What a Weekend!

For many people, a title like this would begin a sordid tale of a crazy Halloween party involving alcohol, beautiful women, and memorable behavior. However, in case you didn’t already realize I was a geek, my crazy weekend story involves the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire (see the title link), carving pumpkins, Olney Field of Screams, and the Halloween party for the kids at Villa Maria. And, of course, a beautiful woman, but I think we all know who that is… 😉

Saturday morning began early, which isn’t all that big of a deal for Rachel and I since we’re used to getting up for church. We were supposed to be heading over to Villa Maria to help with their Halloween party for the kids there. Pre-Med Society, Golden Key, and Honors College were all going to help out, and since I’m in all three I figured it would be a good idea to contribute. Like many other days last week, it was pouring down rain, so we found shelter in the Commons and waited around until we started seeing cars gathering. After which we charged out into the rain, promptly dampening our socks—me because I was wearing my old shoes that have leaks in the sides, and Rachel because she was wearing those ridiculous Crocs shoes to go with her nurse’s scrubs. She says they’re comfortable but I just can’t get past how ridiculous they look…

At any rate, we decorated the gym with posters, fun halloween objects, and by stringing all six basketball hoops together with orange and black crepe paper. There were a whole bunch of tables stocked with different activities that the kids would come through, getting candy and a prize as a reward for completing it. Rachel’s and my table had to be one of the easiest —we just took their pictures behind a Frankenstein’s monster cutout (you know, the kind you put your face through?). The hardest part for me was making sure the little ruffians didn’t take more than their fair share of the candy. I’m really bad at disciplining kids. Rachel, of course, had no problems keeping them in line.

After we got back we took a nap, ate delicious cheese enchiladas from El Azteca, my favorite local Mexican restaurant, and went back to my mom’s house to carve pumpkins. It’s become my favorite Halloween tradition and I think we’ve always managed to do a pretty good job. Check out the picture above! Rachel did the “Happy Halloween” tree all by herself, which very much impressed me since she picked the hardest design in the whole flippin’ book as her first ever carving attempt. Du (aka Mark) and I worked on the skull while Mom roasted all the seeds to make a delicious snack.

The Olney Field of Screams followed, an event that Du loves even though the admission price seems to increase every year. I missed it last year thanks to an Organic Chemistry test so I thought the whole thing had improved a lot. I’ll admit it, I jumped on quite a few occasions. The four people in front of us were hilarious though. They got scared at almost every single thing and would literally turn around and run back toward us, trying to use our bodies as shields. That right there made the whole experience worth it.

Naturally we didn’t get back to Rachel’s house until late, and then had to get another semi-early start to go to the RenFest with Rachel’s good friend Kim and her boyfriend Paul. It was a shame I forgot my camera because there were some excellent costumes. The stores in PA are definitely superior to those at the MD one, although I think the shows are better in MD. After all, we have jousting, and that’s pretty darn cool.

We took another nap when we finally returned from PA but didn’t remember to wake up until 2 or 3 AM, upon which we realized Rachel still had to drive me back to UMBC. Life’s always such an adventure…

Anyway, this entry got me exploring Picasa as it has a nice way to insert pictures into your blog. Maybe if I can get all this working I can have picture galleries here to go with some of the posts. We’ll see.