Looking for Light Bulbs

Lightbulbs or light bulbs? Now there’s a question not easily answered by a quick Google search.

Anyway, I know I promised you I wouldn’t bother you today, but I really wanted to get in one more Halloween post before October ends.

This is a quick story from last October. (Remember, my goal is to write shorter blogs.)

My daughter and I went to the grocery store with a rather long list. There was the usuals, our staples, but we also needed021 light bulbs.

Upon entering the store, we saw our friend Jim, choosing some fresh-baked bread. I thought he looked really cute, so I took his picture.

We chatted for a bit, then continued with our grocery shopping, us going at our pace and following our usual route and him doing his thing.

Every few aisles, we would see each other. I’d check Jim’s cart to see if023 he had anything good that I needed to know about and he would check mine and give me shopping advice.

My daughter and I were looking for some specialty light bulbs, something that required me to write down a make/model number and bring it to the store, but we weren’t very focused on the task. You see, right across from the light bulbs were the Halloween masks and à la carte costume accessories.

The daughter, being a teenager, said the heck with the light bulbs, let’s try on masks. Just as she got this idea, here came Jim. So the three of us ended up having a hoot looking for lightbulbs.

All Dressed Up, Nowhere to Go

Me? Dress up for Halloween?

It takes a lot of creative energy, time, and money to put together a costume, and most of what was available for that for the last 10-15 years went into figuring out what my children were going to wear. So, yeah, I’m sort of in the habit to not dress up for Halloween.

Wait, wait; that’s not entirely true. Being a teacher and that I have students who start asking in September what I’m going to be, I do have a couple of easy costumes to choose from to wear on Halloween day. My favorite, of late, is what I dubbed an “ankle down” costume. It works for me because it requires no special make-up, no wig, and no special clothing. And, most important, it’s comfortable.

What is it, you ask? A pair of bumblebee slippers. When my students ask what I am, I answer with, “Two bees,” and their little faces morph from confusion to wonder to slight disappointment all within a matter of seconds.

Last year, about this time, I heard about the Zombie Prom happening at one of our trendy downtown theaters and I mentioned it to my daughter, thinking she and her friends might want to go. Much to my (initial) dismay, she suggested that I attend with them. I panicked. Wouldn’t that require hair, make-up, clothing? Interestingly, that stressed me out more than the thought of dancing and being stuck in a loud, crowded place with a bunch of young, wild, costumed strangers. She assured me that a zombie was, like, the easiest costume in the world.

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