(Random) Houses of Horror

Halloween is a time for celebration. An excuse to tell spooky stories, wear silly (and sometimes slutty) costumes, and throw parties. At my company, Halloween is the most important part of the year. Every year, we throw a huge Halloween party in the cafeteria, complete with an employee graveyard, jello shots, and of course, a costume competition. Now, this contest is extremely competitive. Departments begin planning their costumes sometimes up to a year in advance, it's that important. This year, every single person in our department participated in our little skit. During our staff meetings for the past month, the last item on the agenda was "Halloween Party". We were interrupted numerous times by our President, who walked in expecting to hear some brilliant marketing ideas being tossed around, and was instead greeted by stony silence. When he asked what our costume was, he was told, "You'll see." The costumes are kept a secret until the party. This is serious business. What was our costume you ask? We were the next hot thing in paranormal romance: ghosts. Now, if you're not in publishing, it's not really all that funny or even clever. But we are in publishing, so our skit was, thankfully, met with laughs and cheers. We "re-designed" our competitors covers (The Host became The Ghost) and presented them while wearing white plastic tablecloths. Our VP presented each of the new covers while dressed as a Ghostbuster. I have to say, it was a lot of fun to get into the Halloween spirit and dress up, even though I was sure I was going to suffocate under the plastic tablecloth. The party was a success (our Fun Committee did an amazing job). And to top it all off, R.L. Stine, the king of scary stories, was our guest judge. What better way is there to celebrate?

Tonight, Kurt and I, along with my friend and her boyfriend and mom, went on the annual Ghost Tour of Allentown. The money from the tickets went to support the public library and we figured it would be nice to contribute while learning more about our town and finding out if our apartments are haunted. Logic would tell you that if we haven't experienced ghosts in our apartments yet, that we should assume they are not haunted. But as most people know, fear isn't always logical. Thankfully, it appears that we're safe from spectral visitors, at least as far as the library knows. I loved hearing about the hauntings at the salon (a Revolutionary War soldier plays music), the pet store (each morning, the owner finds bags of cat food on the floor), and one of the local houses (strange noises and haunted dolls). I have to say, the haunted doll freaks me out the most. I used to have nightmares about my dolls being possessed when I was little.

I don't know about any of you, but I believe in ghosts. I believe that our spirits either choose to move on to the next adventure, or linger to haunt the living. I myself have never experienced a haunting, and while I know I would be scared shitless, as Kurt would say, if I ever saw a ghost, and I would never be able to fall asleep or be alone ever again, part of me is curious. For now though, ghost tours and documentaries on Discovery satisfy that curiosity, because at least those ghosts are haunting other people, and not me.