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.
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