I got my leave approved! “They” say that my missing three days might push my qualification date from mid-December to mid-January, but whatever. Even if I thought that were true (which I do not, it’s absurd), Halloween in Las Cruces is worth the pain and horror of catching back up to “let’s get qualified” speed after Christmas break.
It’s been blustery here. Pretty-colored leaves are blowing around, and they even make it as high up as my sixth-floor windows (awesome), and the outsides have that nice soggy-leaves smell, and Seattle has such beautiful fall colors, and they last for SO LONG, and thanks to my wonderful Grandmomma, I have gingerbread cookies that turn my mouth Halloween colors. Yay.
Last night I caught the ferry to go visit my (poor, overworked) boyfriend to order pizza and carve pumpkins. It was just getting dark on the ferry ride, and by the time I was getting close to Bremerton the sky was only a little lighter than the shadowy trees on the islands, and you could just see them going by. In anticipation of going home next week, I’ve been listening to my sun-shiney, happy “New Mexico” playlist, which is a little ELO-heavy, and while I was pondering the creepy skyline outside the ferry, “Strange Magic” very appropriately started playing. The (few) lights on the shore were reflected on the glass, and the ones from the other side of the boat doubled themselves and started bobbing around as the ferry rocked, opposite to the motion of my side of the boat. It was cool.
Then there was this black flying thing… most likely a seagull, but it was dark and silhouetted, so who’s to say it wasn’t a giant vampire bat? Not me. It was flying right near the skyline, so at first you think the creepy trees are flapping, and then you realize that it’s an animal, but you can only see it a little bit, and then not at all–but you know that whether you can see it or not, the vampire seagull is still out there. Then the ferry turns you toward the moon, and it’s all hazy and silvery and slivery and shivery and halloween-y.
Pumpkin-carving was so much fun! I took pictures of course, but I can’t find my camera cord. It’s not in my “computer stuff” drawer, but I DO have like six hundred water balloons in there… weird. We named our pumpkin Fred, and we tried to make him mean-looking, but he still came out a little jolly. His teeth say “BOO.” Oh yeah.
At one point Kevin decided that Fred’s smile wasn’t big enough on the right side (Fred’s right), so he started sawing away, and I BARELY saved the day and talked him out of it. Fred’s teeth almost said “8OO,” which doesn’t make sense.
This morning my (poor, overworked) boyfriend dropped me off at the ferry on his way to work. Almost to Seattle, I was still walking around looking for a warm spot (by the way, what’s up with that, Washington State Ferries? Why do people in the Northwest hate being warm?), and that’s when I saw that Seattle and the bay all the way up to Alki point was covered in really thick gray fog… Seattle only has like twelve buildings tall enough to stick out over the fog, but all the other buildings were completely invisible. The fog, the city, and the light grayish-purple sky overhead looked really cool and creepy, and we were headed straight for the mysterious cloud.
That’s also when “Strange Magic” started playing on my ipod again. I love when that happens.
I will be home in FOUR DAYS!
