Er...Happy Halloween

Listening to Britney Spears' new album, Blackout, was enough to give me nightmares for the remainder of the year. I have to wonder if she, her producers, and--hell--the entire record label were smoking crack while writing/recording this? I've never heard such a horrendous train wreck of an album in my life. She lost her repeat-play flow she had when she first came out. I'll gladly admit that I wore out her debut and follow-up albums.

Well, Britney, you've successfully hit rock bottom, and there's nowhere to go but...down? Not even Madonna stooped this low in her career.

Is It November Yet?

Ok, so I'm wanting October to end like a plague of locusts, but I am trying to be better about it. I played along with the Halloween-themed wedding on Saturday, I spent a couple hours carving my pumpkin the following day, and I'll be passing out candy tomorrow night. All in all, I'd say I've been doing pretty well.

As I said, I went to a wedding this weekend for my husband's cousin. It was at the Masonic Temple, and I wasn't sure what to expect. It actually wasn't half bad. I'd never been to anything but a traditional wedding, so I wasn't sure if I'd like it or not. I was pleasantly surprised though, and everything was put together so well. All the decorations were really cool, and they even had a guy doing caricatures [I tried to scan ours, but I'm having "technical difficulties," so I'll get back to you on that one.]. I was really impressed by the whole thing, actually. I wish I'd remembered to bring our camera, but I think I'll just swipe some pictures off my father-in-law.

On Sunday we had a whole pumpkin carving get-together at my in-laws' house. As promised I took pictures of mine. I didn't do Arnold Schwarzenegger as planned because the pattern ended up printing way too small to even be feasible, so I picked something on the fly, just before we headed over there: Homer Simpson.
I wasn't sure how I was going to pull this one off, but I thought I'd give it a whirl. I tried "tracing" it by poking holes around key points of the pattern, but that proved to be useless, so I ended up hand-drawing it onto the pumpkin using a black, Crayola marker (all our pumpkin markers had run out of ink). The end result was better than I expected for a first try, but nothing fantastic. You can check it out here (the fugly, raw, not-in-the-dark version) and here (the best-when-viewed-in-pitch-black version).

Finally, you're all either wondering how this new job is going or hoping I don't make any mention of my job situation. For those of you who fit in the former category, you're getting an update; if you're the latter, you might want to skip this part. Everything has been going really well for me over at this new place. The guy who hired me just started his new job at another company on Monday, but before he left on Friday, he asked for my number so he could call me to offer me a job. He said he was impressed with my work, and he'd like to work with me again in the future. I'm thinking that's definitely a good thing; however, I'm going to try to ask someone this week if there would be any chance of me getting hired there permanently (I'm only two-month temporary help at the moment). I think I have a good shot at getting a position.

Only time will tell.

October, October

I'm happy to report that I got hired somewhere on Thursday. I only interviewed at one location because the other place decided to hold off on the position. I'm glad I was able to nail this one though; however, I'm a little disappointed it's only a two-month temporary position. It has the possibility of turning permanent, but there's no guarantee. I get paid the same as my last job; only I work about 41 hours rather than 45-47. I start tomorrow morning, so I'm nervous but excited about it. I'm just ready to settle down in a place, and I think this might be it for me (God-willing it turns into a permanent position). I'm really impressed with the staff and the overall atmosphere. I'm hoping it goes well.

Now, to get onto another subject rather than boring all of you with my endless job hunt: I think I'd like to make it tradition to complain about Halloween and the entire month of October every year. It seems like I've done that successfully for three years, so why stop now?
Even when I was a kid, I didn't like Halloween. I stopped going trick-or-treating after I was about 8 or 9, and I rarely dressed up for it besides an occasional middle school dance. Now, I've got to get back into it again for the sake of a wedding, and I haven't a clue what to wear.

My husband's cousin is getting married this coming Saturday, and--of course--it's a Halloween wedding. Costumes are encouraged but not required; however, we'd be the oddballs out if we came dressed "normally". It's less than a week away, and my husband and I still haven't picked anything out. We've been beating around the bush with the whole thing, and it hasn't gotten us anywhere. Beyond going as Torgo and "The Master" or one of his brides¹ (but I'm not too much into wearing a sheet), we don't have any feasible costumes. At this point, ideas are welcomed; although I think we're going to have to settle on something today since it will pretty much be our last chance to go shopping.

Next Sunday we're going to carve pumpkins at his parents' house. Last year I made mine say, "Yo," but I want to put forth a little more effort into this year's and try something new. I was looking for patterns online, and I stumbled on one that I'm determined to accomplish for my husband: Arnold Schwarzenegger. I got the idea when I saw a story on TMZ about carving a pumpkin in the resemblance of Britney Spears, and I thought that was a great idea.
I haven't the faintest idea how I'm going to accomplish this. Regardless of how it does turn out (I'm not expecting anything great), I'll be sure to post a picture. I'm going to keep my fingers crossed for success.

¹All from the horrible, cult classic Manos: The Hands of Fate