one scaredee kat

you know i've never really been a huge fan of all hallows eve, but really when else can you run up and down your street/neighborhood in a crazy homemade costume (inevitably one article of your outfit is from what you had lying around your room or house) and collect--from your neighbors--enough sweet morsels that will leave you with a big fat filling and your parents with a month's worth of hyperactivity ("tommy, stop....STOP! how many pieces of candy have you eaten already?"to which tommy answers with a big chocolate grin, "only eleven!"). i would prefer not to speak about how scared i was to enter any makeshift haunted garages or get in the way of teenagers throwing eggs at houses and cars. for me (and my sisters), one of the best moments of halloween was not the actual trick or treatin', but rather the post-game ritual of dumping out all of the hershey bars, milky ways, sweet tarts, flavored tootsie rolls and pretzels (i even got a miniature Bible one year!) from our plastic pumpkin containers or pillow cases and spreading them across our living room carpet in order to count each individually-wrapped treat. once the final tallies were recorded, the trade talks began ("meg, i'll trade you a reese's peanut butter cup and a candy necklace for your king size nestle crunch bar?"). the halloween activities that the Kerrigan children participated in were minimal and lasted only a couple of hours; however, we were ready for bed by 9 o'clock. and for somebody who has always had stomach issues (usually excessive gas), everyone was pleased that tommy was retiring for the evening :)

a general rule of thumb for all you trick-or-treaters:
be good and be safe. but if you can't be good, well, at least be safe.