a kick ass loving and supportive husband, and I volunteer at a mother support site. I am a gamer chick, and can virtually kick your butt with a dagger, crossbow, and sword, while wearing leather corsets and knee high boots. I listen to heavy metal in foreign languages, have my red stripe in my black hair, my 2 tattoos and nose ring. My van has skulls on it. AND I love my Dyson vacuum.


So yeah, I'm domesticated. But that doesn't mean I have to succumb to boring. Right?

You Can Call Me A Grown Up But I Refuse To Admit It!

Ooooh a post NOT about my kids! How... different...


I have proof, that while I may "technically" be what most would call an adult, I definitely have not grown up in maturity level! I thought I would share some of my evidence to dispel any rumors you may have heard of me, but really because I still giggle at my cheesiness.

When I first created this blog long ago, I mentioned that as well as a mom I am also a gamer chick. J and I have been gaming for years together. The past 6 years we've spent mainly with a group of awesome folks in a guild named Bane. Bane had its roots in an MMO EverQuest, and when EQ2 came out, they moved there to become an amazing team that balanced both game achievements and real life without drama. I hate drama and I have a real life so this was a good fit. We were one of the top 5 guilds on our server as far as raid progression, yet we were the only ones in the top 5 who could actually call themselves "casual". It was a perfect blend.

After 6 years in the game, with little breaks here and there, Bane recently decided that we had achieved as much as we could in the game, people were tired of the same stuff, and we needed something new. And within a week, the majority of us moved to a different MMO World of Warcraft (WoW). You see, we learned that for the most part, it's not the game that really matters, but the people you play a game with. So even most of those who were leery of switching gears were willing to give it a chance.


And that's where my immaturity kicked into high gear!

While I am a normally sarcastic and cheesy person, in our previous game I often stayed quiet in chat. For one reason I wasn't sure how my sarcasm would come across as text is a lot harder to read than tone. I didnt feel like pissing off my Guild Leader, heh. Another reason was that when I logged on it was to raid, and I had so much going on in my screen, it's hard to keep up text banter while mashing buttons, listening to people shout directions through my headset, pay attention to details I needed to shout out in my microphone.... and when we wiped (died agonizing virtual deaths) I tended to alt out and catch up on my other nonpaying volunteer job as Promotions manager for my mothers support group.

But with a change in games and play style,there is  a more relaxed feeling as we all level up together and have no raids to worry about for awhile. We guildies, including our Guild Leader, are reclaiming the excitement of a new game together. Every sentence in guild chat ends in an exclamation point (seriously... I've actually started mocking people who do it by responding back in kind. I'm waiting for them to figure that out lol). But finally I am letting my virtual hair down. And I'm having a ball! Also, I cant seem to stop the cheesy sarcastic comments I normally joked under my breath.

So the proof comes from a request from our Guild Leader, to provide him with interesting screenshots of the game and our new characters, so that he can update our forum. I asked him to define "interesting". He said have fun with it. So I did. I went around the virtual world with my character, and posed her in silly positions. And I chortled the entire time. So much so that J thought I was beginning to lose my mind. Maybe I was. But I had fun doing it and that's all that matters.

I won't inundate this blog with the 30 or so images I got, but I did want to put up a few to prove that I am definitely as immature as my 8 yr old, and maybe even more so. I'll start with a regular photo.

This is a portrait photo of my character, Meiune, and her faithful owl, who tends to save her ass more often than I care to count. I had to take 1 normal photo for our forum update. But then I went to town.

It all started with this photo. Earlier in the evening Ryki, our Leader, asked for interesting photos. I saw this wood carving off a path and just started laughing. All I could imagine was the painting "The Scream" by Edvard Munch. I ran over and started playing with my emotes until I found one close enough to mimic the carving. This image is now my computer wallpaper.

The caption for our update that ran through my mind as I posed this was "We're so hardcore we dance on cannons in our skivvies in the dead of winter.... or was that crazy?" It was a pain in the ass to get my character up on the cannon, and I'm sure I got more than a few odd looks as I ran around in bra and panties. But it was worth any new rumors that may abound on our server about my sanity.

There is a museum in one of the cities, and I started off behaving. I really did well too! for about 3 minutes. And then I couldn't help myself....

The Museum guards started frowning and muttering to each other when I started dancing with a giant Ram skeleton. Fortunately, they didn't catch me trying to scale the bones so I could get a photo of me riding it like a horse. (I even brought my cowboy hat with me just in case too)

This is was taken right before I was firmly escorted out of Iron Forges museum.By 15 armed Dwarves. And informed me that I was not welcome anymore unless under direct supervision of a mature grown up.  Totally worth it. It's a good thing they never saw me doing the chicken dance with the nest of fossilized Dragon eggs on display.....

So there. Physical proof I never grew up. Now excuse me while I go photoshop an image of virtual me ina bikini  into a polaroid with the caption "Wish you were here..."