All Hallow This

So it’s Halloween (or, to be a bit more traditional/goth/pretentious, “Hallowe’en”).
I actually went to a Halloween party yesterday after work, though I didn’t dress up, as I wasn’t about to get sufficiently into the spirit of things by going to work in costume, and I wasn’t going to take the time to change afterwards.
The party was held by Scott and Stacy at their house.
Once I was there I did put on my best “good sport” disguise, though, and played along, to a certain extent at least – I said my best good sport disguise, which doesn’t mean it’s an especially good one – with their various Halloween games.
At the end of the evening prizes were given out in different categories. You can see my prize for “Cutest Costume” – thanks Vicki – at the top of this post.
Before I left I was sure to ogle Scott’s monitor – the 24” version of my 20.1” monitor – and my covetousness of it has only increased as a result.
I will say that I do still love my monitor, though, but it’s only natural to want to take a look at what else is out there…
I was pretty tired by the time I got to the party, as, despite potentially gaining an hour thanks to the time change, I didn’t get much sleep.
For one thing, I decided to take advantage of the hour I was gaining by staying up and watching the new episode of “Smallville” that my DVR had recorded on Thursday.
With fast-forwarding through commercials, this still would have meant getting about an extra half an hour of sleep.
I even toyed with the notion of skipping my workout on Sunday morning, thereby giving myself another 45 minutes, but decided against it.
That is, until my friend Kevin, in the midst of one of those “seemed like a good idea at the time” events, decided to give me a call – at 1:30 in the morning.
Now I’m not pissed, nor am I finding fault with him (after all, there have been plenty of occasions on which I’ve been bored and felt the need to talk to someone in the middle of the night), but even though I didn’t talk to him for very long, after I hung up I had a great deal of trouble getting back to sleep, so even though I did decide to skip the workout in order to get more sleep, I didn’t gain much.
Nor did I get much sleep last night. No matter what time I go to bed, I seem to be habituated to waking up at around 8:30 on Monday mornings.
Of course, now what had been 8:30 is 7:30.
Still, since I was awake I opted to get up and go for a walk.
After I got home from my walk I decided to head out once again and get myself a smoothie from across the street.
While I was walking back my phone rang.
It was the realtor I’d called last week about the condo for rent.
We made plans to meet in the afternoon for me to check the condo out.
After clearing up some confusion (We were supposed to meet at a Starbucks at a shopping plaza. The problem was that – big surprise – there was more than one Starbucks there), we headed over to the condo.
It was very nice – two bedrooms, hardwood floors – and I was inclined to take it.
However, he noticed that I was a bit hesitant and asked me about it.
I mentioned that while in the version of reality that exists in Northern Virginia, $1,275 a month for a two-bedroom condo is extremely reasonable, I’d really prefer to be working on buying a place rather than renting, though it’s my belief that such a thing is impossible.
He advised me to not be so sure, and had me get in touch with a financing guy he does a lot of work with.
I had actually talked to him last year, and after checking my credit he advised me to give it about a year and check back.
I had done so, but given the way housing prices had skyrocketed out of control I decided that it probably wasn’t worth bothering.
I may have been mistaken in that regard, it seems, as it’s likely that I can get a loan.
The real question, though, is whether I can get a big enough loan.
So that’s what we have to try to find out next.
I’m not holding my breath, but I’m a little more hopeful than I had been.
Once again tonight I didn’t’ get any kids coming around trick or treating.
It’s not like they’re avoiding me; kids just don’t go door-to-door at this apartment complex.
And after all, it’s not like I’m such an irritable old crank that I wouldn’t actually give kids candy. Hell, I’d even give them good candy, not cheap-ass suckers or PAL bubblegum (Do they even make that anymore?) or something equally shitty.
Of course, for the sheer hell of it, and as something of a “trick,” instead of candy I’d be somewhat tempted to give out a Jack T. Chick tract like this one (or this one).
But experience has taught me that there won’t be any knocks on my door, so I don’t even bother stocking up on candy (or tracts).
Speaking of Jack T. Chick tracts (and random unexpected contact from friends I seldom hear from) my friend Joel e-mailed me this link the other day in response to my ironic appreciation of Jack’s work.
It’s pretty amusing, but a deliberate attempt at humor isn’t anywhere near as entertaining as the unintentional hilarity of Jack’s deadly serious little bits of fundamentalist nonsense.
While I’m throwing out links, by way of apology for the ill-timed call, Kevin sent me this Halloween-appropriate link.

Delayed Gratification Dept.
I first moved to Virginia from Tucson nearly three years ago in late November of 2002. In response to having to once again deal with actual seasons, I asked my mother to knit me a sweater. She got started on it shortly thereafter.
After some significant delays in its completion I actually got the sweater today.
It’s very nice, and while it’s not a color I would have picked (pretty much any color beyond black or gray is a color that I wouldn’t have picked), it is a nice color.
As they say, better late than never, and it is in time for the rapidly cooling weather.
So thanks (finally) mom.

Speaking of delayed gratification, this may be my last significant entry for a while, as tomorrow marks the beginning of my month-long literary journey as I participate in National Novel Writing Month.
Here’s hoping that in the course of 30 days and 50,000 words I’ll come up with the coherent plot that I’d intended to come up with ahead of time.
For any of you out there with any kind of literary inclination, I highly recommend participating. There’s something very gratifying about actually writing a complete novel.
For my part, I’m hoping that this year I’ll get to experience the gratification of writing a complete good novel…
Once I’ve completed it I’ll make it available for your consideration in some fashion, most likely as another blog.
The working title, for anyone interested, is “God is in the House,” though that’s about as much detail as I’m prepared to provide at this point (and yes, I do have more details than that...just not a lot)
In the meantime, continue to watch this space, as I will be sure to make at least occasional updates.