Howl-o-ween

That's my basset, dressed up as Elvis for Halloween! His cape says "Hound Dog King" on the back. Isn't he perfect? (I know he is, you don't even have to tell me!) He's posing in my sister's front yard, along with the pumpkins Chelsea and I carved last night. The pumpkins came out surprisingly good, considering neither one of us had ever carved a pumpkin before. They were a little lopsided, but I say that just adds that homemade charm. We were reminiscing about watching Dad carve pumpkins all the Halloweens of our childhood, talking about how exciting it was and how we always thought he was doing something so magical and difficult. Turns out there's really nothing to it! But Dad sure did a good job of making it seem impressive, anyway. And I love jack-o-lanterns, mine is sitting on my patio right now and every time I've taken Cohen outside tonight we check it out and I smile.

Speaking of Dad, his ankle is definitely broken. In three places. He's having surgery on it tomorrow morning because they need to get it back in the right position with pins and plates. And then he'll be in a cast for a couple of months, I think. I just hope the surgery goes well. Keep your fingers crossed or say a prayer or send good vibes for him, whatever it is you do.

And speaking of parents, an occurence this weekend makes me think that perhaps I should never actually be a mother. Yesterday afternoon I was at Petsmart. Cohen and Morty (Chelsea's dog) had just finished their obedience class and Chelsea and I needed to do some shopping for treats and supplements and other pet things, so I put Cohen into our shopping cart and pushed him around while we shopped. It's hard for me to do any real shopping if he's walking because he likes to pull everywhere and sniff everything, so I put him into the cart to keep him from slowing me down and driving me crazy, plus he actually seemed to be enjoying riding in the shopping cart. And a basset hound chillin' in a shopping cart is one of the cutest things you could ever see in your life, trust me. Anyway, we bought a bunch of things, including these treats called ChocoMilk Drops (this fact will become important momentarily).
So we're standing in the parking lot after doing our shopping, putting our bags into the back of Chelsea's Jeep. Morty is on his leash, secured to Chelsea's wrist. Cohen is still in the shopping cart. I'm holding the shopping cart with one hand to keep it from rolling down the sloping parking lot.
Begin scene-
Me: Do you think these ChocoMilk drops actually taste like chocolate milk? Because they look pretty good.
Chelsea: I don't know. I wonder.
Me: I kind of want to taste one. But that's weird.
Chelsea: Should we taste one? [Pulls treat bag out of shopping bag, begins to read the back] It's mostly just sugar, and whey something...cocoa powder, powdered milk. It's stuff humans could eat. Do you want to try one? It might not be bad.
Me: I don't know. That's pretty gross. But I'm curious.
Chelsea: Have you ever tried the yogurt ones?
Me: Yeah, Cohen has them, he likes them.
Chelsea: No, I mean have you ever tried one?
Me: Oh, no. I never have.
Chelsea: Let me open this [attempts to rip open bag]. I wonder if I need scissors.
Me: You should be able to just rip it. Here, let me-
Chelsea: Oh no!! COHEN!!!!

I turned around just in time to see the shopping cart rolling down the sloped lot towards the front doors of Petsmart. Cohen seemed oblivious to the whole thing, he was still just chillin', looking around, rolling through the parking lot BY HIMSELF. I was shocked into just standing still shouting, "Get him!", leaving my sister to go running after him and stop the cart [obviously, I am really bad in any sort of emergency situation that involves immediate action]. Luckily he didn't get very far, and as soon as my sister had stopped the cart we both laughed so hard we cried. I had to sit down on the floor I was laughing so hard. No words could ever explain exactly how funny Cohen looked rolling through the lot in that cart.
But seriously, this is why I can't be a parent. I am so absentminded I let my puppy go rolling through a crowded parking lot in a shopping cart because I was too busy discussing the merits of TASTING DOG TREATS to actually pay attention to my dog.
Incidentally, Chelsea and I did end up tasting the dog treats once we finally stopped laughing. They taste exactly like Whoppers.

Anyway, my Halloween celebrations for the year are over, even though it's not even officially Halloween yet. There was the whole carving pumpkins and dressing up the dogs thing on Saturday night, which was very entertaining (To me and Chelsea anyway. I can't say that the dogs particularly appreciated it). And on Friday night I went to a costume party with Matthew. I wore my devil costume from last year (one of the best things about moving is that all your old clothes become new again because, hey, no one here has ever seen them!) and Matthew was a "shooting porn star" (don't ask). I drank some vodka, made snide comments about various party guests with Matthew, took pictures with some very friendly and excited people, and met the best drag queen ever. His name is Levi and everything he said almost killed me. Among the highlights:

Disgusted Total Loser Straight Guy: You have a straw for your beer?
Levi: Actually, it's for my lipstick.

Girl: Nice Halloween costume!
Levi: Oh honey, this isn't a Halloween thing, it's a weekend thing.

We only stayed for a couple of hours, but I'm glad I went out anyway because I was thinking I probably wouldn't actually dress up and go out this year.
So I dressed up, the dogs dressed up, I carved a pumpkin, I've been eating a bunch of Halloween candy my mom sent in the mail, and today I even helped set up a Halloween carnival for little kids so I could get some volunteer hours. My Mitte Scholar friends Nick and Chris and I made an excessively long black and orange paper chain and draped it around the entire room while everyone else was actually doing productive things like making punch and rice krispie treats and, well, basically doing everything else. Haha. Needless to say, I think I've had my fill of the holiday for this year.