Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! Now I wouldn't say that Halloween is my favorite holiday by any means, but I do indulge in all it's tacky/dorky, sugary goodness whenever October 31st rolls around. Today I am wearing my 'battitude' shirt as I do every year. I brought my plastic plug-in jack-o-lantern to use at work for the day and I even brought a little ceramic ghost figurine with the letters "B O O" spelled out across his cute little belly to adorn my desk for the occasion. To be totally honest, I forgot it was Halloween until I was debating on what to wear this morning. It was only then that I remembered today was the wonderful day that I get to wear my 'oh-so-cool' battitude shirt, courtesy of my mom. If you haven't seen my battitude shirt, then I am sorry for you because you are missing out. It is bright pumpkin orange (a color I wouldn't be caught dead in on any other day of the year) and has a sparkly bat on it with the glittery word 'battitude' underneath it. It is awesomely nerdy and I love it. Anyway, it made getting dressed this morning quite simple. I paired my tacky shirt with my pinstripe dress pants and called it done (business on the bottom, party on the top!). Realizing that no Halloween would be complete without some form of chocolate, I decided to go to the bookstore before going to work to pick up some candy for my coworkers (haha, who am I kidding, it was mostly for me). Anyway, I got to the bookstore and as you probably could have guessed, candy at the bookstore is EXPENSIVE. I ended up buying a small bag of Hershey's minis and a bag of Laffy Taffy. My total: $6.67. Ridiculous! But it is Halloween and like I said before, candy is required for any Halloween festivity and I was determined to be festive.

As I was walking across campus I realized that everyone has different levels of Halloweeniness. There are the 'too cool for this' people that dress like it's any other day of the year (not even a hint of orange or black to be found!). Then there are the 'moderate celebraters', the group with which I most closely relate, who wear Halloween themed clothing or at least Halloween colors. An orange pumpkin shirt here, some black and orange stripped socks there. We know it is Halloween and we are not afraid show it. The last group of Halloweeners are the 'over-the-top-did-you-forget-we-are-in-college?' crowd. These are the people who are either just plain crazy or have a really high self-esteem that come to school in full costume. I saw a girl dressed head to toe in a princess costume and another girl who was clearly some sort of fairy. It was odd. But that is the beauty of living in a free country, you can celebrate Halloween or any other holiday for that matter in whichever way you are most comfortable. I don't believe anyone has the right to judge someone else based on their Halloweeniness, which brings me to an experience I had this morning...

I had just finished prepping my work space for a day of Halloween fun and putting out my bowl of candy for all to enjoy when a woman in my office approached my desk. She casually took a piece of candy and said, "Well I guess I can still enjoy the candy even if I don't observe the holiday." I thought to myself, "that is a weird thing to say, I hope you just take the candy and walk away." That didn't happen. She continued to stand at my desk and tell me how her religion (she's not LDS) doesn't allow her to celebrate Halloween because of it's Satanic roots. I just politely nodded my head and went back to whatever useless thing I was doing on the computer, hoping she would go away. But on she went, making me more uncomfortable with each bizarre reason she gave for why people shouldn't play into Wiccan ideals and how there are several Satanic groups even here in Utah. Now, judging on my office decor for the day and my clearly wearing orange/black and my declaration of 'battitude' on my chest, wouldn't you think I would be the last one who would sympathize with anti-Halloween sentiments? It was a strange thing to say in the very least and to be quite honest I wanted her to give me back the HALLOWEEN candy I had so thoughtfully bought. But that is not what Halloween is all about, so I let it slide.

Thinking further about her comments of how Halloween is satanic, I would like to pose the question to each of you; do you see anything remotely satanic about this?

I didn't think so.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!