When I say a ‘hangover’, I don’t mean a literal hangover from alcohol. I quit drinking after a medical incident and head injury two years ago (which will get its own Confession in time). So I just mean… the feeling of a hangover, which I remember well. But it was the best Hallowe’en I’ve had in years.
A bad spell
I used to really love Hallowe’en. My cousins would come over in their costumes and trick-or-treat on our road because our street came to life in October. Some of the neighbours would transform their home into a House of Horrors with a different theme each year and we would all go together to see what new fright was in store. My personal favourite was the year they did Phantom of the Opera, complete with a full-sized mirror that would open up to a secret lair.
But then the cousins grew up, the neighbours stopped their Hallowe’en show and Cat and I gradually fell into a Hallowe’en funk. We would plan to cuddle up to a scary movie and eat treats, but every year we would end up paralysed by choice. We would spend too long trying to choose a film and then we’d both be too grumpy to really enjoy it. Often we would end up disappointed by the day and just hope that the next year would be better.
A new Hallowe'en tradition
This year, however, we had our first Hallowe’en in our own home with our own decorations and our own trick-or-treaters. We made a pact to have a cosy day with no chores and nothing but treats, cuddles and scary TV, whether that be watching a horror film, the last two episodes of Dahmer or playing a scary video game.
In the end Cat’s brother (and one of my very best friends) came over and we played Until Dawn from start to finish all day and it was just fantastic. I think we may have accidentally stumbled upon a beautiful new Hallowe’en tradition.
You may recall, from my brief foray into the video game world at the EGX convention in London, that I am not a gamer. So I was mainly watching and helping Cat and Matt make choices in the story while they operated the controls and, I have to say, it was so much scarier than watching a film. It was the perfect game to make a perfect Hallowe’en in our new home.
So why the lull in energy?
Well, that’s entirely my fault.
After all the scariness of Until Dawn I thought I could use some light reading to send me to sleep without nightmares. But that light reading turned into still turning pages of a wonderful romance novel at 4AM (thank you, Jaime Admans).
So I threw away my morning (and the first morning of NaNoWriMo) to stay in bed and recover some energy. In fact, I’m still in bed as I write this and I hope to write some NaNo words from here too. But I do hope that the energy comes back to me, because our house is in need of some TLC after yesterday’s fun.
For now though, it’s words, words and more words for me.
