Halloween Three (Not the Movie)

It's been about two months since I've blogged - spookey, huh?

Halloween is my least favorite holiday. As kids my sister and I would have to be driven the mile or so between houses to trick-or-treat. Rural trick or treating is probably one of the best kept secrets of the country. Most folks in the town of Abbot, Maine, were lucky to get three or four trick or treaters total so homeowners would make elaborate Halloween goodie bags - none of the city "take one piece" nonsense at the hoards of ghosts, princesses and movie of the year characters with the occassional ATV-sized cadillac stroller mixed in. Anyway, most years we were too poor to get proper costumes so we'd decorate paper bags and cut out two eye holes. Well, that childhood memory didn't really bother me too badly until as a teenager I heard crude boys make comments about how some girls would have smoking hot bodies but an ugly face - and you know the saying "put a paper bag over her head." My dreaded nickname in school was also Ogre (thanks to a 'tool' of a maiden name) so that didn't help matters any.

Flash forward a few decades and this year Edward was Darth Vader and Zachary was Darth Maul. JG was Indiana Jones (insert word "sexy") he was equipped with a bull whip we bought during our road trip adventure in April when we stopped in Mark Twain's home town of Hannnibal, Missouri earlier this year.

JG is much better at Halloween than I am. Last year I was Marge Simpson. (Oddly enough it was timed the same week as her debut on an adult magazine cover.) Green dress, pearls and blue-colored hairspray and so much cement-like gel and only one person looked at me. Edward was a samauri and Zachary was a .... drawing a blank .... Scream? Something cloaky with a mask, I know that for sure.

Three Halloweens ago was the only 31st of October the four of us have spent together - it was also a month before JG and I were engaged. The kids were being such 'demons' we outright cancelled trick-or-treating. This was the night that the main water pressure valve in the house burst causing water damage to both bathrooms and the boys' bedroom. I couldn't even imagine what the damage would have been if we had been out trick-or-treating that night.

Yesterday when JG and I were skyping, he made the comment that Halloween was his favorite holiday but he didn't care much to celebrate. This deployment has been by far much more difficult for the both of this compared to his deployment last year. The only thing I've been good at is taking out my frustration, disappointment and anger out on him - something I'm not proud of.