Just thought I'd start the day off with a little eye-opener ;)
Excuse me for being immature, but it's October 22nd. Which means soon, it's . . . . . . . .
HALLOWEEN!
Though I outgrew trick-or-treating in like, eleventh grade, Halloween is still one of my all-time favorite holidays. The costume parties, the haunted houses, the bobbing of apples -- definitely a rush of blood to the head.
It isn't very widely celebrated here in Korea -- major sadness -- but I still bought costumes from an online shop. Just to get myself in the mood and all.
My options: slutty maid or slutty pirate.
Considering I won't actually be attending a costume party here (unless I host one.......hmmm...), I'm not quite sure why I have these. But I'll figure out a use for them sooner or later. I'll save them for next year when I'm back in the states if I must!
I suppose the excitement of Halloween is the same idea as the appeal of paranormal romance; people love the adrenaline, the supernatural, the magic of possibility. Even if nothing actually happens by the end of the night, we at least keep in mind that it is that initial, fluttering hope that makes it all worth it.
For my last day on the island I thought I'd share some fun facts about Halloween!
Before Christianity was introduced to Ireland, Halloween as we know it dates back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. November 1st was the end of summer and their harvest, and the beginning of winter. The Celts believed that on October 31, the line between the world of the living and dead blurred and that a veil was lifted. The Celts needed their harvests to survive so out of respect, they built huge bonfires and sacrificed animals. In addition, they dressed up in various ghoulish costumes in the hopes of disguising their human form to spirits roaming the earth. Interesting, but I like the idea of dressing up as a pirate or bar wench and drinking vampire martinis a lot more.
Here are some more cool facts about this impending holiday:
1. The next full moon on Halloween will be October 31, 2020 so get ready!
2. A pumpkin is a fruit.
3. Orange and black are associated with Halloween because orange is associated with the Fall Harvest and black with death.
4. Bobbing for apples is thought to have been derived from the Roman harvest festival that honors the goddess Pamona.
5. Halloween was brought to America by European immigrants.
6. Black cats are connected with Halloween because they are thought to help witches.
7. In Mexico, they celebrate Dias de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) on November 2nd.
8. Are you afraid of Halloween? You might have Samhainophobia.
9. The original Halloween movie was made in only 21 days.
10. Some ‘vampire bats’ actually do drink blood but they don’t feast on people. In South and Central America they chow down on cattle and other animals.
11. Eighty six percent of Americans decorate for Halloween. (And I'm one of them)
12. Halloween is the second most celebrated holiday after….you guessed it, Christmas!
13. Orange isn’t the only color of pumpkins. They also come in blue, white, and green!
14. Harry Houdini died on Halloween in 1926 at the age of 52 from peritonitis.
15. Supposedly if you see a spider on Halloween, it’s the spirit of a loved one watching over you. (Too bad if it’s one of my relatives cuz they’re getting squished if they’re in my house)
Thanks for hanging out with me these last few days! Halloween is fast approaching so I hope you've got your costume and fun cocktail recipes ready! :)
I don’t know about you but I LOVE this month. Technically I think Fall starts in September but not where I live. Only in the past couple weeks has the humidity died and the air conditioning shut off on a permanent basis. And the weather changes are just the icing on the cake. October is all about Halloween which means fun costumes, old school (and newer) horror movies, Fall decorations, and…candy! Lots and lots of candy! I don’t have kids but I don’t need an excuse to buy all the fun treats. Forget about the Christmas month, October is usually when I pack on a few extra pounds.
In addition to the chocolately goodness, let’s not forget the fun cocktails! Solely for this blog, I did a bit of research (see the pictures!) and found the vampire kiss martini. It was tough but I suffered through making and drinking this awesomeness. I actually tweaked it a bit and if I’d been able to find something called the lycan or werewolf martini I’d have gone with that but this is still good too.
Vampire Kiss Martini Ingredients:
1 ½ oz. Raspberry Vodka,
1 ½ oz champagne,
Red food coloring,
Sugar,
Black licorice (or strawberries),
Cranberry juice (optional)
How to make this: Mix sugar and red food coloring together on a small plate. Pour corn syrup on another small plate, then roll the rim of the martini glass around the corn syrup plate. Next, roll it on the sugared plate. The corn syrup will slowly drip along the outside of the glass creating a funky, ‘bloody’ look.
In a shaker mix the raspberry vodka and champagne, (and I added a splash of light cranberry juice for color) then strain into the glass. Garnish with a stick of black licorice or with a cut strawberry. After testing it I realized the black licorice tastes a bit gross so my vote is to go with the strawberry. In addition, you can slice up additional strawberries and drop them in your cocktail to soak up the vampire goodness. They’re a delicious snack and healthy!
The original recipe is found here but please note that I tweaked it for my personal preference.
After I made this drink I remembered why I don’t miss bartending! It’s slightly more time consuming than making a regular martini or a simple mixed drink, but it’s fun for the upcoming holiday! Enjoy!
Since this is October, I figured chatting about all things paranormal (or mildly related to it) seemed appropriate for my blog days. Despite my love of this time of year, a seriously freaky thing happened to me a few years ago, not too long after I’d gotten married. At the time my hubby and I were living in Swansboro, NC, just north of Camp Lejeune. Brief factoid: Ever read Nicholas Sparks’ The Guardian? I haven’t but apparently the story takes place there. It’s an adorable little coastal town rich in history. Anywho, somehow we’d managed to get a house right downtown within walking distance of everything. They were always having cool festivals so it was perfect. I know the word ‘old’ is relative but the house we lived in was fairly old (maybe late 1800s/early 1900s) and while I loved it, there was always an odd vibe to it.
The house was a small two bedroom place with all (real) hardwood floors. The kitchen and living room were separated by swinging doors and the living room and bedrooms were separated by an arched entryway. In that arched area, I’d hung a cute, ornate antique-looking lantern which was purely for decoration. A tiny tea light came with it so I left it inside it. One night the man and I were bundled up on the couch watching a movie (the heat in the place sucked) and the tea light flared to life. Holy crap, it scared the hell out of me. You ever get that really sick feeling and your whole body turns cold and hot? I still shiver thinking about it.
I thought for sure the man was playing a trick on me (even though he was sitting next to me and we lived alone). I punched him in the arm and started to yell at him until I saw the horrified expression on his face. My husband—a former Marine (sniper) who earned his nickname Tracer from running directly into enemy fire in the dark of night and the only thing his peeps could see were tracers flying all around him—looked ready to run out the front door and never come back. Not that I blame him. I think if our fireplace (which barely worked) had flared to life, we’d have both probably hightailed it, but in the end we just blew out the candle and it never mysteriously lit after that. Looking back maybe it’s not soooo scary, but at the time I found it hard to sleep the next couple days. Later we found out that the lady who had owned the house had died there so who knows what that little fire-flare was all about.
Anyone have any ghost stories or just creepy paranormal stories? Please share!
(I'm going to apologize for this post - it's pretty rambly)
Can you smell it in the air? Can you feel it in your bones? It's that subtle atmospheric eeriness that can only mean one thing: It's HALLOWEEN.
The Cylon Jack-o-lantern says it is Halloween.
Halloween is my favorite holiday of the year. For a week (or in some cases, like SyFy's), cable channels play horror movies back to back. Stores have these deliciously tempting Halloween cookies and treats. Theme parks transform at night into giant haunted festivals (for example, tonight I am going to Universal Studios' awesome Halloween Horror Nights event). What's not to love about Halloween?
It also can be an infuriating time of year though. One thing I both love and hate is the inevitable process of picking out a costume. When we were younger it was a whole lot easier to pick the perfect costume (or at least it was in my mind!). In elementary school, I was a ballerina princess, a vampire killer (inexplicably my "vampire killer" also happened to be a vampire. I don't know. I thought it was really cool at the time), Morticia Adams (because even though I was ten, I didn't want to be Wednesday), a devil lady, and Leonardo. From the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
But now that we're older, things have become a whole lot more complicated. There are plenty of costumes out there and a plethora of specialty stores, but it's a challenge to get the PERFECT outfit (that hopefully no one else will be wearing). I have a long term boyfriend who is less enthusiastic about Halloween, and doing couple costumes has gotten increasingly tough over the years. Walking into a costume store is a nightmare - they are jammed full of frantic people, and overpriced, poorly made garb.
And then there's the question that every girl must face (at least out here in California for twenty-five year old me it's a big deal) - do you go with the Super!Slutty!Costume-in-a-bag? Or do you attempt to do something different, unique, and with a little more dignity?
I've always tried to shy away from the Super!Slutty!Costume-in-a-bag route (though I admit I've been a ridiculous ladybug before. It was my first year in college. I didn't know better!). You know what costumes I'm talking about, right? They're regular occupations or storybook characters or animals, just made Super!Slutty. Case in point:
Super!Slutty!Police Officer and Super!Slutty!Bumblebee
The thing is, you see a billion of these costumes - multiple people wearing the SAME. SLUTTY. COSTUMES. at any Halloween party. It's ridiculous. So the challenge then becomes, to come up with something that is fun, clever, current, and hopefully that no one else will be wearing at the event.
Unfortunately, as a book geek, my favorite costume ideas by and large get no love or recognition - for example, this year I wanted to do Katniss and Peeta from The Hunger Games/Catching Fire (some kind of variation on Cinna's costumes for them during the presentations during the books). I even have a mockingjay pin! But the boyfriend and everyone else shot down this idea (i.e. "What the heck is a Katniss? PETA like the organization?" etc, etc). So I resort to films. The year before Batman Begins came out, the boyfriend and I were Batman and Robin. We've also done Star Wars (Padme/Anakin), and a completely inappropriate but funny Full Metal Jacket style Army guy and South East Asian Woman (as I'm half caucasian and half Filipino, I feel like I can own this joke). Lately it's been rough trying to find a costume that fits the both of us well so we've done a few solo jobs (Snow White with Native American Indian, Lara Croft with Mr. Clean). But THIS year, I think we've found a great one.
For 2009, we've finally at long last come up with a costume idea that I think is pretty solid. After trying and discarding a number of ideas (Rufio and Peter Pan, Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog) we've settled on:
The Comedian and Sally Jupiter, the original, real Silk Spectre! (My dress isn't nearly that short though, thank goodness. And the boyfriend will be the Comedian from his death scene - bathrobe, cigar, bloody smiley face button and all)
Granted, a lot of folks probably won't know who we are, but it's more widely known than Katniss and Peeta. Sigh. Plus, the boyfriend agreed to it.
So my question to you, dear DIK-ers is: What are YOU going to be for Halloween? Any costume stories you want to share? I'm all ears!
And finally, I leave you with my contribution to the "Freaky Tunes" segment here on DIK. I give you....the BOLLYWOOD THRILLER!!!!!!!!!!! Beware. This WILL make you laugh uncontrollably.
Lyrics (These are NOT the real lyrics, but are based on what the lyrics sound like in English - transcribed by some clever soul):
Gosh, my old calculator ain’t got no bow! Nipply man I met, he ate my motorboat! Calm down and park that comfy shin guard armor! Welcome the dude who ain’t the buyer of mugs.
Songs don't really scare me but this one always did give me the creeps. Maybe it's the Michael Jackson werewolf transformation? Or, the choreographed Zombies bursting from graves which then dance along with other monsters?
Or, maybe it's Michael's red leather jacket? Yikes... Werewolves, Zombies and space aliens... Oh my!
Then there is Vincent Price's very distinct deep scary voice narrating..... Now that was Halloween creepy...
Following with the current theme of creepy Halloween thingies, I offer the following songs that make my Creepy Song List. Enjoy...
First up... the Boogie Man!! Run!! Hide!! Save yourselves! *grin*
I'm Your Boogie Man lyrics: I'm your boogieman That's what I am I'm here to do whatever I can Be it early mornin', late afternoon Or at midnight, it's never too soon
to want to please you to want to please you I wanna do it all, all for you I wanna be your, be your lover boy I wanna be the one, ya love most of all - oh yeah
I'm your boogieman, boogieman (Turn me on) I'm your boogieman, boogieman (Do what you want) I'm your boogieman, boogieman (Turn me on) I'm your boogieman, boogieman (Do what you want)
I'm your boogieman That's what I am I'm here to do whatever I can Be it early mornin', late afternoon Or at midnight, it's never too soon
to want to hold you I want to hold you I wanna give me all, all to you And I want you, to completely understand Just where I'm at, and where I am - oh yeah
I'm your boogieman, boogieman (Turn me on) I'm your boogieman, boogieman (Do what you want) I'm your boogieman, boogieman (Turn me on) I'm your boogieman, boogieman (Do what you want)
I'm your boogieman That's what I am I'm here to do whatever I can Be it early mornin', late afternoon Or at midnight, it's never too soon
I wanna be with you I wanna be with you Yeah we'll be together, you and me I wanna see you Ah get near you I wanna love you Ah from sundown sunup - oh yeah oh yeah
I'm your boogieman That's what I am I'm here to do whatever I can Be it early mornin', late afternoon Or at midnight, it's never too soon To want to please you I wan to keep you To wanna do it all, all for you I wanna be your, be your lover boy I wanna be the one Ya love most of all I'm your boogieman ---
and because I HATE spiders...creepy crawly Boris the Spider- EEEKK!!
Boris The Spider lyrics: Look, he's crawling up my wall Black and hairy, very small Now he's up above my head Hanging by a little thread
Boris the spider Boris the spider
Now he's dropped on to the floor Heading for the bedroom door Maybe he's as scared as me Where's he gone now, I can't see
