All Saints' Day

Call it what you may--All Saints' Day, the day after Halloween, All Hallows' Day, November 1, Day of the Dead Eve--it's what I'm going to remember in this post.

2011. I turned on the TV while I was eating breakfast before work, and they were showing an IHOP commercial with Arthur Christmas. I was sad that they were already starting Christmas commercials. I listened to my Peanuts Portraits CD in the car on the way to work so that I could listen to the songs from A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. During my lunch break, I went to a nearby place called Port of Subs and bought a sandwich called a Pilgrim Griller; it had turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce. I think I ate the sandwich there. As I was driving back to work, my CD was playing the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving songs and the mountain ahead of me was covered in freshly fallen snow. It was so wonderful. Then I went home around 5 or so. I read the newspaper and finished up the pumpkin milkshake my parents had bought me the day before. I went on my computer and traded the Halloween music in my playlist for Thanksgiving music, and posted a Facebook status: "Hooray for November! Boo for premature Christmas commercials..." Then I went to institute at the Woods Cross seminary building. Some high-schooler had written "Happy Thanksgiving" on one of the white boards, and I was kind of comforted that someone else recognized it as the beginning of the Thanksgiving season. After institute I went to Kmart. I looked at the things they had for sale, and I debated getting my mom some Thanksgiving salt and pepper shakers, but I didn't. Then I went home and went to bed.

2010. I think that this was perhaps the day when I went running in the morning and I saw the remnants of smashed pumpkins and dropped trick-or-treat goodies, including the Disney playing card sets that Costco sold. Then I went to work and I was dismayed when I walked past the envelope-filling station to hear that Nate Sevy was listening to Christmas music. How dare anyone, either radio station owners or radio station listeners, think that the demise of Halloween means the beginning of Christmas!

2009. I remember getting up in the morning and going to the Ripon church building. I think it was kind of chilly that morning. I remember thinking about how it was November, the month in which I (sadly) would be going home! During the singles branch, we were delighted when Mallary, who would be baptized later that week, got up and bore her testimony. (Oh, if only she had kept that testimony.) My journal entry probably best describes what happened that day:
"I love November. It occurred to me today that I need to be happy I still have a month left, not sad I only have a month. We had to teach Sunday School today on family responsibilities. Michael Piquet and Barbie both teared up during the lessons, I think because they both know they're not totally keeping the commandments. 

"Mallary bore her testimony today, and Brit Beck came to church. Katelyn stayed for Mallary's lesson. We lightly tracted before dinner with the Duncans. We stopped by Renee's, and then the Robisons." 

2008. We had spent the night in Airway Heights, due to insufficient miles. I think we had companion study with Elders Colton and Smith; I told them about how I had read about circumcision in the Book of Acts. But they had to get going to a service project. I heard the member they lived with, Sister Drees, remarking about how the missionaries had eaten a lot of candy from the box she had by the door. After the other elders had left, she called up, "Who's up there?" I said, "Elder Melville and Elder Love." She asked if we were going to the service project; I told her we had to go back to Ritzville. She asked about the candy and I kind of felt bad. We finally left, and we wanted to stop at the Christensens', who lived just outside of Edwall. But they weren't home. Then we went to Edwall proper; Elder Love asked me to call the Smithpeters to see if we could visit. I talked to a son or something, but I don't think the Smithpeters in the branch were home. We tracted in Edwall. I think we parked near the tiny library that was only open twice a month. We tracted most of the main street. Next door to the Smithpeters we met a man who was an inactive member of the Church. On the south end of town we met a woman who was friendly but not interested; she told us she knew some members in Edwall. (The only active members in Edwall proper were the Smithpeters.)I remember standing at one door and looking at the Halloween decoration and thinking about how I was excited that it was now November. I remember looking at the CDs Elder Love had to put in the CD player. I found one burned CD called "A Thanksgiving of American Folk Hymns." Because it had Thanksgiving in the title (and in fact I think it is marketed for Thanksgiving), I put it in. I remember Elder Love saying "I'm Runnin' On" was a weird song. Then in Ritzville we saw our investigator Amber; she gave us a whole box of full-size Baby Ruths and told us about how she didn't have many trick-or-treaters. Then we were walking by Ritzville's park and I think I tried the restroom and also ate a candy bar. We tracted a small street and a lady answered the door but closed it immediately after seeing us. This is my journal entry for the day:
"Today we went to Edwall and tracted there. I was thinking about how less-actives can be found. And we found one named Bruce, who was baptized at fourteen. Two years ago missionaries gave his kids blessings, but he doesn't want his records sent. He said we can stop by if we drive through again. 

"People weren't all too friendly today--closing the door without saying anything, completely ignoring us, and the like--but Amber gave us lots of leftover Halloween candy, we got a comeback, and had a lesson with Lucrecia, and Wanda, another less-active, was also there and receptive."

2007. In the morning I had an eye appointment. After that, I wanted to stop by the Distribution store to pick up my engraved scriptures. I drove around in Centerville but I kind of got lost. Eventually I decided I needed to turn left to get back to where I needed to be to get home; I would worry about going to Distribution another day. And it just so happened that the road where I decided to turn left was the street that Distribution was on! So I went in and got my scriptures. Then I went home. I was putting the inflatable turkey in the yard when my dad came home. Later in the afternoon I went to Walmart to get my paycheck.  When I got off the freeway, the "Check Engine" light came on. While I was at Walmart I also did some shopping.I looked at the clearance Halloween candy to see what could work for Thanksgiving. I might have bought some pumpkin eggnog. I do know that I stopped at the deli and got sundried tomato turkey. I was wearing my blue glasses. My former supervisor Kat said that she recognized me even though I was "incognito." There were some new girls working in the deli already. I think that night I attempted to clean the black polish off of my fingernails.

2006. I came home, excited to see my nephew, Preston, who was not quite two. I went downstairs, and there he and Allie (and by extension Susanne and Ya-ping) were watching a Barbie movie (The Princess and the Pauper?). Allie said to me, "This is my cousin!" as if I didn't know. Preston laughed at something in the movie and Nan said something like, "Is that funny, Buddy?" Later that night Allie and Preston were playing together. She was playing her "pounce, pounce, scurry" routine from some silly Cinderella dancing show. Preston and I played too--Preston didn't really know what was going on, but he was content to run around in circles with us.

Then my mom came home. I think she was the one who took this picture of Allie, who decided to wear the empty Halloween bucket as a hat.


2004. I remember putting out my inflatable turkey for the very first time. I think there was snow on the ground.

2002. I actually didn't exist for a large part of November 1.  At some point our airplane crossed over the International Dateline and it became November 1. It was dark out when we flew into Taipei. I remember stopping in one of the Taiwanese airport bathrooms and seeing the little trash bin next to the toilets, which I had been warned about. My armpits got really sore as I walked around with my backpack, because I had put on deodorant that gave me a rash. A girl named Donna, who had stayed with us at general conference, picked us up in a Saab; it might have been her mother's, who was impressed that someone would give up two years of their life for their religion, even though she was a Buddhist or something. (And writing this makes me realize I never mentioned Donna in my general conference memory post.) I think as we were driving we passed some lights that were meant to look like fireworks (like they have at Fat Cats in Provo). We checked into our hotel room and I think I took a shower after my parents went to bed. We were surprised to find that the bathroom had a window into the bedroom. It was opaque, but still. I think Donna showed us how to control the temperature of the room.

2000. Before school, I remember seeing some young kids on the playground sharing their Halloween candy. That day we went to the computer lab, and the board outside the classroom across from the computer lab said something like "It's turkey tieme" and they had a turkey that had neckties as its feathers.

1998. I remember getting a jack-o-lantern gumball from my yellow pillowcase while I was taking Halloween stuff down and putting Thanksgiving stuff up.

Related posts: A Year of Holiday Memories
A pillowcase full of trick-or-treat memories

UEA weekend

Because it was just barely UEA weekend, I'm going to remember as many details as I can about the UEA weekends I've experienced.

2010. Perhaps this doesn't count, because I wasn't in school. But since my mom is a teacher and I got to go on vacation with my parents, I'll count it. On Wednesday before we left, I took a job application in to Top Hat Video. My mom came home from school and got a call from a diabolical parent. Two kids in her class had come to her telling her their arms hurt (because they had been purposely hitting them against bars that connect the stair rail to the wall). After one kid's arm kept hurting, she asked him if he wanted to call home, but he wanted to play a game they were going to play. After the game he told her he wanted to call home, but since the day was almost over and he hadn't been hurting enough to not play the game, she didn't let him. But then these parents called my mom and asked her about it and she told her side of the story and the nefarious dad said,"Well, I guess it's your word against his." My mom was really mad. I said she should ask my brother to find some flesh-eating acid she could use to coat the papers that the student takes home to his parents. We got in our Rav and drove down to Kanab, Utah. We stopped at Arby's in one small town, and there was a grocery store across the street. Eventually we got to our hotel in Kanab. One of the books in the room was Gordon B. Hinckley's book Standing for Something. I think I read the introduction of it. We got up very early the next morning (Thursday) to go to Lake Powell. We were sitting in a parking lot before it was time to get on our boat. We munched on the snacks in our car and watched all the people at this place. Everyone was old and the building had jack-o-lanterns in their gardens. Then we got on our boat to go to Rainbow Bridge. A foreign woman sat next to me; she was one of the few people on the top of the boat (besides us) who weren't senior citizens. They told us that there were lemonade and water down below, and that the people who had seats on top could go down, but those who had seats below couldn't go on top. They had narration on our headsets about the history of the area, describing early explorers and Indian artifacts, and I remember thinking what a shame it was that all that beauty and history was covered with water. Eventually we got to Rainbow Bridge. We made it to a dock with floating restrooms. We walked up to see Rainbow Bridge; they encouraged people not to go directly to it because it was sacred to Indians. I remember seeing some plants that you wouldn't expect in a desert. Then we got back on the boat; as we did so, we watched the ravens sitting in people's boats. Then we got back to the parking lot; I remember thinking that the boat ride was way too long for what you got. Then we drove down to the Grand Canyon. I think we ate at a Burger King and I wanted to listen to the Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack. We made it into Arizona and I was impressed by the yellow leaves of the aspen trees. We were driving down the road when a police car was coming the other way. He turned his lights on and turned and followed us. We got pulled over, and the cop came to my mom's side of the car (presumably so it would be safer for him). He said that the speed limit was only 50 (maybe 55) and we were going more like 70. He told us that people hit buffalo on the road, which surprised my parents. Then we made it to the Upper Rim of the Grand Canyon. I thought it was amazingly beautiful. We looked at a sign with the whole geologic column on it, but I didn't really know the meaning of all the rock layers. I took lots of pictures but was a little disappointed at how hazy it was.
We watched people getting served food at the lodge there.We went into a gift shop and I debated between two colors of t-shirts, but I think I had to get the grey one instead of the tan one because of the sizes available. Then we drove back to our hotel in Kanab, where I wrote in my journal. The next morning, we drove to a ghost town called Pariah. We didn't know if it was pronounced "puh-RYE-uh" or "puh-REE-uh," but one pamphlet said that one lady said her father pronounced it "puh-REAR." Some people were camping out there. There was supposed to be a movie set, but it had been burned down. We saw a little cemetery, and then we saw the site of Pariah. Pariah was abandoned because it flooded too often, and Brigham Young had told them that it would. It looked like there was a water heater on the opposite side of the river, and I was confused why there would be one there, if it was a pioneer ghost town. I liked the curled mud:

My mom took a picture of my dad and me:

I wanted to listen to Vince Guaraldi and Coldplay; my mom didn't know Coldplay was a band, and she expected instrumental music. We were worried about getting out of the dirt roads and all the dips. But we did get out, and we drove to Zions National Park. We went and checked into our hotel just outside the park. While we were in the parking lot, our car decided not to work. We were glad that it died there instead of in Pariah! While we were waiting for AAA to come, we hung out in our hotel room and I took a nap. My mom was taking a picture of my dad. I was surprised that not only did he not smile (which he never does), he actually stuck his lips out, I guess because he had a painful canker sore. But I still found it weird he would stick them out in a picture. Then eventually we took shuttles up to different sites at Zions, but maybe that was only in the evening. We saw the Weeping Rock (I can never remember if it's Weeping Rock or Weeping Wall). I was amazed at the age of the water seeping through the sandstone. At one location, my mom saw one of her students. At dusk, we were riding the shuttle and they stopped to show us the turkeys flying up to nest for the night in the trees. We didn't even know turkeys did that! I think we had dinner near our hotel. Then we watched something on TV; I think it was a documentary on penguins or Antarctica or something like that. The next morning we went to a visitor's center and I liked the red flowers on a nearby cactus. We took a shuttle and the driver stopped because there was a tarantula in the road. I was so excited; I had wanted to see a tarantula, and there I did! She got out and stopped the traffic from the other direction so she could try to get it on a newspaper and move it. The spider went into defense mode:

Eventually, it did get onto the newspaper, and the driver moved the paper and the spider to the shoulder. It was crawling up the paper and almost got onto her arm, so she was being quick about getting to the shoulder and shaking it off, and all of us on the bus didn't blame her. A woman had jogged past while the driver was trying to get the spider on the newspaper. Eventually we left. We stopped at a restaurant in a small town. They had a little gift shop there, and my mom ended up buying some educational pamphlets. The tables had decorations of cornucopias with different fruits and vegetables; I remarked that all of the fruits and vegetables were things you could grow in your backyard, except for the bananas. A local radio station was on and they played Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" and they might have played some Nickelback. Then we left. In the car, my mom called my aunt Terri to see if we could stop by in Cedar City. We got there and we admired some of my uncle Terry's artwork that we hadn't seen before. We talked to their grandson Brennan (I think) and he said he seems like a calm person but he really isn't; my mom said that described me. My cousin Kim was there and had her kids there. Terri was telling her grandkids about how my dad was called the Hulk by his Army buddies, something my mom and I had never heard. At one point Kim's young daughter said to me, "When the Hulk leaves, I will miss the Hulk." Terri gave us apples, as well as caramel to dip them in. My cousin Kadee came with her new husband, whom I hadn't met yet. I think we talked a little about missions. My dad and I talked with Terri in the backyard; she told us about the nefarious practices of her kids' ex-spouses. Later Kim and her kids came out. The daughter went to the tetherball and had the ball sticking out behind her and said, "That was like The Princess and the Frog." Kim started laughing and explained to us that her daughter was thinking of Raymond the firefly--she equated the ball to a firefly's light. Eventually we left; in the car my mom told us about how Kadee's husband had told a story of a German woman who wanted to see Zions but died before she could. Then we came home.

2006. I had been invited to attend Y Weekend, and I chose UEA so I wouldn't have to miss any school. On Thursday, my parents took me to Provo. We went to the dinosaur museum and we ate at McDonald's so Allie could get a Little Mermaid toy. I checked into my hotel room and then went and waited in the room where we were all meeting. I met one James and we talked about splitting infinitives (at that point I still erroneously believed you shouldn't split them, even though it's the most ridiculous of all prescriptive rules). While we waited for people to come, we played a game where you had to switch seats according to your response to a particular question. One of the questions was about getting traffic tickets and I misunderstood it so I got up to move before I realized it didn't apply to me. As more people came, the game got wilder, and at one point my glasses got knocked off. I was sure they'd get trampled, but fortunately they didn't. One of my schoolmates, Rachel Cope, was there; I said, "Hi Rachel!" Later we played a more organized game and we had to pick team names. One girl said she had been at an event where their team picked the name "Earthquakes in divers places." That turned into "Earthquake divers." The Y Weekend leaders taught us a cheesy "Y Weekend" chant. Then we went to dinner and we all introduced ourselves. One Candace Bellows introduced herself as being from Bettendorf, IA, a small town. When it was my turn to introduce myself, I said, "There's nothing interesting about me, but I have to say that this is a small world, because my cousin's husband was just made bishop of the Bettendorf ward." Candace excitedly said, "Bishop Finch?" Then we got BYU hoodies. They gave us campus maps and told us about the different places on campus. We went to the Planetarium and saw a show that talked about galaxies. I remember talking with Rachel by the giant crystal on the second floor of the ESC and telling her that I had been to a place that displayed hairy crystals. Then we walked back to our hotel on Canyon Road. I stopped to try to let a car turn left into a parking lot, but one of the leaders told me not to worry about it. Then we played games at the hotel; one girl was wearing Mutts pajamas. The next day we had breakfast and then we went to the top of the SWKT. (By the way, if I weren't presently a BYU student, I wouldn't know what all these buildings were called or where they are.) In the elevator I was talking to Rachel about how I think it would be fun to be a zombie. She said it wouldn't. We met Cosmo at the top of the SWKT. I overheard some guys talking about how to be Cosmo you couldn't just be some fat lazy person. We took a group picture, but I hated having my picture taken so I hid behind everyone else. Then we had a religious class in the JSB, a class in the Maeser building, and a class in the building across the bridge from the Wilk. Then we had a professional lunch; Rachel said she wanted to study Italian. Then we went on a tour of the Brimhall Building. I think we went back to our hotel before coming back to campus. My roommate said he hadn't gone on the tour and instead talked to science professors. Eventually we headed back to campus and walked past Helaman Halls. A girl called out to us from her window, "Is this a Y Weekend?" I looked up and nodded and she said, "Aww, cute." (Not like being a freshman is that much different...) We went to see a play called The Foreigner. Some guys were trying to raise funds to buy a blue plastic anime wig. Of course, the play started off with a prayer. We all found it entertaining and we would often quote "Bees come down" afterward. When the play was over, I talked with Candace on the stairs about what a coincidence it was that we were at the same Y Weekend, and she said, "Yeah, that's really wild." (Six months later I learned that she had walked out of the play.) I followed a group of people back to our hotel. They were singing that old "Breakfast at Tiffany's" song. I felt lonely, so I pulled the drawstring on my hoodie as tight as I could so that I could barely see. I was hoping someone would ask me why I was doing that so I could tell them that I was a werewolf and I didn't want any stray moonlight to hit me. But instead of making people talk to me I think it made them avoid me. My roommate was watching Wild Wild West on TV and asked me if I had seen it and told me it was funny, but I didn't care to watch it. The next morning a lot of the group had gone to hike to the Y but I didn't want to. (I still have never hiked to the Y.) But I wasn't sure how to get to where we needed to be (probably the Cannon Center). I got lost, but I eventually found it. Then my aunt came into the hotel to get me; she had come down with my mom. We went to lunch at Brick Oven. I got chicken noodle soup with my meal, and I started quoting an approximation of a Green Acres episode:
"There you go. Hot water soup."
"Hot water soup? I thought we were having chicken noodle soup."
"Well, when I went out to the chickens, none of them had any noodles on them."
"No one in their right mind would eat hot water soup!"
"Oh boy, hot water soup!"
"And there's your living proof, if you can call that living." (I know this quote is inaccurate from the original, but I'm trying to quote it closer to how I quoted it.)
I told my family about having met Candace Bellows from Iowa.

2005. My parents, my sister, my niece and nephew, and I all went down to Fillmore. We took Grandma Judy to the "Garden of Eat'n" restaurant at the north end of town. I had an open face hot turkey sandwich. We went back to my grandma's house. I felt bad for my mom that she had to watch Preston that night (David and Ya-ping were celebrating their anniversary or something). I remember showing my mom the really creepy picture of John Calhoun in my history textbook.

The next day we went home. I think Allie was watching Cinderella in the car. We had cinnamon-scented pinecones in the back. We stopped at a McDonald's somewhere along the way. I remember something about a Kmart Halloween commercial. There was a toddler with a long mullet at McDonald's; my dad said, "When you look at him, you know he was born in a trailer." Then we went to Cabela's, taxidermy central, where my dad held the door open for Warren Jeffs's brother, although we didn't realize it at the time. I remember playing some shooting arcade game.

2003. My brother got married this UEA, so in preparation we had a gaggle of Asian girls staying at our house. Ya-ping's friend Tory talked about seeing a girl in Salt Lake flashing herself at cars. Once I noticed some bowls in the drying rack instead of the dishwasher, so I used one. My sister later said that she had seen the girls washing the bowls with their fingers and no soap. My mom made Hawaiian haystacks, but the Asians all thought the gravy was the main part, not the rice, so they put rice in the gravy and ate the gravy. Ya-ping's sister Shu-li said, "Mutti, that soup was really good!" I remember later saying to my mom, "Talk about a heart attack in a bowl!" My mom told David about the pornographic pictures his friend Mike Bishop had taken of himself as a substitute for a bachelor party, warning him it might not be a wise thing to look at on the way to the temple. Those of us who couldn't go to the wedding stayed at our house; Joey was listening to the recordings on the toy TV that went with my "Lucy at the Halloween party" playset. He understood what they were saying better than I did. Then we went to the temple grounds; I saw our stake president leaving the temple. Then we all had pictures taken outside the temple. I remember talking with my cousin Martha about my Halloween tie and her Halloween nails. Then we went to the Joy Luck restaurant. I went out with my cousins to decorate the newlyweds' car. But the newlyweds didn't have a car, so we decorated our own car (which they would be using). Since we never decorated the car at my cousin April's wedding, we decorated hers then. We had markers to write on windows. On April's car we wrote things like "Just married a few months ago." Once I wrote April's name but I accidentally wrote Brandon, which was the name of her previous boyfriend. My step-cousin Pat pointed out that it was the wrong name and I felt stupid. So I scribbled the name out and put "Cameron" above it. Then, to make it less suspicious, I also put a scribble under April's name. Then we went back inside where the jar of fortune cookies had reached the bottom. That Sunday, we had stake conference and we saw our decorated white car leaving the parking lot (my brother's honeymoon was just a hotel in Salt Lake).

2002. I remember turning on TV Land and catching the last few minutes of Mayberry R.F.D. but I had never seen it before so I didn't really know what was going on. I think I did, though, recognize the theme music as being from The Andy Griffith Show. For extra credit in my Spanish class, we could paint a skull and take it to class. I had a ceramic skull that I painted yellow and put what I thought were Aztec-like designs on it.

2001. I think during this year UEA was in September. Since it was just shortly after 9/11, there wasn't anything good on TV, especially during the day. I was downstairs making Halloween window clings, and I was watching some animated math program on channel 9 while I made them. The characters were different mathematical signs; the plus sign was named Addison.

1999. This was the year the Orchard 11th Ward had a Halloween talent show. I remember playing with my friends David Christensen and Brad Rogers and we were making up a play we would perform for it. It involved using bouillon cubes in red wrappers to represent chopped up flesh. But of course our play never materialized. I had signed up to recite "The Walrus and the Carpenter" by Lewis Carroll. The night of the show, I looked at the list of people who were performing. Wayne Christensen was going to do a poem, but they weren't there because they had gone deer hunting. I was wearing a tan polo shirt with my Halloween tie. Courtney Brown sang a song she sang at the second grade Christmas program. One lady simply displayed ceramics she had made, including one of Santa soaking his feet. Then we went to Provo to pick up my brother David. After we picked him up, we went to Hogi Yogi. I bought a drink in a yard glass. The girl at the counter at Hogi Yogi told me she liked my tie (which I still had on).

1997. Since there wasn't school, my soccer coach had us have a two-hour practice instead of just one. I rode down to North Salt Lake Park with the Christensens. But Chantelle apparently didn't want David at practice for two hours, so after an hour she took him home. I didn't get the memo that I could stay the whole two hours and my parents would pick me up, so when they left, I said I needed to leave too. My coach gave me a pumpkin-shaped Reese's. But when I went up to get my ride, they had already left. And the way my third-grade brain worked told me I needed to walk home. So walk I did, eating my Reese's on the way and putting the wrapper in my pocket. I was almost home when my parents drove by. I can't remember if they gave me a ride the rest of the way or if I was close enough that it didn't matter. I think they had been to Smith's and bought donuts and groceries. They said they had stopped to pick me up from practice but my coach told them I had gone home with the Christensens. They told me I could have stayed and they would have picked me up. My brother seemed impressed that I had walked so far. I was a chubby little nine year old.

A sad day: October 23, 2004

On this Saturday morning (it happened to be Mol day, as I learned in chemistry class), we all piled into the Suburban and drove down to Fillmore.

When we got there, my dad's dad, Grandpa Boyd, was lying on his bed, on oxygen. There was discussion that my uncles had given him a blessing, not that he would be healed but that he would pass away peacefully. They had also lowered his oxygen supply. My brother and I hadn't seen him in that condition, although the rest of the family had. David started crying as soon as he saw them. Since I don't show emotion, I wasn't going to cry, but David's tears made mine flow. Everyone kept telling us that although Grandpa couldn't talk, he could hear us. I said to him, "We love you." My brother said, "I remember when I wouldn't eat sugar, it was always Grandpa Boyd who was the one person who could get me to eat it." (Well, those weren't his exact words, but it was something like that.) I think my mom might have brought up that Ya-ping was soon having a baby, who would be born in November just like my grandparents were. We left the room. I remember Ya-ping crying, even though she and Dave had only been married a year.

I remember doing my algebra homework on the couch in the living room, and my cousin Cannon offered his help (I might have been having calculator trouble). On the TV the family was watching a video of Grandpa Boyd earlier that week, when he had just received his grim diagnosis. Cannon was saying, "I can't believe he was like this just this week." He had gone downhill fast. I remember my dad walking around with a sad look on his face. He was carrying Allie, who was asleep on his shoulder (she was 1).

After some time, my cousin Amory came out and said to everyone, "You might want to go in there." Grandpa had apparently opened his eyes--I can't remember if they said he had breathed or said something or what. But I remember thinking that I didn't want to go in if he was dying. But them my mom went in, so I went in too. They said my grandpa had opened his eyes and had a peaceful look on his face. My cousin Mary proceeded to take wet rags and put them at his wrists and things and my sister had to leave the room. Later my cousin Kim came with their funeral home hearse, and my sister said she couldn't watch as they took my grandpa's body to the car.

I remember sitting on the couch, probably doing homework, when the bishop came by. I remember thinking I was veritably in a small town, for he was a true cowboy and even had cowboy boots.

Then we drove home. When we got home, my mom called her sister. I think Sue asked her if Grandpa had
passed away, and my mom starting crying and said yes. I remember her saying that my grandma had asked her to stay in the room with my grandpa's body, and that my mom had said, "Thanks Boyd," and at that moment the clouds broke for just a second and sunlight lit the room before it got dark again.

It was a sad day.

All Hallows' Eve Eve

To get into the Halloween spirit, I am going to recall as many details as I can about every October 30 of my life.

2011. I went in for an interview before church with Brother Kirkham, the second counselor in the bishopric. He told me they were giving me a calling as a ward employment specialist. I mentioned how the year before I had spent two months looking for a job before I found one. But I asked him if he knew I was only going to be in the ward for two more months. He said that might change things because it would take me a while to get trained in the new calling, so he said he'd ask the bishop. Before church started, he indicated to me that they decided not to give me that calling. I actually remember surprisingly little about the day, considering it was only a year ago, but I know I watched The Nightmare Before Christmas and wrote a blog post.

2010. Since Halloween was a Sunday this year, this was the day with all the festivities. I was wearing my "Happy Halloween" Peanuts shirt. I think we were watching The Nightmare Before Christmas, and then my sister and her husband and daughter came to our house. Allie wanted to show her parents Frankenweenie (which is so weird, because now she's a sissy and refuses to watch it); Matt laughed at the part when Victor looks out the window when his mom is spraying it with the hose. Matt asked if it was on the Nightmare Before Christmas DVD. My mom had got a bunch of Halloween goodies from her school children, including some Halloween-colored gumballs and a beaker full of gummy worms in candy liquid. I took a fork to try one of the worms: 

It wasn't very good. I made this picture my profile picture because I wanted a Halloween picture. There is a lot of the day that I don't remember, but in the evening I got in my vampire costume before taking Allie trick-or-treating.
Allie remembered a picture from when she was three in which she was wearing my cape and looking up at me. She wanted to replicate it, but there were camera issues so it didn't work very well. We left to go trick-or-treating; it was raining so Susanne asked me to hold Allie's dress off the ground. I don't think I did a very good job. We made a quick loop around Liberty; Bishop Jones talked about giving candy to me, Dracula (I declined), and then we went to the yellow house, where a woman answered the door. We went to Shan Millard's house. Nan, Allie, and I went to the door but Matt stayed on the sidewalk. Then we went home because it was rainy, although we stopped at the Pays' first. I remember Allie asking who Leroy Brown was; for some reason that had been a topic of conversation.  We had a Papa Murphy's pumpkin-shaped pizza and I poured some fruit punch Gatorade into a Halloween cup. I asked Matt and Nan if they wanted any; they said no. I remember thinking it was appropriate for me to drink the Gatorade in my Halloween costume because it was red. After everyone else went to bed, I tried to take a picture of myself for a profile picture. This was the one I settled on: Then I went down on Facebook to upload it. My old companion Derek Warren, who had only recently come home, started chatting with me. He told me I could dress like a vampire that day and no one would think anything about it; I told him I was actually wearing a vampire costume right then. We talked about the evil Elder LaPratt. Then eventually I went to bed.

2009. This is my journal entry for the day: "This morning we helped Sister Carter some more before going to Jeffrey's. Later we had a good lesson with Shaun. He related to Joseph Smith in The Restoration and said he knew he had to have revelation to translate the Book of Mormon.

"Then we went to Lapwai and tracted some. We ate at the Jacques Spur Cafe and visited Sister Mock in Culdesac." Unfortunately, the only thing I remember that isn't mentioned in the journal is that Sister Carter had some Halloween cookies. But I can't distinguish the events of the day from any other Lapwai tracting, Jacques Spur eating, or Culdesac visiting. I do think that on this occasion it was after dark and Sister Mock let us in her house.

2008. This is what my journal says: "This afternoon we headed out to Lind. Not too many were home. It was fun to drive out there, though, and we got to drive along some new roads.

"The Walters family, who sounded golden, are not interested in us teaching. But we had dinner with the Kelleys, and then we taught Cassandra Johnson. She didn't seem too interested at first, but was more receptive later. Brother Johnson told his conversion story and prayed. It was good, and she's now a new investigator." The only other thing I remember is that I drew a pumpkin that said "District Meeting" in my planner for the next day. 

2007. I wanted to see The Nightmare Before Christmas in 3D, so we headed out to the West Jordan area to see it. My mom had offered to take my cousin Quin with us as well; when we showed up, he was outside and already walking to our car. We went to the theater and there was a woman who had a plush Jack Skellington. I didn't remember the 3D being that impressive (it never is), although it did help me notice some things I hadn't before. They made some modifications for the 3D version. The opening words were orange instead of yellow, and they said "Walt Disney Pictures" instead of "Touchstone Pictures." The end credits showed early sketches of all the characters. Susanne later "thanked" us for having her sit closest to Quin; she said that she felt she had to watch him more than she did Allie. (Oh, thirteen-year-olds...) Then we went to outlet malls to get some luggage for my mission. I got luggage with four swivel wheels; the salesman said that that way I wouldn't have to have them bump against each other as I walk through the airport, and he said I could take them home and pack them and bring them back if I didn't like them, as long as I didn't "take them down the road" (go on a trip). On our way back from the malls, I think my aunt was talking about her ex-husband. We were behind a truck that was advertising something, and my aunt said that the name was similar to Viagra, and I was surprised that she, of all conservative people, would say something like that. After we dropped her off, we stopped at the Arctic Circle near her house. We ordered a kids' meal (I'm sure we would have ordered pumpkin shakes as well), and when it came without a Halloween flashlight, my mom asked about it. The girl at the window said they were all out of flashlights, and my mom said, "If I had known that, I wouldn't have ordered one." I found that kind of rude. Then when we got home, I tested my newly-arrived pilgrim lights. I wanted to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas because it was my designated Halloween show for the day and I considered our version different from the 3D version, but I asked my mom if she thought I was crazy for watching it twice in a day. I watched it on a little TV in my dad's work room while I worked on my ghost ceramic.

2006. I had to watch Allie while Susanne was getting Lasik. It was early in the morning so I slept some on Susanne's bed while Allie watched the shows on my Lucy Must Be Traded, Charlie Brown DVD. Then Susanne came home. I had to get a cavity filled that day, so I was in the bathroom that afternoon brushing my teeth. I heard the phone ring, and then after the phone conversation was over I heard my sister say to my dad, "I'm sorry, Pops." I could tell something bad happened, and I wondered if maybe my mom had totaled the car and we would have to buy a new one. When I had finished brushing, I was walking down the hall to find out what had happened and Susanne said, "Grandma Judy died." It was such a surprise I felt like I had just walked into a wall. Allie, who was three, said, "No she didn't." Susanne said consolingly, "Yes Allie, she did." But Allie was insistent: "No she didn't, Grandpa Boyd came and took her home." Susanne said, "You know, you're right." Then she looked at me at made a sad frown face--sad at Allie having to face the situation but impressed by her profundity. Then I went and got my cavity filled. That night I went down to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas, and I discovered that Allie had put almost an entire sheet of sticker earrings all over the TV screen. It was annoying but hilarious; my mom and I laughed about it. Remembering the events of this day made me remember some more details to add to the 2006 section of last year's Halloween memory post.

2005. It was a Sunday, but I don't remember what I did.

2004. I think in the morning we saw my grandparents, perhaps so they could see Allie in her bumblebee costume. My grandparents showed us the candy they had bought for what trick-or-treaters they might get; it was a bag from Costco of candy in Christmas wrappers, which I found inappropriate for Halloween. I think this was the day I was driving home from there (since I had to get my practice hours in) and we were stopped at a light on State Street. There was a woman crossing the street in some goofy Halloween-print pants. That night my mom and sister took Allie to visit people in her costume. I got in my Fred Flintstone costume and put on some flip-flop things and walked to the Andersons', where my family was visiting. Austin told us that Dave Nilson had a cool severed head he answered the door with. So after visiting the Andersons, I went up to the Nilsons' and told Dave, "I was told I should see your head." He was surprised I didn't want any candy.

2003. I was at school on an overcast day. I went in early to the seminary building to drop something off for the "extended devotional" (party) we were having. Some girls were decorating the room. They had a set of spooky eye lights; Brother Heaston told them that a church policy said they couldn't plug them in. (Everything Brother Heaston said was a little suspect...) I was wearing a gray shirt with Peanuts characters in Halloween costumes; I had only recently bought the shirt. During first period (Earth systems), I could see it was raining outside, but then it looked like a mix of rain and snow. I remember looking down at my shirt because I liked it, and another girl noticed me doing that and said, "I like your shirt!" Eventually, the weather changed to only snow. For second period (geography), we were in the computer lab and I could see it snowing. I excitedly remarked about it snowing because I had convinced myself that it wasn't going to snow that year because it had been so warm and dry to that point. (I didn't realize at that point just how unpredictable the weather really is.) Reiko Turner remarked about how people were overreacting, as if they had never seen snow before. When I went up to seminary, someone had written "Have a Holy Ghost-filled Halloween," and they had changed one of the o's to look like a ghost. After school I had a play rehearsal. Another girl was wearing a Halloween shirt. My fellow thespians liked my shirt. I think Anthony Roberts asked if the shirt was glow in the dark. The girl who played Allura (I can't remember her name) said she like Snoopy's clown outfit and talked about owning something that had a picture of him with a surfboard. I think we had Tootsie Roll products at home, but I don't remember what I did that evening.

2002. It was the day before our trip to Taiwan. I wasn't celebrating Halloween that year, but I still decided to wear my "Happy Halloween" Peanuts shirt. I wore it to the teachers quorum activity that night, which was going to the Moosmans' house to watch The Singles Ward. Since I was even weirder and awkwarder then than I am now, and since I was ready for Thanksgiving since I wasn't doing Halloween, I started quoting verbatim the episode "Turkey Day" of The Beverly Hillbillies; Jordan Morley remarked about having seen The Beverly Hillbillies. At one point I mentioned that I wasn't celebrating Halloween, but Brother Pope brought up Linus in the pumpkin patch on my shirt. Peter Moosman turned on their projector and The Emperor's New Groove was in the DVD player, so we got to see Cuzco do his DVD-menu dance for a while. Then we watched The Singles Ward; one of the leaders was surprised by the opening pop-music version of "There Is Sunshine in My Soul Today," and someone else told him that some of the songs were even more raucous. Then I had to go home before the movie was over; maybe that was when Brother Pope brought up my shirt.

2001. Maybe this was the time I was at Target and saw the Peanuts shirt mentioned in the above year, but it might have been a different day that week. But I do think it was the day my mom called Ryan Jones and asked if Halloween was a school uniform day (I had been sick and I wanted to wear my new shirt to school); Ryan told her that it was indeed a uniform day and that they had specifically instructed students not to wear costumes.

2000. I think I was at K-mart with my mom and we were looking for face paint for my role in the Halloween show the next day; we decided not to get any. I think this was also when we were looking for some last-minute clothes for my Charlie Brown costume. I remember telling my mom that I had some incidental music from I Dream of Jeannie stuck in my head. But maybe this happened on a Friday, which would make it October 27, not October 30. But it probably was October 30.

1999. Since Halloween was on a Sunday this year, this was the day of all the festivities. In the morning we (me, my mom, my aunt, and my cousins) went to Boo at the Zoo. I was dressed in my ridiculous costume of a white king chess piece--a white robe, white painted face, and white cross on my head. I remember standing in line for something with Chancey and Jesse. Some old lady came up to me and asked me what my costume was. I said I was a white king, and Chancey said, "From Alice in Wonderland." I corrected him, "No, from chess." The lady seemed mildly amused by my costume. At some point during the day was saw a woman sitting on some grass dressed as Marge Simpson--she had a green dress and a large light-blue, homemade wig. I think my mom pointed her out to me, but I also heard another man in our line saying "Marge." I was going trick-or-treating with my friend David Christensen; he called me up shortly before we left and asked the name of the third Harry Potter book and how to spell Azkaban; I think he also asked about the publishing info. Then I met him with his book costume, a brown box with "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling" written on it. I had brought a spare white king piece with me in case I felt a need to show it to someone. There we went, two bespectacled nerds dressed as a chess piece and a book. When we stopped at the Snarrs', Steve Moosman was there, and he said that Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was one of the best books on the market (or something like that). Perhaps this was the year that when we stopped at the yellow house on Liberty, the woman remarked about the femininity of David's yellow lacy pillowcase. When she saw mine, she said, "Now there's a manly pillowcase." But maybe this was 2000. At one point we met up with Jared Smith and I think David Oder. They asked about my costume. Jared thought I was dressed as a member of the KKK and thought that was a surprising costume for me. I remember going home and my brother's friend Adam ("Jimmy") was there. I dumped out my candy in the living room and either he saw or else I showed him the chess piece. He asked if I went trick-or-treating for it or if I brought it with me. Then I went in my parents' room and turned on the TV; I did some channel surfing and PBS was showing some special with kids dancing in costumes. I recognized one costume as Pugsley Addams.

1998. I went to school in my Wallace costume. That year I carpooled with the Brunners; Brittany was being a Christmas tree and was very proud that her costume actually lit up. During the costume parade, someone in our ward saw me with my bald cap and my black-and-white dog and thought I was Charlie Brown. But Ann Palmer was there and she rightfully recognized me as Wallace--after all, I also had a green vest and a red tie. During recess, a fifth-grader came up to me and asked me if I was the clay guy; he had seen the Wallace and Gromit movies the year before. I was talking with Montess Vilchez, who was Wednesday Addams, and she was dismayed that another fourth-grader, Lauren, had the same costume. I wonder if this was the day that I watched a ghost-themed episode of The Magic School Bus when I got home, but that could have been 1997. That night we had a ward party. I remember at the end taking some of the plastic bat confetti that was on the tables. To this day I think I have some tiny plastic bats floating around the house. I remember Ann Palmer asking us if we had the video that showed the making of the Wallace and Gromit films. We said we didn't, and Ann said that they used a pencil to move Wallace's forehead. My mom said I would have to borrow it sometime.

1997. Here is where things get a little complicated. I have some memories of Halloween events at school, which are on my Halloween memory post from last year. However, I also have a memory of going to my cousins' house with my jack-o-lantern costume, and my little cousin Peter wearing it and the pillows sagging the shirt down. But it seems like that was a day when there wasn't school. Maybe for some reason we took it there the day after Halloween. Or maybe we did go there after school because it was an early out. Or maybe there wasn't school on Halloween that year and the events in last year's post are actually from October 30. Or maybe it was the Saturday before Halloween that I went to my cousins' house. I have a memory of my mom making my costume. She asked me to see if I liked the pumpkin leaves. She planned on putting one in the front and one in the back at my collar, but I discovered I liked them better on the shoulders, and she did too, so she complied. I also wanted her to make something out of orange and black yarn, so she made little curly vine things for my costume. I have often thought this occurred on the day before Halloween. But this only works if there was in fact school on Halloween, and if Peter was wearing my costume on or after Halloween. So I'm really not quite sure.

That's all! I suspect that what I said happened on Halloween in 1993 actually occurred on Halloween Eve--see my discussion of the issue on last year's post.