Our Best Halloween

Rhett is Dracula in the back (sitting by Beauty and the Beast), I am the blue glob in the front: Sleeping Beauty.

The best Halloween either Rhett and I have had since our trick-or-treating days, was Halloween '03. We had just met a few months earlier with the beginning of the fall semester at Weber State University. Molly and I quickly became regular visitors at the house where Rhett was living with 4 other guys. Somehow Molly and I hopped on board to plan a Halloween party with Chad, the owner of the house. Here are some highlights.

We wanted people to dress up. Somehow our friend Heidi mentioned she had a yellow prom dress and we paired her with Tobey as Beauty and the Beast. Rhett said he didn't have a costume, so Molly got a vampire cape & cumber bun from home for him. Because both Rhett and Tobey needed face painting to complete their costumes, we volunteered. Molly took over the vampire details with Rhett and I took over for the Beast.

We had lots of food, and had rounds of Dance Dance Revolution. As more people had gathered, we played a game called "Animal".

You write down different animals, 2 of each on slips of paper, enough for one paper per person. Someone would throw the cup of papers in the air. At this point you have to grab a paper, and start imitating the animal only using sounds: i.e. quacking for a duck. In the madness you must find your other animal and sit down next to them. The last pair standing is out and they take their animal slips with them. It is quite hilarious to see a mass of people making animal noises and looking around in a panic looking for their match.

In light of the holiday, we played the Halloween version, so instead of animals we had witch, mummy, Frankenstein, cat, werewolf, vampire, etc. These required much more creativity to imitate sounds and it was quite a hilarious process. I am a competitive person, and this may have contributed to my "Animal Game Folly".

On one particular round, the cup was hoisted and all the little scraps flew in the air. Amidst all the hands grabbing for a paper, I couldn't seem to get one. Finally getting my paper, people were beginning to match up as the growling, hooting, and moaning began to decrease. I was in a panic as I realized I may get out. People were running around the living room making their odd noises, and I read my paper: MUMMY. A trend had come for the mummy, which was circling one hand around your head and making swishing noises. I assumed you were a mummy unraveling yourself...needless to say, this was the mummy noise that had been established in earlier rounds and I was frantically swishing my way around the crowd for the other mummy. Suddenly, across the room I heard someone swishing and stepped sideways to see it was Rhett searching for the other mummy. I dove in Rhett's direction, and my huge Sleeping Beauty skirts ballooned behind me as I flew through the crowd. Rhett can't remember if he saw me flying or if I caught him off guard, but in any case, I wrapped my arms around his waist and we tumbled to the ground. He landed on his butt and we were all tangled in my huge skirt....BUT WE DIDN'T GET OUT!! In the moments sitting next to him before the next round, I didn't know if my sudden lunge was motivated more by my competitive nature to win or taking an opportunity to attack my crush. In any case, I totally trashed his shin with my knee and the game went on and ironically, Molly and I won.

Leter that night we shared a Luv Sac bean bag while we watched a scary movie. It may sound more exciting than it was, sharing a piece of furniture that both: has the name "luv" in the title and is designed to squish the contents to the center. But Rhett and I maintained a 6" median the whole movie...to my disappointment. Actually, the movie was Alfred Hitchcock's "Frenzy" which does have suspense, but is not at all...scary. We definitely regretting putting Greg in charge of the scary movie rental, and in the end I fell asleep.

Months later when asking when Rhett started to develop a crush on me, he said the day after Halloween is when he realized he liked me beyond friendship. So maybe my sudden attack from the night before worked in my favor and the bashed shin is actually a fond memory.