Countdown 365

I'm back.

Loooong hiatus, I know. I don't know where the time went, but after a few gentle nudges and a much need kick in the pants, I realized I can't put it off anymore. I gotta blog!

Besides, today is a good day to get back at 'er. Tomorrow, Mike and I will have been together two years, it's Halloween and as of today, there are exactly 365 days until our wedding. Halloween wedding? Yes. Like right on the 31st of October. Yes. Like for real? YES!!! Can you tell I've been asked that a lot in the past while? Yes, we are getting married on Halloween - without costumes. No costumes allowed. It may seem silly, but Halloween is only one of my favorite days of the year, it was the day of our first date and it falls on a Saturday next year. All my life I loved Halloween - the lead up to it, the pumpkin carving, the costume picking and of course the Trick-or-Treating. I also thought that all the spookiness and mystery of witches, ghosts, goblins and things-that-go-bump-in-the-night created some wonderful magic that no other time of year could. It is that feeling and excitement accompanied by heightened senses that makes me love Halloween.

Somehow the romantic in me thinks that maybe there was a higher reason as to why I loved Halloween. Maybe I was meant to have my first date, with the man I would marry, on that day...and maybe is it a weird universal blessing to be able to get married on October 31st - a Saturday - in the year we will be married. Maybe some higher power (whoever that may be) made me look forward to that time every year so that when something good happend I would take it as a sign and not brush it off. Maybe, just maybe, I am over analyzing and am starting to sound crazy.

Our decision of the date has, of course, been met with some with some weirdness from others. So far my favorite comment has been, "Well, you may offend some people with children, it is Halloween ya'know". Really? I didn't know that...oh my gosh, I just realized that October 31, 2009 was Halloween, I am so sorry, here, let me change the date for you. I know that sounds snotty, (insert my Mom's voice sternly saying, "Tracy LeeAnne, be a LADY!" here) but I am claiming one Halloween night in all of existing time as mine, for me and us. How I really wanted to respond to this was by saying, "Do don't come then.". But what I said was, "of course I understand that and I will also understand if someone can't make it because of that." Unless, it is someone really important, then I will cast a temporary insanity spell on them.

My Dad seriously had the best comment about the day though. "Halloween, hey?" he said, "That is just so you". He got it. He understood. I didn't know if anyone would, but he did. Not like it suprised me. He's good that way.

So Halloween it is. This Halloween won't be too exciting - unless the Jets win (GO STONEWALL!!!) but next year will be magically fantastic!