What I'm going to do about it

I liked my sister's comment on my last blog. She said maybe I needed to be the one to host the community event in my neighborhood. Good idea. Instead of complaining, I should do something about what I don't like. Here's the plan.

I've already talked to a neighbor who feels the same and is ready and willing to jump on the bandwagon with me. She said she and her next door neighbor have had similar discussions and they are both wanting to do something about it. So- already three of us ready to go.

Next Halloween, said neighbor will have soup potluck early in the evening, my family will do a spook alley in the garage, and then we will find someone on the street above to do hot chocolate / cider. Families can work their way through the neighborhood with fun and social stops along the way.

In the meantime, I am going to the annual HOA meeting and volunteering to plan some events during the year. I am scared to write that down and commit to it, as I had such a horrible experience on my last HOA board. I'll give it a year and see what happens.

Halloween Rant

It's been a while since I've had a nice little rant on my blog. I guess we're due for one. I never thought I'd rant about Halloween since it's my favorite holiday, but here it is.

We love Halloween. Rick and I dress up to pass our candy every year. We put giant spiders on our house, a graveyard out front, strobe light on the balcony and spooky music. Growing up, it was my goal to be the cool house with the great candy, so we give out full sized candy bars. We usually have a lot of fun.

Here we are ready for the kiddos to start coming.




We had a lot of trick-or-treaters this year, but I was very disappointed. Very few kids from our neighborhood showed up. I was looking forward seeing all the kids I know dressed up in their costumes, but I recognized very few groups of kids. I think the kids in our neighborhood go to the exclusive subdivision just above us, thinking it's better candy. Many of the people who did show up at our house were obviously hitting as many neighborhoods as they could and were trying to quickly get through ours to move on to the next one.

I couldn't believe how much candy those little kids were hauling around. There was one little girl who couldn't have been older than 6 who had an extra large shopping bag (the paper bags with handles that you get at a department store when you have an extra large purchase), it was almost half full of candy. WHAT?

I could see some kids' parents in the car ready to whisk their kid off to the next neighborhood to get more candy. It was kind of disgusting to me. We turned off our lights at 8:30, even though we weren't out of candy yet. I felt that instead of supporting a fun community holiday, we were promoting gluttony.

Do I sound like an old lady yet? Just wait....

When I was growing up, Halloween was a neighborhood celebration. We'd have neighborhood spook alleys and parties complete with a costume parade around the living room. We'd love seeing all the neighbors out trick-or-treating and socialized as we went. At the end of the night, when we were back at home divvying out the haul, we'd talk about how next year we would go to the big houses in the subdivision above us to get the awesome candy from the rich people, but we never actually did it. I'm so glad my parents never let us. They knew the holiday was more about community and less about candy. The memories and friendships we developed by everyone on the street investing in the neighborhood far outweighs any candy that would be eaten or thrown away soon after.

It's not just this holiday that I've felt like this. I often am sad that my neighborhood lacks a sense of community. Maybe it's the demographic of my specific area. We moved in when our kids and a lot of the kids on the street were a little older- tweens and teenagers, which can make it harder to find common ground for socialization. I know I come from a very unique situation that is not fair to judge all neighborhoods against. I was very blessed to have an amazing street to grow up on with lots of friends. We regularly held neighborhood talent shows, carnivals, parties, night games, and secret girl club meetings. These weren't church or community sponsored, just parents or kids planning and hosting events. I don't expect every place I live to be so social. I know I had a unique and wonderful experience. I sort of feel like I've gone from one extreme to another.

I've strayed a little off topic. My basic complaint is that, from my experience yesterday, I feel that the community aspect of Halloween has been lost to the quest for more and more candy. Am I wrong? In years past, we knew more kids who came trick-or-treating. Maybe the nice weather made it easier for people to not stay close to home this year and then stay out longer getting more and more candy. Maybe this isn't as epidemic as I'm viewing it to be, and it was merely a result of specific circumstances this year. Please someone share a more positive experience they had to give me hope that my favorite holiday hasn't turned into pure gluttony.

October Birchbox

I've had my October Birchbox for a week now. I'm slacking on the blog. Actually, this isn't so bad because I've been able to use a few of the items and can review them. I've been disappointed in the boxes since the earbud one was so awesome. I decided to adjust (lower) my expectations. This one was pretty good. Here's the rundown:


Tea. Fail. I do think there is one herbal version in the pack. Sore throat today, maybe I'll try it this evening.



Haven't tried it yet. I wish this was a month earlier. I kept bars like this in my office for some quick energy for my bike ride home.


Miracle Skin Transformer. Primer, serum and fact tint. I liked how this made my skin feel. It is just a tint and did not provide much coverage. I would have liked a larger sample.

Caudalie Vinoperfect Radiance Serum and per-fekt Beauty Lip Perfection Gel.. I keep forgetting to try these.

DDF Brightening Cleanser. Favorite item in the box. I was needing a little bottle of face cleanser for my yoga bag. (I like to shower at the studio instead of driving home all sweaty.) This is perfect. It's much larger than sample size and I like how it makes my skin feel.

Weekend Report

I'm still here. I feel like I've been blogging because I've created a bunch of blogs in my head over the past several weeks, they have just never made it to the computer.

This weekend I went back to Bikram yoga. I was worried my feet wouldn't handle it very well, but I was OK. I went both Friday and Saturday. Friday my feet didn't hurt too much, but my body had a hard time in the heat and intensity of the workout. I knew I needed to go back Saturday or I'd be too sore to walk by Sunday. Day 2 was better on my body as far as handling the heat, but my feet hurt a little more. Overall, it was very cleansing. I am excited to put it back in my weekly workout rotation.

Friday night we were invited to a dinner party at a colleague of Rick's from the U. My first thought was that I'm too old for college parties, but we went and had a wonderful time.

This is Ting. She made a traditional Chinese meal called a Hot Pot. One side had spicy broth and the other sweet. It sat on the table on a small stove. Everyone sat around the table and added meat and veggies. As the food cooked, you take out what you want and put it in your personal bowl which had a little sesame sauce in it. It was a fun and social way to eat dinner. It was also very delicious. We enjoyed trying new types of veggies, like lotus root.

After dinner we learned to play Mahjong, a traditional Chinese tile game. It was a lot of fun. Rick and I won twice.

We spent a lot of Saturday at a fencing tournament. Rick and Isaac participated and had a great time.

They did three separate tournaments. The second one was for Cadets (19 and younger). Isaac took 5th place, which was really good considering he's only been fencing about 4 months and everyone else there had been fencing at least a year and a half.

Sunday we relaxed and recovered. Another fine weekend!

September Birchbox

I haven't been feeling too "bloggity" lately so I'm glad the September Birchbox came to give me an excuse to blog. Not too thrilled with this month's selection. Here's the rundown.

The POREfessional. Face primer. Never something I've thought of using, but I'll give it a try.

This was probably the best sample in the box. Boscia Soothing Cleansing Cream. I'm always up for trying a new face cleansing product.

kate spade Twirl perfume sample. Add it to the fragrance stash.

twistband Hair tie. Eh. Nothing special.

tili bag. Basically a decorated ziplock.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Color Club custom polish. I don't color my fingernails, but I'm sure I can find someone to give this to.