Alexplorer's Halloween page: Halloween Music

A Halloween chronology
A personal history of how Halloween keeps getting better and better.

2002

I'm in grad school and just split with my ex a few months earlier. Absent an agoraphobic anchor, I am free to drift about and see what life is like instead of staying home with a social retard. I discover Halloween can be awesome, but I'm completely out of practice. Halloween night I buy a vampire's red-lined cape from Spencers and carry a Darth Tyrannus/Count Dooku lightsaber from Attack of the Clones with a nametag that says, "Hello, I'm..." with "Evil" penciled in after it. I go out with a couple friends to a few college bars and a small house party.

2003

Costumes. The Matrix Reloaded comes out, and I suddenly know what we're going as this year! Sure, lots of guys are going to dress as Neo, but I'm actually dating Trinity now. Dani and I go all out on the costumes, but ultimately we don't really do much else. The plan was to go out to dinner with some friends then go out to parties and Oak Lawn. Instead, I get stuck in traffic for something close to two hours coming down I-35 from Denton. I am pissed off, as you can imagine. We end up going to a party where one of Dani's friends is playing in a band. It's not a bad party, but it's maybe 30 or 40 people in a house. We look awesome, but we don't go anywhere else, I don't take any pictures, so we come home empty-handed other than a few shots I took at home of us dressed up.
Haunted house. We go out to a haunted house, the first one I've been to since I was a teenager.

2004

Costumes. I picked the year before, so it's Dani's turn. At this point we hadn't been dating a full two years. I don't yet realize she cannot make a decision. She's hung up on Raggedy Ann and Andy, something I veto. She can't come up with anything else. We end up settling for a store-bought ninja costume for me (with cheap plastic weapons) and a decent-looking geisha costume for her.
Oak Lawn. We make it out to Oak Lawn for the first time. I bring a camera and come back with ~70 pics, caption those, and a tradition is born.

2005

Costumes. Revenge of the Sith opened in theaters a few months earlier, so it's inevitable we'll be Star Wars characters. We settle on the Emperor and Yoda. We make both costumes from scratch including working light sabers that blow away virtually everything on street. Unfortunately, we procrastinate, so it's literally the Saturday that we're going out, and the costumes are barely finished. We spend the whole day putting them together and are literally putting them on in the car on the way to Dallas. We miss both Liz's party and going to Rich's for a pre-Oak Lawn get-together.
Oak Lawn. We do, however, make it to Oak Lawn and I get ~100 pics over the course of the night.

2006

Decorations. We finally own our own home. For the first time since I was a kid, I get to decorate the house, so we embark on all sorts of projects culminating in a graveyard, ghosts in the trees, an Rocky Horror-inspired "Enter at your own risk," and a giant spider on the roof.
Trick or Treaters. This is also the first year we actually get any Trick or Treaters, so we have an opportunity to get dressed up a second time when they show up.
Costumes. We get decked out as Riff Raff and Magenta from Rocky Horror Picture Show, and we're dead-on. Dani thinks no one will know who we are. Instead, people are coming up to us all night singing "The Time Warp" and complimenting us. I frequently point to this night to remind Dani never to doubt someone who is always this right.
Liz's party. We make it out early enough to hit Liz's party this year, only we get no usable pics. I turned the camera's autofocus off so we could take portraits in the dark in front of our house before we left, then forgot about it until after we left the party with a bunch of blurry shots.
Oak Lawn. We go there again, this time being the first with a decent camera (Canon Rebel SLR). The autofocus is set, so I come home with 270 pics to work with. Also, daylight savings time kicked in at midnight that night, meaning that at 2am, it was actually 1am... so the bars stayed open another hour and we got to hang out a little longer.
Pug-O-Ween. We go to Pug-O-Ween for the first time. I've known they've put these on for as long as I've been involved with the rescue, but we just started fostering full time with them again, so we finally go to one, have a great time, and get hundreds of great pics.

2007

Decorations. Although we decorated the house again, there isn't much new this year from the previous other than a skeleton coming out of the ground in the front yard. Having dedicated most of our energy on the wedding for the preceding months, it's all we can do to get costumes ready in time.
Pictures around the neighborhood. Even though we didn't do much new with our place, we made it around the neighborhood and took pictures of others' decorations, the gallery of which includes Dani's favorite commentary for some reason.
Costumes. The costumes are pretty good this time around as we go as Jack Skellington and Sally from The Nightmare Before Xmas.
Haunted house. We go out to a haunted house for the first time in years.
Pug-O-Ween. We go to Pug-O-Ween again.
The Friday before the traditional Oak Lawn Saturday, some friends organize a Halloween party at Sarah's Place, a local karaoke bar they frequent and I get lots of pictures of that.
Liz's party. The next night we hit Liz's party again, and I actually get photos this time, then...
Oak Lawn. We head out to Oak Lawn and I get 400 pics, the most yet.
Trick or Treaters. We give out candy for the kids again, meaning that's the third time we get to don our costumes that year, another record.
After-Halloween sales. Finally, for the first time (for whatever reason), I'm able to hit a number of after-Halloween sales and stock up for next year. I'm thinking about having a party.

2008

Decorations. We start working on decorations for the house long before Halloween, and it pays off. This year we added a Halloween countdown clock, dilapidated shutters, and a rickety fence, plus solar-powered lights out front.
Our party. We also throw a "13 Days Until Halloween" party and fill the inside of the house with decorations including haunted tvs, a graveyard out back, etc.
Pictures around the neighborhood. Again we get shots around the neighborhood, this time going out twice and bringing a tripod for a change.
Haunted houses. We made it to two, but not the big ones we were originally aiming for.
Costumes. The costumes are possibly the most awesome yet, even if the reference is a bit obscure (i.e., you'd have to have been a boy in the mid-'80s to recognize Destro and the Baroness from the GI Joe cartoon). The party the week before served as a dress-rehearsal, so the costumes are just about perfected by this time.
Oak Lawn. I come home from Oak Lawn with ~700 pics. The card is almost full and the battery almost dead. I'm pushing the limits of the hardware at this point, but we were better-prepared than ever before: Brought back-up camera and batteries.
Pug-O-Ween. Again we make it to Pug-O-Ween, and our current foster, Romeo, has a decent pirate captain costume (whereas we half-assed it the first year and didn't have a foster at the time the next year).
Trick or Treaters. Halloween falls on a Friday, so we give candy donated by our party guests out to the Trick or Treaters (and drop by our neighbors Robert and Tracy's party), then we head to Dallas again for...
Liz's party. It's actually on Halloween night this year, so it doesn't conflict with the Oak Lawn celebration as it has in past years, meaning we don't have to cut out early.
After-Halloween sales. I systematically hit a number of sales and stock up for next year. Come home with tons of props and candy.

2009

New decorations. This year we finally built a coffin, which was the only prop that didn't directly involve light. I also built our own blacklight bank, glowing skulls for the roof, added colored spotlights around the yard to backlight the ghosts, put a strobe to backlight a creature in the windows, put a flickering lampost out front, luminaria up the walkway, a pumpkin light chain on the back porch, and a glowing jack o'lantern man to guard the Halloween Countdown Clock (which looked awesome in the blacklight as well).
Our party. Again, very cool stuff. Like I need an excuse to decorate? Friends helped out and we transformed the place yet again. Nothing too wild happened, but it was a good party.
Haunted houses. We made it to one, then a little later on I surprised Dani with a trip to the Munster Mansion, which is better than any haunted house!
Pictures around the neighborhood. Never really found the time this year, unfortunately.
Costumes. We added a new cast member this year, and it was perfect. There's only one point in starting a family where you can dress up as Popeye, Olive Oyl, and bring along your Sweetpea, who was the hit of the parties. This time last year I didn't have any idea what we'd be doing. Right now, I know what we'll be through 2011.
Liz's party. Awesome! For the second year in a row, Halloween fell on a weekend. It worked out that her party and Oak Lawn didn't conflict with one another, so we were able to stay the whole night again this year.
Oak Lawn. Perfect! I was worried that they'd wait until Halloween night since it's always on a Saturday (and so was Halloween this year). Thankfully, they backed it up a full week. Erin and Katie came this year. Erin and Brian met up with us. We got there much earlier than usual (8:15pm!) and so got pretty good parking. I invested inextra batteries and a larger/extra card for the camera. The result: ~1100 pictures! A new record.
Pug-O-Ween. It's always held on a Sunday, so odds are pretty good we'll make it out there yet again this year.
Trick or Treaters. We were out there yet again. Gave out loads of candy. There weren't quite as many kind for a change, but we had the best-looking yard they saw all night.
After-Halloween sales. Didn't go as crazy this year, but we picked up quite a few things just the same. Got some good deals regardless.

2010

Pug-O-Ween. We always hit this. Didn't dress up the dogs or even bring ours since we had Stan this year, and he's a handful right now, but it was fun anyway.
New decorations. This year I wanted something different. We've done the supernatural ghosts and graveyard thing every year we've been here, so that's how we arrived at the idea of the flying saucer (i.e., something completely opposite). I shifted a lot of things sci-fi inside as well. There was a mad scientist lab in the kitchen with a Jacob's ladder and jars full of (fake) specimens plus the living room had glowing stars and fluorescent planets everywhere in the black lights.
Costumes. We dressed up as the Conehead family. Yes, I know they have a daughter, but that was what I wanted anyway. Not that we're working on another one yet, but I couldn't guarantee that Dani wouldn't have another baby before next Halloween (Fun fact: Stan was conceived right after Halloween a couple years ago), so we went with that to keep up the sci-fi theme this year.
Our party. The Halloween party was fun, although our costumes really weren't ready in time for the party. We only had 50 people make it largely on account of moving the party when we got sick, so that didn't give folks much notice, but it was a decent turn-out considering.
Halloween store. I actually worked part-time at a Halloween store this year. I wasn't crazy about the job, but at least I got to talk decorations and costumes with people. Folks routinely told me I should work for a theatrical company.
Haunted house. Only made it to one this year, Zombie Manor. I had free tickets through the Halloween store. Not bad, but nothing special.
Oak Lawn. This year was a bit of a disaster because my camera died just as soon as we got there (even though it had been working earlier that day). I bought another one, but the battery wasn't fully charged. As a result, I only took about 150 pics (a little better than a tenth what I took last year) before it died, and there wasn't anywhere to charge it. So we went to Liz's party.
Liz's party. I didn't think we'd get to stay long here this year, but we did since we cut Oak Lawn short and the two were held concurrently unlike the last couple of years. I was able to charge up the battery at Liz's, so at least I could take pictures the rest of the night.
Boo at the Zoo. I hadn't done this before, but it was during the day, so we were able to do it before the Trick or Treaters came that night. Stan enjoyed it, but it wasn't anything great. We were a huge hit there though. Everyone wanted their picture taken with the Conehead family.
Trick or Treaters. We always go out for them. Got to keep the next generation inspired to keep things going. The flying saucer was the most-photographed thing in the neighborhood.
After-Halloween sales. You'd think I would have loaded up since I got the employee discount on top of the end-of-season sales, but all I bought was a fogger (not even from my store), a plastic raven, and a pair of severed hands. Oh, and lots of candy.

2011

New decorations. I built new gravestones, additional lengths of fencing, and started a crank ghost, but we didn't have time to get the ghost finished. Also made a light organ to make lighting flash with the iPod plays thunder. I really didn't have time to set up everything properly at the new house with all the renovations going on, but we did a trial run and got the yard looking pretty good regardless.
Costumes. We had the most amazing costumes of anyone of the whole night.
Our party. Didn't have time for one this year since we were in the middle of a move. The Halloween decorations were at the new place while we were still living at the old place. It was just too much to try to clean up and decorate the house we were moving out of while we were renovating the new house.
Haunted house. This year we went (at Leiann's insistence) to the Wax Museum's "in the dark" night. The exhibits are mostly darkened and populated with zombie-fied kids to jump out and scare you. It was okay, though the place is honestly more fun with the lights on.
Oak Lawn. Pretty good year. The costumes were a bit cumbersome for walking the streets, so I had to do a lot of my photography with the head off of me, but we were in nearly as many pictures as I took.
Liz's party. Fun as always, but we got there a bit late and so missed out on several friends who had already come and gone by the time we arrived.
Pug-O-Ween. Missed it entirely. Unfortunately, it was scheduled 10am-1pm on the Sunday after Oak Lawn. We didn't get in until after 4am, so I didn't even get up until after noon. There just wasn't enough time to sleep and get all the way up to Grapevine.
Boo at the Zoo. Sucked. We tried to go in costume, but the zoo decided to implement a "no masks" policy... which didn't even apply to our costumes since you can see our faces. Assholes.
Trick or Treaters. We gave out candy at the new house for the first time. Grandpa helped out as well, including while we took Stan up and down the block, which made this his first real attempt at Trick or Treating.
After-Halloween sales. I didn't do too badly. In addition to the requisite haul of candy: Two cheap skeletons, five cheap (vinyl) skulls, three resin skulls, 13 black roses, another crow, pack of Halloween-themed Hot Wheels cars (plus another one called the Skull Crusher), can of glow-in-the-dark spray, some Halloween-themed toys for next-year's kid party, and a pair of ground-breaker hands.

In summary:

	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
Costumes	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x
Oak Lawn		x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x
Decorations				x	x	x	x	x	x
Trick or Treaters				x	x	x	x	x	x
Pug-O-Ween				x	x	x	x	x
Liz's party				x	x	x	x	x	x
Haunted houses		x			x	xx	xx	x	x
Pictures around the neighborhood					x	xx
After-Halloween sales					x	xx	x	x	x
Our party						x	x	x	x
Boo at the Zoo								x

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