Halloween Memories

Happy Halloween, everyone! 

Halloween has always been my favorite holiday. When I was little, my dad was the one who took me trick-or-treating while my mum stayed home and handed out candy. We lived in the country, and our street was the perfect place for trick-or-treating. After dinner, my dad and I would head out and hit all the houses we could. I don’t have a lot of clear memories, but I remember being happy.

I don’t remember what my first costume was. I have a picture of myself in front of the fridge wearing a cat costume - I look to be 4 or 5, but I’m not sure if that was my first Halloween. I remember being all the typical things – a clown, a witch, a ghost. Costumes back in the late 80s/early 90s weren’t as cool or elaborate as they are today. I do remember that when I was in Kindergarten, we all got dressed up and paraded through the entire school – into classrooms, through the portable, through the gym. I have a vague recollection of kids doing that for a few years before we weren’t allowed to dress up at school anymore.

Halloweens all sort of blur together until my last one with my dad, when I was 9. He was going through chemotherapy treatments, had lost all his hair by then, and wasn’t feeling great, but he wasn’t willing to disappoint me by not taking me out. So we headed out, got to the end of the driveway, and it started to snow. Ahh, Canada, how I love thee. We turned back around, got our mittens, my dad covered his bald head, and we headed back out. I don’t remember anything else about that night, and I don’t even know if I appreciated it at the time – the fact that my dad was so sick, but still took me out. I had no idea it would be my last Halloween with him, and I wish I could remember every second of it.

The next year, my brother’s then-girlfriend took me out. In case you’re wondering why I haven’t mentioned my brother until now, it’s because he’s ten years older than I am, so by the time I was old enough to trick-or-treat, he was too old, and was always doing stuff with friends. Or maybe at Halloween parties at school? I honestly don’t remember. Anyway, Jamie’s gf and I hit more houses than I’d ever done, and even went down two of the side streets, which was pretty exciting for me. 

That girlfriend was gone by the next year, so my best friend and I went trick-or-treating. I was a zombie cheerleader, and Suleena was a punk or a hobo, something like that lol. It was so much fun – my first time trick-or-treating with a friend. I was a month and a half shy of being 12, and felt so grown up. That year was my last year at home in the country. My mum and I moved into the city the next summer.

So, that next year was my last year trick-or-treating. My other best friend had just moved into this new subdivision that was still being built, and so we decided to have a Halloween party there and go trick-or-treating in the new neighbourhood. There were 4 of us if I remember correctly, and we all got dressed at Jenn’s place before heading out. Now, this area was one of those areas where you know people are well-to-do. And I soon learned that that reflects the type of candy you get. I remember getting full-sized chocolate bars and cans of pop. Best candy haul ever. We went back to Jenn’s and did the regular 12/13-year-old stuff – played some games, watched movies, ate junk, played truth or dare. It was great.

I can’t remember if I did anything my first year of college, but the second year, a friend from high school and I went out to a club with one of my college friends, Rhonda (I talked a bit about this in last week’s Tune in Tuesday post). Rhonda is the type of girl you want to party with, so we had a ton of fun. 

Rhonda and me

The next year, that same friend from high school invited Suleena and me to her house for a Halloween party (my first real Halloween party!). This friend was sharing the house with 5 or so of her college friends, so with all their friends and boyfriends, there were a ton of us. We partied at my friend’s place for awhile, then headed out to a club, all dressed in our costumes (I was a devil and Suleena was an angel). It was a lot of fun, and was one of the last times I saw that high school friend because it was all downhill from there (which is why I haven’t named her). And that’s a whole other story for another time! I’m sure it’ll get worked into a book at some point lol. 

Suleena and me

Since then, I’ve only been trick-or-treating with my oldest nephew a few times. He loves to dress up, but the trick-or-treating thing is just beyond him. I remember the first year I went with him, he was 4 I think – we hit about 2 houses and he was ready to go home. I would have happily traded places with him for the chance to go trick-or-treating again! 

Mum, Noah, and me

Now I have a sort of love/hate relationship with Halloween. I look forward to it all month, autumn is my favorite season, I love pumpkin carving with the kids…but then I don’t get to do anything or go anywhere. My big excitement for tonight is eating junk, and maybe watching From Hell (mmm, Johnny Depp, that should cheer me up). Hopefully some year, I’ll get to celebrate my favorite holiday again!

Book Review: Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour by Morgan Matson

Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour by Morgan Matson
Published: May 4th, 2010
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing
344 pages (paperback)
Genre: Contemporary young adult/romance
Acquired this book: From the library
Warning: may include spoilers
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Amy Curry thinks her life sucks. Her mom decides to move from California to Connecticut to start anew—just in time for Amy's senior year. Her dad recently died in a car accident. So Amy embarks on a road trip to escape from it all, driving cross-country from the home she's always known toward her new life. Joining Amy on the road trip is Roger, the son of Amy's mother's old friend. Amy hasn’t seen him in years, and she is less than thrilled to be driving across the country with a guy she barely knows. So she's surprised to find that she is developing a crush on him. At the same time, she’s coming to terms with her father’s death and how to put her own life back together after the accident. Told in traditional narrative as well as scraps from the road—diner napkins, motel receipts, postcards—this is the story of one girl's journey to find herself.

I can’t tell you how much I loved this book. I finished it a few days ago and haven’t been able to get all my thoughts together because there were so many I didn’t know where to begin. This review is going to be a bit different (and longer) than my usual reviews, just because when I really enjoy a book, I love to share its awesomeness with everyone, and I have a lot to say about it.

I’ve always dreamed of going on an epic road trip like the one Amy and Roger took. I love road trips, but rarely get to take them anymore, so this book was the perfect way for me to live vicariously, and I enjoyed every second of this adventure.

The characters:
I love Amy and Roger, separately and together. Amy was so relatable to me; she’d been through a trauma, and her emotions were so real – the pain, the avoidance, the anger, the awkwardness around other people, all of it. It was so great to watch her blossom and find herself again, and learn new things about herself.

Roger is just plain amazing. He’s sweet without being one of those guy characters who’s so perfect he’s unbelievable. I also enjoyed watching his transformation - although subtler than Amy’s, it was still interesting to see. I thought these two were great together – the way they quickly learned each other’s moods, habits, expressions and body language was so real and it was a lot of fun to see them discovering things about each other without really realizing it.

I also loved all the quirky characters the pair met along the way.

The story itself:
Well-written, laugh-out-loud funny, achingly real and believable. We know that Amy’s father died, and we know how, but it takes a long time for us to learn the details, and I was so curious. I was sitting in the library when I read the part where Amy finally tells Roger what happened, and I had to stop reading because I was crying. Seriously. Her self-blame and guilt were so real, it broke my heart.

Another of my favorite things about this book was the little extras – the pictures, the sketches, the playlists, the facts about the states they visited. I learned so much from this book! In fact, I loved those parts so much that I bookmarked them all to show my mum – my only real-life book loving friend, hence my love and appreciation for my fellow book bloggers lol - and even after I’d shown her, I found her flipping through the book again a little while later. She doesn’t read YA (except for Harry Potter), but I’ve been wondering if I could get her started with this book. ;-)

Possible spoiler alert: I don’t want to say I was unhappy with the ending, but I suppose there was a part of me that was slightly disappointed. Not disappointed enough to stop loving this book, but the romantic in me, and the side of me that likes for books to be wrapped up in neat little bows – even though I know that’s not how life itself is – was a bit sad. I realize that at the heart of it, this story was about Amy finding herself and making a lot of really important self-discoveries, but the slightly ambiguous way things were left between Amy and Roger…well, I wasn’t satisfied. I did wonder how it could possibly work out for them, so I know this was the more realistic ending than some ideal happily ever after, especially when they’re both so young. BUT, the ending leaves it open for a possible sequel – I have no idea if Ms Matson ever intends to do a sequel, but I’d say she at least has the option for one, and I know she’d have a lot of happy fans if she carried on with Amy and Roger’s tale. (Please Morgan, please please pleeeeease!)

How this book affected me on a person level:
*Amy’s dad’s death really hit me hard, because my dad died a long time ago and we had a really special bond, like Amy had with her dad. Whether it was an accident or something else, and even when there’s absolutely nothing anyone could have done, when a kid loses a parent, there’s going to be guilt there, and possibly even self-blame. I could really relate to what Amy was going through, even though my dad died of a prolonged illness, not a car accident, and I was much younger than she was when it happened.

*I said at the beginning that I’ve always dreamed of going on an epic road trip…well, I’d be lying if I said I’ve never had an epic road trip of my own, even if it was a lot different. I’ve had a few really terrific road trips, but only one American one. A few years ago, I met a girl online and we became fast friends. We talked all day every day, had tons in common, and it felt like we’d known each other our entire lives. Just a few months after meeting online, we decided it was time to meet in person…only, she lived in Kentucky and I live in Ontario, Canada. So, she drove from Kentucky to here (13 hours), stayed with us a couple days, then the two of us headed back to KY. After a couple days there, we headed out with her mother and nephew to Virginia to visit family. So that’s a 13 hour straight trip, followed by a 9-10 hour trip. While we were there, we visited DC and Maryland. On the way home, we split from her mother and nephew – they went home, and we came back here, but took a different route (another 9-10 hour drive). So I saw 9 states in as many days: Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, DC, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York (the only state I’d been to previously). Amy and Roger hit 14 states, so we weren’t far behind. That girl and I are no longer friends, but this book made my heart ache a little with the memories of our own epic adventure, especially when Amy and Roger were in Kentucky and Virginia. Our playlist consisted of non-stop U2 (we met in a U2 fan forum), and we had some amazing food along the way, just like Amy and Roger. We also met some pretty memorable characters.  And like Amy, I learned quite a bit about myself on that trip.

This is one of those books that it seems like everyone has read, but if you haven’t, you really should. I know I’ve rambled on endlessly, but there’s so much more I could say, I just really and truly loved this book.

Tune in Tuesday Week 3

Tune in Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by Ginger at GReads that showcases music.  Music for me is right up there with reading and writing, so even though this particular meme isn't about reading and writing, I thought it would be a fun one to participate in. If you're interested in participating, be sure to check out Ginger's blog so you can spread your love of music!

I’m thinking of doing a theme and highlighting indie music (indie writer talking indie music? hmm), but that might change. And since I’m not exactly up on current music, some of the bands might have once been indie, but aren’t currently. These days, I don't exactly listen to much other than U2, and I figured I probably shouldn't choose U2 songs every week lol.

 No Canadian indie bands this week. I know, I know, I'm sure you're all heartbroken. But, this week, I'm doing a tribute song of sorts.

Yesterday would have been my dad's 67th birthday. He died 17 years ago, just three months shy of his 50th birthday. A lot of my memories of him are fuzzy because I was only 10 when he died, and for the last two years of his life, he was in and out of hospitals, deathly ill, and I blocked out a lot of it. One thing I do remember is this song, which came out in 1992. We loved this song - I had no idea what it was about, of course, all I knew was that it was Daddy and Marie's song and we always sang along and danced to it whenever we heard it. So, Daddy, this is for you...

Walking on Broken Glass by Annie Lennox

~For Arsene Landry September 26th, 1944 - June 27th, 1994~

I love this video. Between this and the movie Labyrinth, I'm pretty sure that's what started my obsession with masquerades and costume balls. 

Favorite lines from this song:

"The sun's still shining in the big blue sky

But it don't mean nothing to me

Oh, let the rain come down

Let the wind blow through me"

"Now every one of us was made to suffer

Every one of us was made to weep

But we've been hurting one another

And now the pain has cut too deep

So take me from the wreckage

Save me from the blast

Lift me up and take me back

Don't let me keep on walking on broken glass"

*****

My weekly U2 lyric:

"Took a drive in the dirty rain

To a place where the wind calls your name

Under the trees, the river laughing at you and me

Hallelujah, heaven's white rose

The doors you open, I just can't close

Don't turn around, don't turn around again

Don't turn around your gypsy heart

Don't turn around, don't turn around again

Don't turn around, and don't look back

Come on now love, don't you look back"

~Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses by U2, from Achtung Baby~