What Do You Call A Hot Dog With Nothing Inside?

A hollow weenie!

Get it? Har, har, har!

Thanks to Howard Cunningham of Happy Days - Season Two for that little gem.

I love Halloween. It's definitely my favourite holiday. Yep, even a lil' more than Christmas. I love the Christmas season, and especially Christmas Eve, but Christmas Day itself is always anticlimactic. Meanwhile, I've always enjoyed getting dressed up in costume, and I also have a healthy appreciation for the spooky side of life (or death, as the case may be).

When I was a little kid at summer camp, I was known for having all the best ghost stories or the creepiest tales -- most of which I stole from my Grandma's Reader's Digest's "Believe It or Not" column. I think one year, when I was only about 9 or 10, I had a bunch of girls in my cabin convinced that I was psychic. I have no idea how they even came to this conclusion? I must've made a few lucky guesses here n' there, and the next thing you know, everyone is asking me what I think they're going to be when they grow up.

Ha. I had almost completely forgotten about that memory. How random!

Anyhow, my point is I've always been in love with that kinda stuff. I'm sure if you checked any library records from my childhood, you'd find that I always frequented the supernatural sections. I totally became obsessed with this one book that encompassed everything from ghosts to big foot. I must've checked it out half a dozen times, yet for the life of me, I can't remember what the book was called.

I remember there were two "real" photos of ghosts. These two pictures must've really captivated my young mind, because I still remember those pictures today.

I also remember that there was a drawing of a man looking into a mirror, and his reflection was the back of his head. On that same page, I believe there was a story about how everyone in the world has a doppleganger and should you ever meet them, you will die instantly. And then it told a tale about a guy who was visiting some foreign country, when a man on a horse approached him, lifted his veil and said in Spanish, "Now you may die." And of course, it was the dude's dopplegagner. Imagine that!

Oh yeah... as you can clearly tell, I really was obsessed with this book.

Anyhow, with an innate flair for all things supernatural, trippy and bizarre, it would only be natural that Halloween would be my most favoritest holiday.

In anticipation, we usually fill the month of October with spooky or campy movies almost every night; however, this year it feels that October flew by way too fast, leaving us with a list of movies we had still intended to watch. Not to mention, I never pulled out any of our decorations, organized some plans or decided on a costume.

Sigh.

So, yesterday I figured that something is better than nothing, so I pulled all the decorations out of storage and raided the Dollar Store for a few more. If we're gonna spend our Halloween siting around the house watching scary movies, then I at least want some decent ambiance, dammit!

I've also decided that for a costume, I'm gonna just toss together a mishmash of clothes, scarves and jewelry and dress up as a gypsy. I was partially inspired by that wicked old woman in Drag Me to Hell. I even bought a skull-shaped eye patch at the Dollar Store yesterday, but unfortunately it sucks, so I'm not going to wear it.

Yes, I'm dressing up even if we just end up sitting around the house for the night. Although I think we if go to the effort of dressing up, then we might have to go out for a drink somewhere... most likely the pub next door... so at least we can pretend to look like we have real plans for the evening. Ha ha. Hmm... and then I think we should take photos of ourselves and text them to all our friends saying, "Wish you were here!" and make it seem like we're having the time of our lives.

Ah yes... so now you know what I'll be doing tonight. In fact, I think I'm gonna go treat myself to a bubble bath, maybe do a little meditating, and then start getting my costume together.

Happy haunting!