Who Knew?

Photo by Eve48

Today is the anniversary of Brian and I getting engaged. We were engaged on 10/30/1999…otherwise known as Devil’s Night…or so I thought.

For the past few days, I’ve been talking about Devil’s Night to people at work, people at the Chamber of Commerce breakfast I went to yesterday, and to the people I sat with at the conference I was at today. No one said anything to me, but they all gave me a weird look. So, on a hunch, I looked up Devil’s Night on Wikipedia…I realize, not the most valid source, but hey, it’s what I had.

Guess what. DEVIL’S NIGHT IS TOTALLY A DETROIT THING!

I feel like such a newb.

So, for those of you who feel left out and want to know all about Devil’s Night, here’s the story. As a disclaimer, this is only my experience, and is not meant to be an accurate history.

In Detroit and the surrounding areas, the night before Halloween is called Devil’s Night. In olden times, it was a night when hoodlums would go out and throw eggs at windows, T.P. people’s houses (please tell me you all know what T.P.ing is), and occasionally throwing flaming bags of dog poop on that creepy old guy’s porch. This then excalated to a night of arson throughout the Metro Detroit area. I can distinctly remember driving past burning sheds and buildings when I was younger.

In recent years, the city of Detroit has tried to change this image, and have created “Angel’s Night”. They get groups of volunteers (who wear obnoxious yellow shirts) to walk around the city as a deterrent. It seems to have worked, because to the best of my knowledge, the number of arsons has gond down significantly in recent years.

So, now you know. And maybe I’ll find out more things that are “Detroit Things” or “Michigan Things”…like pop, and coney dogs……

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Picking Pumpkins in California is WEIRD!

Jack o’ Lanterns

Originally uploaded by Teo

I took the kids out to a farm yesterday with The Girl’s friend’s family. It was so strange for me. Being from Michigan, going hunting for the perfect pumpkin always involved at least a jacket, but more often than not, we wore hats, gloves, winter coats, and boots. Yesterday, we wore shorts and t-shirts, and were still sweating. It had to have been 100 degrees out. And there were probably 1,000 people there! It was just craziness.

That being said, we had a good time. We had some caramel apples, pet some farm animals, and the kids played on a mountain of hay bales. The Boy felt a unique bond with a llama because of the spelling of its name (for those of you who do not know us, The Boy’s first name begins with 2 L’s. That’s right, 2 of ’em. LIke a llama). We only bought some tiny pumpkins because we aren’t carving one this year, because we see no point in doing so while living in an apartment…we don’t anticipate any trick-or-treaters, and we won’t be home anyway.

After we left, I took my 2 kids and The Girl’s friend out for some frozen yogurt (shh, they think it was ice cream!) to cool off. The girls bamboozled me into buying a bigger size than they would normally have, so no one ate dinner. It’s all good though. Sometimes it’s nice to have “ice cream” for a meal. 🙂

The best part of the day, though, was bedtime. The kids were all clean from their bath, snuggled in their beds, and were sound asleep in minutes. That’s when you know you’ve had a good day!

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34 Days Until Halloween

Photo by SoundsGood

That’s right, 34 days until one of my favorite holidays! I absolutely love Halloween. And I am so looking forward to it this year. In Michigan, we had to be prepared for any kind of weather to include (just in the past 6 years) 75 degrees and dry, rain, snow, hail, or wind so cold your tongue will stick to your lollipop! Here in Southern California, I’m not sure what to expect, but I’m pretty certain that snow, hail, and below 30 degree temperatures are out of the equation!

Growing up, my parents did haunted houses as a fund raiser for my school. My dad played Dracula, and my mom, by default, was Dracula’s wife. Dad would lie in a real coffin, and Mom would stare down the scared little teenagers. When they would come close to the casket, Dad would jump up and scare the dickens out of ’em! I remember hearing the grown-ups talking after closing time…they would always compare how many “wet spots” they had at each section of the maze. My mom got punched so often that she would have bruises, and they did actually have people pee their pants when Dad would scare them. My parents were so into it, they even had our dentist make them realistic fangs that were made out of denture material, and they snapped on over their real teeth!

So, while I really miss the haunted houses, when I tried to volunteer in the past, I realized that you had to be there on halloween, and that would interfere with trick-or-treating. I absolutely love taking the kids trick-or-treating, or as my Grandma says, “begging”, and I’ve only missed out one year since The Girl was born, and that was because I was pregnant with The Boy. Maybe when they get older, we can all volunteer at haunted houses together.

In order to try to keep my excitement level down, the kids and I decorated the house today. Unfortunately, it seems quite a few of my decorations got lost in the move, which makes me pretty sad. I hope that’s not the case with my Christmas decorations, because that would be cause for a complete temper tantrum. Speaking of Christmas…only 88 more days till that holiday! I better start shopping………

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