Happy Halloween

I'm not a fan of Halloween - never have been. It was fun as a kid, but the idea of putting on an elaborate costume to be uncomfortable for the night doesn't have any appeal to me as an adult - I like the simpler, cleverer costume ideas*. And it's kinda sad to see people my age use a holiday like Halloween as an excuse to act irresponsibly.

Halloween is and should be for kids. I live in an apartment building, so unless my 20-something-year-old neighbors really want me to start judging them, I don't expect any trick-or-treaters. That's really a shame as I'm at a place in life where I might actually enjoy handing out candy to children ages 11 and under - if you're 12 you're too old, unless you have a sibling age 5 and under who you are responsible for taking trick-or-treating. I plan to be the exclusive Halloween distributor of the OhHenry candy bar, and I do plan to check IDs - well no, not really.

This year I am not going to be celebrating Halloween, and I'm quite happy about that. Instead, I'll be heading down to Washington D.C. with my girlfriend, who is running the Marine Corps Marathon on Sunday. I'm looking forward to the trip, both as an opportunity to get away and to support someone I care very much about as she does something very remarkable.

* The last two years I've gone out on Halloween dressed as Clark Kent, a character with whom I identify quite a lot. I didn't want to repeat that costume last year, but didn't have any better ideas. Actually I did - I wanted to wear a suit and carry a backpack over my shoulder and tell people I was Josh Lyman. But sadly no one was going to get that costume, even though it would have killed when I lived in VA. This year I wanted to be Chuck, another character with whom I identify. Would be a great costume that sadly too few would recognize.