Today, November 2, 2012

Today’s project: Halloween aftermath

I planned on posting today about Halloween – showing pics of the girls in their costumes and talking about the party at school that I helped with.  Then I had one of the most real ‘waking dreams’ I’ve ever had in my whole life, and I realized some stuff.  And my Strong Opinion Friend told my I must blog about it.  (If you knew this friend, you would understand why one can't really say 'no' to her. =) )

I’m weird.  I know this.  I’ve accepted it.  If you knew my parents, you would know that I come by it naturally.  But since they are some of the coolest people I know, I consider myself lucky to be born of such strange stock. =)

Everyone has little quirks and I’m proud to say that mine extend to dreams.  I’m prone to what I call ‘waking dreams.’  These are a series of dreams where I dream that I wake up, and then I dream that I wake up, and then I dream that I wake up again.  I will have several of these in succession so that sometimes when I DO actually wake up, I have to take a couple of minutes to see if I’m actually awake or just still dreaming.  Often in these dreams, I’ll start my day, getting up and taking a shower or having a conversation with loved ones.  Then later, I have to stop and consider which part was ‘real’ and what was not.  The conversations are a little strange in content but are very realistic otherwise, which tends to freak me out a little. My sweetie always looks at me a little askew when I have to say, ‘Did we really discuss the virtues of Malibu Barbie versus Iron Man?’

Usually, there are little things that let me know that it was a dream and not real. Such as the content of the conversations, or the fact that the shower was bigger, etc. This time, I was totally fooled by my clever subconscious. Dang it.

My dear sweetie has quite a drive to work in the morning and has to be there by at least 7:45, and so he leaves pretty early - generally before I have managed to get my happy butt out of bed.  Not a big deal, generally; he leaves and I roll over for a few more minutes of shut-eye before dragging babies out of bed and kicking them out the door to school.

Now, I would have stood before GOD himself and swore that this is what happened this morning:

He left as usual, giving me a sweet peck on the head as he went out of the room.  Then he came back, laid down next to me and then…said nothing for a bit.  Having been ‘wakened’ by his return, I annoyingly say, ‘What do you need?’  At this point, he, in a loving, ‘I just want to help’ kind of way, proceeds to tell me that the mess in the living room is a little much.  ‘Can I take some of the stuff to my school for you?  To get it out of the house/way?’ he asks.  This is a dumb idea cuz I will just make him bring it right back again; which is exactly what I tell him.  Some more kibitzing goes on back and forth that I can’t quite remember and then I say, ‘Can I just go back to sleep now?’  I feel guilty for being so cranky, but I’m stinking tired!  He gets up, gives me another peck on the head and says that he’ll see me later tonight for the good night kiss he didn’t get last night.

Ok, so I wake up (for real this time) about an hour later, and thinking that this conversation actually occurred, am pretty peeved.  I send my love an email as an opportunity to apologize as well as a ‘head’s up’ that he’s in trouble and about to get it.

The email reads:  'Did you come in and complain to me about a mess this morning? Please tell me I dreamed it.'

As I wait for his reply, I’m obsessively formulating clever and scathing retorts for his ‘mess issues’ which include, but are not limited to, pointing out the underwear on the floor and such.

His reply causes no shortage of chagrin on my part:  'Nope.  You were dreaming.  I haven’t complained about anything in a long time.'

Ahem.  Ahem, I say.  Never mind! =)

The weirdness continues dear reader!  After I had this email discussion/apology with my love, I opened my daily horoscope message to see this:

‘Your dreams may get your heart racing because they seem so real.’

Crreeeeeeeepppppppyyyyyyyy!

Back to the things that occurred to me (and apologies for the short-story-long)…

I like Halloween, but really, the things I like best about this holiday are the scary, weird things.  Like horror movie marathons.  And spooky ‘true’ ghost stories.  And ‘what-the-heck-was-that-noise’ feelings.  The costumes and candy…I could care less about really.  When you are an actor, playing dress-up is your job and so it loses a lot of its appeal.  The best analogy I can come up with is thinking that a cardiologist would be excited about a blood drive.  Additionally, since I’m stuck making costumes for the kids for weeks beforehand, I’m usually just glad it’s over.

When a holiday rolls around, I feel like we are usually so wrapped up in the prep and action it entails that we are relieved when it’s done. Then the decorations, as well as the sentiment and fun, get put away until next year.  With a big ‘Whew!’ the enjoyment is done and the whole thing is no more than an afterthought, a ‘remember that one time’ feeling, until it rolls around again.

And it occurred to me (FINALLY! It’s here!), that we don’t have to do that.  Why can’t we enjoy the elements that excite us about these occasions all year long? 
Why can’t I decide to wear a costume on January 15^th?  Just cuz it’s January 15^th? 

Or why can’t I make a turkey dinner with all the fixings on June 28? 

Or send cards with pictures of Santa on them in April?

So, I’ve decided, and I think you should go along with me on this trip, Dear Reader, that I’m going to have holiday fun all year long.  I’ll let you know how it goes. You do the same, ok?

Oh, yeah.  Here’s the pics I promised… =)

Moaning Myrtle

Poison Ivy

me