In the words of Charlie Brown, another Halloween has come and gone, and I hope you had a lot of fun and filled up your Trick or Treat bag. We had a very fun day here at Pearl's. After lunch I took her on wheelchair push all around the neighborhood to look at Halloween houses. We've been doing these pushes almost everyday in the last couple of weeks leading up to Halloween, and by changing routes and taking different streets, we've been able to discover a whole bunch of spooky looking locations. The big thing this year seems to be ghosts hanging in trees. They were a feature at almost every Spook House we found, and in fact one house had a ghost on a kind of zip line, so that it would move back and forth as the wind blew.
Man, I love it when that happens. :)
Later in the afternoon I went up to Aliso Canyon for a walk. It was my first hike in over two weeks, since my trip to the Chumash caves, and it felt really good to be back out there. I had the place to myself, it was just me and the creek bed and the oak trees, so that was awesome too.
I got back to Pearl's at 4:30pm and set up to carve the annual Halloween Pumpkin, a scared (oops, I mean sacred) ritual for me as I'm sure it is for you. I always wait until the afternoon of October 31, although I may try to carve a day earlier in the future so I won't feel rushed if I am trying to do A Ton Of Other Stuff as I always am on this day. This time I did something different; I carved the pumpkin indoors, in the living room, so Pearl could participate. I put the usual newspapers down to catch all the seeds and stringy innards, and carved a very scary looking jack o' lantern as we watched a Vincent Price movie on TCM. You can see my pumpkin on FB (posted just this evening), and it looks pretty much like all of my past pumpkins, but I always enjoy bringing them to life.
The weather was gorgeous today (upper 80s) and it carried over into the night, so I was able to bring Pearl out on the porch with me so she could help hand out candy to the Trick Or Treaters. We didn't get as many as last year, but we still had a blast seeing all the costumes, especially on the little ones, and The Black Kitty and Big Grey and Orange lurked and darted about, helping to provide atmosphere.
We kept The Shop open until about 8:45, when the street began to empty and you could no longer see families and flashlights in the distance, nor hear the chatter of advancing children.
At 9pm I met Grimsley in my old neighborhood near 9032 Rathburn for a Halloween Walk, which I always do, or have done since I've been with Pearl (for nine Halloweens) as a way of experiencing the holiday away from the house. I am like a little kid on Halloween, and I've gotta see the houses even if I can't ring the doorbells anymore, so on recent Halloweens I've been switching my nightly walk from CSUN down to the old neighborhood, just so I can enjoy the night vicariously. Me and Grim walked a couple of miles worth, through the streets of old Northridge. There weren't as many decorated houses as I saw in Reseda, but what we did see was a fair amount of costumed teenagers, still going door to door at 9:30. I think one time, maybe in 1973 when I was 13, my friends and I went until 10pm. I think I trick or treated until I was 16 or so (probably shoulda kept going, haha).
Including the Northridge Halloween Walk and the Aliso Hike and the Pearl Push this aft., I'd guess I did about 7 or 8 miles for the day. Gotta make the most of it, at least I do.
There's just something awesome about Halloween that cannot be denied. It's a visceral thing, but I won't try and dissect it tonight.
I did want to say to Elizabeth that - first - I liked your costume. Second, I did not know you were working. Third, I noticed the comment your friend made about "an artist working in a cubicle", and you know I would have a lot to say about that subject, but I would say it in a different way than he did, because I think I can perhaps give some perspective on the situation.
I did not know you were working at a regular job, but now that you have posted it, it explains why you haven't been around as much on Facebook, etc.
You made a comment on the photo that "nothing in it is a surprise". I don't know if you read this blog anymore because FB took away or damped down (through their algorithms) most of the features I used to use to communicate with you, but the thing I want to tell you is that you are not your job. I am assuming that you are not thrilled with this turn of events, and I will have more to say tomorrow, but just for tonight I want you to remember that only last month you had your name and your video playing on an enormous outdoor screen, one of the biggest in the country.
It is imperative you keep that in mind.
I will have more to say about jobs, the need to pay bills, and keeping in mind who you are and what it is that You Really Do, when you are an Artist by nature.
The main thing for tonight is don't worry. You are going to succeed. :)
See you in the morning. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
No comments:
Post a Comment