Skeleton Jack is King of the Pumpkin Patch

As I mentioned earlier, I've been feeling all autumnal this week and I'm not sure why, as the weather is still indicating it's the season for two cold showers a day and endless lime popsicles. I was cleaning out my desk earlier and found stashed in the back a bag of Halloween decorations I bought last November because they were on sale; I'd put them up now if I thought I could get away with bat garlands and paper pumpkin lanterns at the end of July.

I've always really liked Halloween more than any other holiday, probably because it's in October. I remember in high school my friend Carly and I used to go to these big Halloween Balls in Salem, which is at its busiest that time of year (witch burning being a big tourist draw, I guess). Compared to even a regular weekly club event in New York I suppose the parties we went to then were quite small, but we had a lot of fun getting dressed up and figuring out how we would get in (being all of thirteen or fourteen at the time).

My senior year during the weeks leading up to the night itself I worked at a Haunted Barn run by my friend Heather's family, which if I recall was actually quite a bit scarier than any of the haunted houses I went to when I was little. It was held in one of their barns normally used for storage; it worked particularly well because there were was a basement level with lots of smallish rooms and narrow little hallways. I was one of those people who would sit very still among several scarecrows or mannequins and then scare the shit out of you by being real.

Three years ago I think I went to the Halloween party with some people at Batcave and saw VNV Nation in what amounts to possibly the worst concert venue ever, but we had fun (sadly I can't link to my post about it as I hadn't started archiving yet). Two years ago I vaguely remember a pumpkin carving party with some people from nycgoth, and seeing the parade in the Village with Rich before getting sloshed at the Raven later in the evening. Last year was more of the same.

I know it's a little early to be thinking about it, but this year? Perhaps whatever kind of party I can get away with in a one bedroom apartment is in order.