Keeping the Good Parts

Now that it is October, rather the middle of it, I thought it high time to drag out my Halloween decorations. In September, once we reached the fall equinox, the cold nights had set in and the trees were changing color. I found it appropriate to set out my fall decorations. I’m sad to kiss summer goodbye but changing seasons is a reality in the Midwest.

I like fall. It’s one of my favorite seasons. I love Halloween. I’m not into scary gory creepy stuff. I am definitively not into spiders or any other large insects. But, hey, any holiday that comes with candy is okay by me.

I was in the mood for Halloween after working on horror films for the last two months. One horror film was about scarecrow zombies and one was about a haunted house. I knew about “ghost rules” before but I learned a lot about zombies. For example, zombies are after brains. Who knew?

In the theme of zombies, I found a great present for a friend in another state. I always send more of a gag present for her birthday. This year I found some books that were corporation style manuals about zombies and zombie management styles. Now, that I think of it, there are a lot of zombies in corporate America. A manual is a practical present after all.

The entire time that I was outside decorating, I was actually supposed to be operating as a self employed business woman who writes articles for magazines and companies for their internet. But, my artistic child wanted to put out Halloween items. I’m a sucker for children so it was easy for my artistic child to win out.

At the moment, we have no real children home to help decorate. This is pretty much a moot point because they stopped helping me decorate for anything several years ago. Although, I do get some occasional help if that particular child has a party planned. Ours is the house that often hosts the New Years, Valentine, St. Patrick’s Day, May Day, Fourth of July, Halloween or any other party. But, I have decorations for lots of seasons and holidays and today was the day to deck our outside for Halloween.

To be fair, I occasionally get help from my husband, Pat. Actually, I get help from him whenever I ask for it. But, he’s usually far more trouble than he’s worth so it can be risky and tricky to ask for help. Besides, right now he’s recovering from an outpatient laparoscopic hernia operation. No sense risking any complications there! So, he’s inside and has happily assumed the position in the recliner with the TV remote control. He is flicking from spaghetti westerns to nerd TV programs. Once in a while he wanders across a “He Man” program.

“He Man’ programs are reality TV programs about people who drive trucks across icy roads in Alaska, chop down trees in various parts of the country, or who catch big fish in the ocean for a living. I am sure all of these programs transmit testosterone through the airwaves to the remote where it can be absorbed through the skin by the holder of the remote. This is just in case any dude needs a top off of the guy stuff.

Decorating outside was a little more fun this year because I had my IPod to keep me company. I IPod is just loaded with tunes. I’ve discovered the CDs at the library. So, I regularly check them out and add to my music library. It doesn’t get much more fun than this.

So, when my artistic child asked me “Are You Ready”, I just Cast my Fate to the Wind, while Sloopy hung on as I staked out little lighted pumpkin warriors to protect all of us from the Eve of Destruction. I found that I didn’t really need any Help with this decorating adventure. My lilac bushes are sporting little cotton ghosts which hang from a branch on a string and Turn Turn Turn whenever it is Windy. Sometimes, the wind makes the lilac branches dance and the little ghosts go bouncing, a bit like a carnival ride. But the ghosts don’t mind as they have a Ticket To Ride. At night, in the light from the moon and the streetlamp these fun little ghosts can cast eerie Silhouettes.

Okay, if any of this sounds contrived, let me remind you that exercises in fantasy are what we do around here, baby! How awesome is that?

The IPod really is an inspirational tool. I wore it while mowing the grass and worked out a number of thoughts about upcoming books and passages in books that I am writing. It allows me to retreat to a sacred space where I can create. Some really special place where time stops and writing goes on and on, free from interruptions.

One of my projects at the moment is turning a basement bedroom into my office. I am almost drooling at the thought. At the moment, my “office” is located in the dining room, where I am prey to any number of distractions. Most of the distractions come on two feet and those feet are often in rather stinky men’s size 8 and a half bike shoes. The basement will be a haven.

Further, I can turn my artistic child loose. We can nail up a creative vision board on the wall, cut out all the inspirational pictures we want, pound nail holes anywhere we want, write on the walls and do just about anything else we want. All in the name of the story. Take that corporate America! This kind of behavior isn’t permitted in cubeville, I am sure.

Actually, I recently had the “pleasure” of reading some companies human resources manuals recently. Some companies won’t let their employees put up anything at their “workstation”. Pictures of kids, pets, friends, and anyone else are contraband. The same company allowed employees to have a calendar but only one. Hmm. Wonder if it was a conflict of interest if the calendar had pictures. Sigh. Silliness. There’s only one way to combat this kind of thinking. My artistic child wants an ice cream cone right now. And this is about to become a wish come true because the last time my artistic child and I went shopping, we bought an ice cream scoop, ice cream cones and ice cream. No sense saying good bye to summer without keeping on a few of the good parts.