Success!

Phew. I am tired.

I began the day doing last-minute errands for my mom. That took way longer than it should have. However, I bought my pumpkin (yesterday I decided I wanted to carve one after all), so that's good.

Just when I wanted to get carving, I had to start making the Christmas soup. Yes, Christmas. My grandmother has a great soup recipe she makes every christmas, and my mom started making it for us on halloween to feed the masses of kids working the haunted house 8 years ago when we started, so now it's a tradition. This year I made it, since my mom was busy, and with the peeling and dicing help of kina, john, and jen, it was just as good as it always is. It's always reassuring to find out that I can follow a recipe well.

Post-soup-making, I had to make buttons to give to people who donated. That took my cousin and I a bit. At that point it was time to open the doors, so on a whim I went through my closet and found myself a dumb costume. Formal dress and japanese wings. Lots of eye makeup, straightened hair, and weird lip stuff. So unoriginal, I know. I wouldn't call it "slutty," though, since it's pretty high cut, but it is sort of tight, so meh. : \ I've been my share of un-sexy things, too, though, like a giant book, a baby in a basket, captain hook, jane goodall, princess leia (in her white dress, not the skanky ho jabba outfit), etcetera.

Then I helped work the HH for a bit, primarily in the guillotine room. Sadly, since we were working on it up until we had people waiting in our driveway, some things didn't get finished, like the exit that was supposed to have two separate exit possibilities, one full of someone scary. That didn't happen, which was too bad, but oh well. I got to drop the foam blade, weighted down by some pieces of metal duct-taped to the back (completely non-lethal), as they stuck their hand through the little hole. The blade stops before it gets to their hand, of course. The trouble was keeping them from sticking their head in the path of the "blade". Stupid people. It was fun to make them scream, though.

We ended up with over 600 guests and around 1100 dollars in donations. Usually we give to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Foundation but this year we're giving it to United Way.

For future reference for myself, here is a quick summary of the HH: ramp entrance, catacombs, mummy room, strobe room, dot room, torture chamber, teeter floor, dark maze, air cannon, chase's monster window, candy guillotine, exit.

BUT, there was one sad thing about today. I didn't ever get a chance to carve my pumpkin. I think I'll do that tomorrow, if the mood fits. For now, goodnight.