Daffy Dies, Yoda Cries

My stay in Santa Fe was brief, but rewarding. It’s always fun to hang out with my sister and her fam, which includes her husband and their son, my 18-month-old nephew. This trip was extra special since it included Halloween.

Halloween is my favorite holiday, so normally I spend weeks trying to assemble a doozy of a costume, then paint the town blood red. This year, with a self-imposed limit on possessions and spending, the holiday took on a different feel. My sister and her husband had already planned to take it easy, invite a couple friends over, watch the world series and pass out candy to the neighborhood kiddies. For a few days I planned to find a simple and cheap costume and hit the town on my own. I had even scoped out a few venues and Halloween shows that looked interesting. In the end, though, I opted to be lame and stay home with the rest of the lame-os. In my defense, I was exhausted because my bro-in-law took me duck hunting at 5am that morning.

It was my first hunting trip ever. A couple years ago, I would have been appalled at the idea of killing anything larger than a fly. Now, after learning to slaughter chickens in Montana, I have considerably less qualms about whacking a bird for food. Also, I hate to turn down the chance for a new experience, even if that experience turned out to be sitting in the cold at the buttcrack of dawn and listening to a bunch of lawyers talk legalese for four hours (my brother-in-law is a partner in a law firm). We saw less than a dozen ducks the whole time, but not without a bounty:

So I had a little death and a little poultricide on my Halloween, and what better day for it? As it turns out, staying home in the evening was anything but boring. More friends showed up than my sister expected, and they all brought food. Drinks were flowing and Halloween music was spinning, so we had an impromptu party. The line of kids at the door was non-stop, and we all got a kick out of their costumes (a surprisingly large quantities of Marios this year). Giants slaughtered the Rangers in Game 4, which made me very happy, and my sister put on the Rocky Horror episode of Glee after everyone else left. I had never seen the show before, but it hit the spot.

Oh yeah, and my uber-cute nephew was dressed up as Yoda. He would cry whenever his hands got lost in his long robe. If that isn’t entertainment then I don’t know what is.