Call me strange, but I tend to like the most thought-provoking of holidays. I’m big on New Year’s. Thanksgiving. And for that matter Halloween. When else do we focus on the exaggerations of our mind, our hopes, fears, and dreams?

And so I got all excited this year…making sure that we bought a huge pumpkin to carve and that I created a really creative costume. But as luck would have it, you probably had a more blog-worthy time than I did.

Although I bought the big pumpkin, Rita managed to slip and fall at my friend’s place the day after the wedding. She was checked out by her boyfriend who is an ER doctor. But within a couple days, she lost her balance again, this time breaking a couple toes. That necessitate a visit to urgent care and a prescription for Vicodin.

No sooner were we on our way to her friend’s party than she began to nod off from a combination of painkillers and a stiff margarita. But we went to the party nonetheless and had a good time. Rita, for her part, talked to her friends. I had a difference experience, somehow uncovering the handful of single men who wandered into the party and noticed “all the hot girls”. I had to break it to them that Rita’s friend is the organizer for a Mom’s Club. And although we were far outside the boundaries of Cougar Country proper…you would have never known.

Come midnight, however, Rita sat down on the couch and fell asleep. Some of her friends and other partygoers wondered why I didn’t wake her up. That answer is that she was almost catatonic. Even shaking her did nothing. But I knew that she would be even more mad if we left the party early. So there I was, eating cake, hors d’ouerves, and watching the single guys try desperately to score.

Rita, doing her best Rip Van Winkle, awoke to the party winding down after 2am. Suddenly we realized most everyone was gone; the bartender and caterer were beginning to pack up. And oh yes, the police had called. But yet, an odd amalgam of people hung on…including the one guy who decided to go as ….yes….Balloon Boy.

So at about 3am, we left drove to a local hotel and spent the night. The next day, Justin and his football team extended their unbeaten streak to 4-0.