...
Lord knows I am NOT a virtuous woman.
As you saw in a previous post, earlier this month I ran around my new neighborhood like a fool in the rain, dropping boo buckets at the two most "festive" looking houses I could find (choosing the people with the most Halloween decor in their yard seemed like the best bet I had in getting a neighborhood boo-chain going).
That was October 1st.
Almost every day thereafter, I've obsessively driven really slow down my street, counting ghosts hanging on front doorways.
Oh, I suppose this may help if you don't know what I'm referring to:
Anyway - one day last week I must have been obnoxiously slow in my driving, because some kids in a car jetted around me in their rush to get to school, giving me a very irritated look as they passed.
Nerds! Are you in THAT much of a hurry to start class for the day?! Heh.
Much to my satisfaction, it didn't take long for things to carry forward after my initial drop. First, the people I booed put their ghosts up right away. And then, within maybe a day or so, two more people had ghosts up.
I could barely contain my excitement when that happened.
And then ... it stopped.
For maybe three days straight, there were no new ghosts. Only two ghosts popped up on new doorways after I passed out my buckets, and nothing more appeared to be happening. Disappointed, I chalked it up to one of two possibilities:
(1) I started something in a neighborhood I didn't know well, and maybe this wasn't the "cool" thing to do around here
- OR -
(2) October 1st was a Monday, and maybe people needed time over the weekend to go out and get boo supplies
No secret, I'm sure you know - I was hoping really hard the answer was #2.
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A few days later ... queue angels singing ... or maybe imps rejoicing since this is Halloween? Whatever the joyous noise came from, the weekend after I dropped my boo buckets: hooray! Up sprouted a few more ghosts. About 7 or so days from my initial drop, there were maybe 4-6 additional ghosts hanging around the neighborhood, none of which were from my original delivery.
And then ... it stopped again.
Since I had no real expectation of success after the first slow down, I figured that maybe the excitement ran out of steam and that was the end. Or maybe the neighbors that knew each other at that end of the block all had ghosts up, so they decided to stop. Who knows?!
Imagine my surprise, then, when I left this past Saturday morning (10/13) to go teach my fitness class ... and there was a boo basket on the steps of the neighbors across the street from me! Yes! I was so happy they received a basket, since I had wanted to give them one of my original ones. However, they had some personal things going on at the beginning of the month, and I figured they really didn't need the added stress of chasing down supplies for boo baskets. It only goes to prove that karma works in mysterious ways! (The funny thing was, SPOILER ALERT: later in the day when I stopped at Target for my own re-up of supplies, they were there shopping for their own baskets as well - LOL!)
With weekend #2 of boo-ing in effect in my neighborhood, I noticed a few more ghosts had sprung up during my drive in to teach. And since I had other errands to run that morning, I was looking forward to the opportunity to drive around a few more times to survey the neighborhood.
There wasn't a HUGE uptick in ghosts, but there were a few at least. That was enough to make me happy as I went about my errands, and then came home mid day to settle my son in for nap.
---
And then ...
My doorbell rang.
Me: "WTF? Is it some political door knocker again?! It's nap time. I'm not answering the door."
Also me: *let me check my Ring doorbell videos*
Still me: *What the heck!? It is NOT that cold outside. Why is that person wearing a HOT PINK, full on down parka with the hood up, sunglasses, and a neck gaiter covering their entire face ... ???*
Finally me: "OH! They're running away! Heh! I KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS!!"
Well, gee. That didn't take long at all! Just under two weeks, and a surprise landed on my step ... plus, I don't even think the person who left it knows me, or knows I started the whole dang thing! LOL!
Not wanting to be the reason the momentum slowed on my end of the block, as soon as nap time was over ... well, two things:
First, I offered something to eat to my two year old son, who was thrilled to have a "pumpkin snack" (AKA pumpkin peeps from the surprise boo basket ... which has encouraged him to ask for a "pumpkin snack" every day since, hahaha).
Second, after snack, we headed to Target to pick up one more bucket and a few additional goodies for my next boo drop.
Being that I already purchased quite a bit of things for my initial drop at the beginning of the month, I decided this time to only do one bucket. And since I don't have kids old enough to utilize all the things that came in my surprise basket, I decided to re-gift a few of those things in my second round of boo-ing. The net result of my "new" basket was this:
I chose the Halloween Treatz Crackers because I heard my immediate next door neighbors are visiting Danish executives. My thinking was that crackers are somewhat of a European tradition, and since they appear to have tween/teen aged kids (which, let's face it, teens are hard to find "cool" things for), I hoped the entire family would be able to appreciate the novelty of seeing crackers done with a Halloween twist. The only catch was I had to work fast enough to boo them before someone else got them.
Besides the crackers, I purchased a couple of pairs of socks from the dollar section at Target, re-gifted the writing utensils and brooch I received, added two spare copies of the boo sheet, and then topped of the basket just like I did last time with the last LED ghost I had.
Photo from previous post for demonstration only,
not actual photo of this new basket.
I was pleased with the assortment, even if it was a little slap-stick. I thought it seemed like an age and culture appropriate surprise.
And yes, I did in fact work fast enough ... there was no ghost on their door yet. So then, of course, I did what any normal 37 year old woman would do at 5pm on a Saturday afternoon.
I ran up like a bat outta hell, threw the bucket on their step, hit the doorbell and beat it - snickering like a four year old the entire way home.
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So now, I'm back to where I was for the last two weeks. Watching. Waiting. Hoping to see more ghosts spread through the neighborhood. Oh - and watching my son enjoy playing with his newly inherited Halloween snow globe!
Here's to hoping a ghost shows up on every doorstep!
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