When did Halloween stop being scary?

When I was a kid, and used to go trick-or-treating with my dad, I would absolutely lose it if I lost sight of him for even a second. I had a lot of imagination when I was young, so I truly believed that on Halloween, in the dark, there really were zombies, vampires, mummies, and other monsters out and about just waiting for kids to walk away from their parents to eat them.

Flash forward to a few years later, when I was a young teen, and I went to small Halloween house parties that usually involved a bunch of R-rated movies that our parents didn't know we had our hands on. I spent these Halloweens pretty scared as well, I mean, I watched the movies with lots of people, but I had to go home and sleep alone... Let's just say I kept a few lights on.

Then came the phase at the end of high school, when my friends and I thought it was a good idea to look for haunted houses and graveyards. We actually tried to scare ourselves. Costumes were no longer cool, so we had to find other ways to celebrate. There is a church out in St.Andrews where there's an urban legend that says if you walk around this place in a row of 13, 13 times, by the end of the walk, one of you would be missing. We did a few of these ghost-chaser events throughout the years, but there was always that guy who decided he wanted to scare all of us girls, so he took it upon himself to make the myths come true. Because of this, I never saw anyone go missing for real, but that doesn't mean I didn't get scared out of my wits.

This is where Halloween began to lose its horror. The party stage. As soon as my friends and I were 18, suddenly Halloween didn't mean "let's get scared!" it meant, "let's party."Costumes had become cool again, and we went all out. Halloween represented one of the most fun nights of the year.

And now? I still love Halloween, but I miss the times where I would get scared to death. When I would see a black cat, and intentionally walk around it. I guess this is one reason horror movies are so huge this time of year. Maybe we're trying to re-create that feeling from when we were kids. Maybe it's the reason I'm gonna be Snow White this year?

In any case, I'll still go on celebrating. To be honest, it's nice to pretend that it's the goblins, ghosts, and vampires who are to be feared for a night.

IPP Presentations update.

Here is a picture of the Presentation Theatre in The Winnipeg Convention Centre where the 2011 Independent Professional Project Presentations will be held starting March 9 - 11.

Jasmine and I are the co-ordinators for this event, and are now right in the thick of the planning process. With planning a Trivia Night for November, a CreComm Christmas Social for December, getting sponsorships, securing the proper A/V equipment, meetings, writing reports, and co-ordinating, let me tell you, we're having a ball.

And, we're not even at the fun part yet; pulling the actual event off!

Stay tuned for more updates as we check our to dos off the list.

Rose petals, strawberries, and chocolate, oh my!

So this past Monday, I started my school day at The Pancake House for breakfast, then I got to hang-out at Polo Park mall for an assignment. I have to say, It's pretty awesome to have a class like that.

Being in the mall for me, however, is like dangling the carrot; I must spend money. This brought me to a store I've actually never been in before, DavidsTea. Now, I'm a coffee girl through and through, but this store had me falling in love. So much so that I had to buy Love Tea #7. The tea's label reads:

"Get Lucky. One sip of #7 and you'll find yourself head over heels. Mysteriously changed. Magically happy. Walking on air. How does it work? Frankly, we don't know. Our blender came up with it and then just ran off with the girl of his dreams. Maybe it's the chocolate bits that lower your inhibitions. Or the seductive strawberries. Or the romantic rose petals. Either way, this black tea is seriously lucky."

This seems to boast an unrealistic result from drinking tea, but let me tell you, one whiff of the dry tea, (never mind it brewed) had my heart fluttering, my eyes seeing little cartoon hearts, and my hands grabbing my wallet.

If you haven't yet been to this store, go. You'll be amazed by the exotic concoctions that send your senses into a frenzy. Who knows, maybe the label's true. Maybe a blend or rose petals, strawberries, and chocolate in a black tea is the recipe for falling in love.

Hmm, which one to try next? fountain of youth sounds good...

Happy reading.

Is it wrong that I like to read for fun? Sitting here at my desk, I'm looking as stacks of books I love; From J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series (Yes I love them. Who could say no to a series that did so much for youth literacy?), to Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian, to Nora Roberts' Bridal Quartet (Gotta love the chick-lit). I could read an entire series in a week's time. Reading fiction is one of my favourite hobbies.

So why is that when I'm told to read a book for a class, for example The Englishman's Boy for Canadian Literature, I can't bring myself to even pick it up? Is is the child-like response of not wanting to do what your told? Maybe it's the subject matter I'm not really interested in. Or perhaps it's simply too boring for me to want to invest the time into it when it's cutting into one of my favourite things to do on my own time?

Well, it can't really be about the subject matter. I mean, one of my favourite books, The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson, is about a porn star turned porn movie producer who gets into an accident that causes him to have third degree burns on most of his body. The main character is burnt so badly that even his penis has been burnt off. The man goes through hell in the healing process, Davidson details quite graphically what doctors must do to get rid of the burnt flesh, which is to literally carve it off. I must say that this subject matter is not the most appealing to me, yet it's one of my favourites all the same.

I would argue that I don't want to read The Englishman's Boy because it's too boring, but the fact of the matter is that I haven't even started reading it, so how would I really know? This brings me to my last reason: that lovely, child-like response, which I'd like to say I've grown out of but here it is.

Does anyone else suffer from this? Maybe we are meant to hate the books assigned to us in school. Another life lesson learned: sometimes you must do things you don't want to do. I remember in university whenever we were assigned a new reading we'd all roll our eyes, and automatically hate the selection without even cracking the cover. I think we may be socially inclined to dismiss these books on principal.

Alright, now that I've been able to express this rather ridiculous rant, I feel much better prepared to pick up that crisp, untouched book and give it a chance. Happy reading!

Coffee and Chocolate.

I'm the kind of person who looks forward to school to begin in the fall. Actually, I don't only look forward to it, I get incredibly excited for it. I get caught up in the school supplies shopping, new clothes, and getting my hair done. I also get excited, if you can believe it, for homework. Yes, I'm a geek. But before you judge me as utterly ridiculous, just think of the satisfaction I'm sure you've felt once you had finished a huge assignment, made it beautiful, and handed it in. That stress release gives me an amazing high, so I look forward to it after each school break.

Now, fast forward to a month into school. The assignments are starting to pile up, the procrastination tendencies come to the surface, and that stress peaks its ugly head. (I know I've already said I like this part, but It's really only the after effects I enjoy. In the throes, I'm not exactly the happiest person alive.)

This is the point where coffee and chocolate become essential to my existence. You see, unlike some of my on-the-ball classmates who start assignment as soon as they're handed out, I like to take a few days (or weeks) to contemplate and brainstorm. So, by the time I actually get to writing, I sometimes don't have very long to complete the assignment, hence the stress.

Why do I do this to myself you may ask? Like so many others, I'm a bit addicted to drama. Not that I want to cause it, but the feeling of being completely stressed one day, and being calm the next is invigorating. And besides, as long as there's coffee and chocolate around, who could complain?