elbow-deep in pumpkin guts.

John and I carved our pumpkins tonight, as the picture may have suggested. My favorite part about carving jack-o-lanterns (and I really mean this) is the moment when you first have to stick your hand in pumpkin guts. It's weird. I know. That's the part most people want to skip completely. That's why the market for those fake pumpkins is so high. People hate pumpkin guts. That and actual pumpkins get moldy really easily. Which is really gross. But me, I like scooping out the seeds and other orange mess. I miss being young enough to get really dirty occasionally. You know, make mud pies or, well, I guess mud was pretty much always to blame. Anyway, it's satisfying to hack open a pumpkin and slop the guts out onto a trashbag.

You know the opening sequence of Amélie where the narrator introduces Amélie and her parents and says the things they like (such as cracking the top of a crème brulée or cleaning out a purse)? Cleaning out pumpkin guts would be on my list, if they (the they that makes movies about people of little consequence, unless you believe in the butterfly effect) were to make a movie about, or at least including, me.

I. Like. Pumpkin. Guts.

Last night John and I went out in warm sweaters and drove over to a haunted house I heard about at work. It was really neat. My favorite part, even though the effects were actually quite good, wasn't part of the house at all. It was that we were doing something that felt like participating in a community. The line was really long and we had to stand on the sidewalk on a residential street with people in costume, parents and kids wrapped in blankets, and just other people like us, living in LA and getting to see the elusive "breath cloud" (you know, "I can see my breath") because it was 10PM and cold enough for it to happen. I stood with my arm in John's and asked him questions about all the Halloween stuff he could remember from when he was a kid. Halloween to John's family was what Christmas was to mine. You know, minus the gifts. (Unless they did, in fact, find a truly sincere pumpkin patch.) It was a good time.

Also, you should go check out John's Special Halloween Comic starring Alien and Dinosaur, a set of characters that made their first appearance in a comic John did with his sister. If you're interested, you can also see them here, here, here, here, and here. These strips, in particular, would be rated PG, the rest of the site is not, just so you know. These are probably my favorite of all John's recently created characters. They're quite adorable. Especially on buttons.

Since I'm not dressing up this year, think of this as my "virtual" costume:


You are Kermit the Frog. You are reliable, responsible and caring. And you have a habit of waving your arms about maniacally.
FAVORITE EXPRESSIONS:
"Hi ho!" "Yaaay!" and "Sheesh!"
FAVORITE MOVIE:
"How Green Was My Mother"
LAST BOOK READ:
"Surfin' the Webfoot: A Frog's Guide to the Internet"
HOBBIES:
Sitting in the swamp playing banjo.
QUOTE:
"Hmm, my banjo is wet."


What Muppet are you?
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Happy Halloween! Could you guess which of us carved which pumpkin?

we've lived here long enough to have traditions. sorta.

Last year on Oct. 20, John surprised me with tickets to see Rachael Yamagata at the El Rey. Tonight, the 26th (six days from being an exact year, which I think is a cool coincidence), we went back to the El Rey to see The Like with my friend April.

April has friends in high places when it comes to concerts in LA: a friend that, as far as I can tell, runs one of the clubs people wait in line to get into...and then might not even get in. So, April got was able to get two of us in for free. We just had to buy a ticket for John. Me? I was on the list. Oh yes. I was "And Guest." (April's real name was actually on the list.)

The show was really nice. The three girls in The Like are really talented and really young. Check them out if you're not familiar. It's good stuff.

i'm trembling alright.

In church on Sunday, the beginning of the Call to Worship, which was based on Psalm 99, went like this:

Leader: God reigns! Let all people tremble!
People: God is enthroned! Let the earth quake!

Now, I know that most, if not all, responsive reading in church is somewhat hyperbolic, but we're in Southern California. Is this really something we should be saying? Even if it is metaphorical, it still gives me the willies.

More and more lately I keep "feeling things" and think uh oh, here it comes, but it's nothing. I keep expecting the big one to hit. It's not something I think of constantly or anything, but just about every time I'm in a foreign environment. What would I do if the big one hits while I'm in IHOP? Duck under a table with my chocolate chip pancakes and hope I don't get smashed by their ugly blue a-frame roof?

More importantly, the ground is shifting under my feet in a more symbolic way right now. Our lease is up for renewal. I just got some potentially horrible news at work yesterday. Things are shaking and I've got nowhere to hide.

the revolution will not be busty.

John and I took Misty, my sister-in-law who has been here almost a week now, to Knott's Berry Farm. Knott's is one of the few LA attractions John and I hadn't already seen, so it was nice to do something new with Misty. And it's a pretty good amusement park. The quality of the rides is about the same as in Six Flags Over Georgia (the only Six Flags I've ever been to, I think), but the atmosphere was nicer. Not quite Disney nice, but nice. There are a lot of roller coasters there, so I screamed a lot today. The lines were practically nonexistent, too, so that was cool.

There was a ride in the "Fiesta Village" section called "La Revolución" And they woudn't let me ride it...because the restraint wouldn't come down over my breasts enough. Seriously. People bigger than me in ever other way had no problems whatsoever.

Apparently the revolution will be fought by the flat-chested? No! The other half (or whatever portion we are) will rise up and demand fair treatment! Vive la revolución de los pechos grandes!

i smell like bleach.

This looked much better in the store, but it's still undeniably awesome.

I've been cleaning all day, mainly because we have company coming tomorrow. John's sister Misty, to be exact. I'm not sure why the school system back home has decided to give students a break in October, but she's spending hers with us. She'll be here until the 14th.

My hands have that dried-out, I've-been-cleaning-all-day feeling.