Happy Halloween!

Why do people say that? It's not a particularly joyous holiday, but it's fun to say it since everyone is so excited to dress up.

It says a lot about a person what they dressed up as throughout their lives, right? Maybe not one year in particular, but all the years together do.

Here are mine(not necessarily in order... if my mom read this blog, she would correct me) :
- clown
- gypsy (i know, totally un-pc, but i didn't know better)
- witch (not too scary)
- little red riding hood
- mime
- Charlie Chaplin (full on, no talking, waddling with cane)
- Phantom of the Opera
- Princess Leia
- Marilyn Monroe
- figure skater from the 80's

and this year?

Family Thievery

I have a HUGE family, a family that I really like being around, even if they are a little insane at times. Since I moved to California, and my family is all in West Virginia and Ohio (more or less), I have been stealing families. It's a very good idea if you decide to move somewhere without any family. Luckily I moved to a city where I already knew a good deal of people from school, some of whom actually grew up here. This means they have families nearby, families you can steal. Money!

First, I stole Alex's family. Her Mom, Linda, and her sister, Sonja, are great. The beginning of my thievery was probably on Alex's birthday last year, when the four of us went to brunch, then to a 6 year-old's birthday party. There we played with other 6 year-olds and watched a live reptile show - the guy doing the show made Alex touch something since it was her birthday, too. That night I got to meet Alex's brother, Gabe, and his family for the first time (they just had their second baby!). Shortly after that, Alex and I went to Sonja's house for Thanksgiving; Sonja's partner Jim was also there and he is great fun. It was the first time that Sonja had cooked a full Thanksgiving dinner by herself and boy, did she do a good job. I also got to meet their other brother, Anthony, at that holiday.

Now I am on a crusade to steal Julia's and Kim's families. On the day that Kim, my former coworker but now friend, and I decided to put in our joint letter of resignation, I had to take care of some stuff in the East Bay that was going to be very difficult to do by bike. Kim and her Mom were so great - they picked me up at the Lafayette BART station, drove me to my appointment, then we got coffee together and Kim's Mom took us to work all the way in Berkeley. It was so nice to have a Mom to talk to before we made such a stressful career move.

I recently met Julia's parents when we had our Monday Night Dinner Club at her house. We are going to her house for happy hour on Thursday and I am going to put plan Steal-Julia's-Parents into action. Wish me luck!