Monday, October 15, 2012

Halloween

I have come to the realization that I hate Halloween. I know, that seems so silly, why hate a holiday full of candy and little children in cute costumes, but I do. Halloween as a grown up is terrible.

When I was little, Halloween wasn't really scary. The haunted houses only had one or two surprises; the corn  mazes were just long enough to make you nervous just before you found your way out; and the adults in costumes identified themselves just before you got too scared. My little sister was the one who made Halloween awesome. She made her own costume every year since she was very little. It was always so much fun to watch it come together. One year, when she was young, she was the three headed dog from Harry Potter. She wore a homemade dog costume she sewed herself and used two of her stuffed animals to be the other two heads. It was fantastic! Halloween makes me really miss her.

As I got older, and I was a little to old to trick or treat, it was fun to watch the little kids come to the door and see what they had dressed up as. My dad and I would hand out candy to the kids from the neighborhood. I never really understood the concept of Halloween parties as a teenager or in college. Costumes were fun, but most of the time people would watch horror movies or go to actually scary adult haunted houses, or at least what I considered scary. So not my cup of tea.

I HATE being scared. I don't like people jumping out at me. I don't like horror movies, and I certainly do not like actually scary haunted houses. Apparently, this is a problem in Alabama. It seems like everyone here likes to be scared. There is this haunted house in Alabama that is supposedly the scariest in the south. I wouldn't know since I'm too scared to even look at the website, but the news stories say people come from all of the surrounding states to get scared witless. I saw the commercial one day and had nightmares that night. In thirty seconds, it became obvious that Halloween in the south was absolutely not for me.

This wouldn't be a problem, except that hubby and I were invited to our first adult Halloween party this year.  I am starved for human contact down here, since I can't seem to make any friends, but I am so afraid to accept the invitation. What I consider to be scary doesn't seem to line up with what everyone else thinks is scary, so when they say it won't be scary, I am not exactly convinced to take them at their word. They are lovely people, but I really loathe to be frightened and I seem to frighten very easily. Let's put it this way. I went to see Zombieland with a dear friend one evening while it was still in theaters. That scared the crap out of me. I am still not entirely sure how I made it home in once piece after the movie. I didn't sleep that night and I twitched for the next week straight. My father thought it was hilarious! The slightest sound would make me jump out of my skin and make my heart literally skip a beat, and people were NOT trying to scare me. Needless to say I don't do scary well.

So far this Halloween season has been quite a challenge for me. They have been advertising horror movies all day for weeks now. I haven't had a good night sleep in almost a month because of those beastly commercials. I thought commercials aired during the day had to be rated for all audiences, but I must be mistaken. I understand different things can be aired in the evening, but to watch a terrifying commercial about an NC-17 horror movie at 3:30 in the afternoon while watching Jeopardy really ruins my day. That's pretty much the only thing I watch that isn't PBS or Netflix. I just don't understand why so many people like to be scared so much.

So the real question is, do I accept the invitation to Halloween party with cool people that isn't supposed to be scary and risk being scared?? Or do I hide in my home for yet another year and save myself the heartache and horror??

~Mac

1 comment:

  1. Go! It is probably just an excuse to socialize, have a few beers, and wear some fake blood or an arrow glued to their forehead. If it is scary, sorry :(

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