Andy Gapin

Anyone that knows me knows that Halloween is probably my favorite day of the year. Even the entire month of October is just wonderful, I love that Halloween celebrations are month-long. Unfortunately, this year I didn’t get to take part in any of it. None. We found out that we were moving this weekend around the middle of September so Halloween was over before it even started for me.

With all of the packing and trying to get stuff put away rather than taken out, we couldn’t put up any decorations at the old place. It just didn’t really make sense. They would have been in the way and been more trouble than they were worth. And since I have so much stuff, we couldn’t even find time to do any hayrides, corn mazes, pumpkin picking. haunted houses. Nothing. It was rough. I really wanted to, but there was no time. There was too much to pack, sell, clean, and sort out. This is what happens when you live in a huge apartment. You end up with a ton of stuff just so that you can fill the place and not have it feel like empty void. That’s not to say that I don’t just have a lot of stuff to begin with, because I do, but that’s only part of the problem.

What’s even worse than being busy all October is actually moving on Halloween weekend. With Halloween being on a Sunday, most parties were on Saturday, but by the time we got everything off the truck and into the new place, we were pooped. Plus, we had to do at least a little unpacking of basic needs and fight for literally hours with the cat to get her out of the old place and safely to the new place. I will not elaborate more on that, but let’s just say there was blood….Daniel Plainview style. So by the time parties were starting, we were just too tired to even hit up a single one…which double sucked because I’m generally the one that hosts the party every year. I knew this was coming though. I knew we wouldn’t make any parties so I didn’t even bother with a costume that I knew I wouldn’t be able to wear. I had nothing. It was so sad. I was so sad.

Come Halloween day, there was just too much to do. We had some stuff we had to buy for the new place and just a ton of unpacking to do. I really tried, but couldn’t find the time to get out and see any front lawn Halloween setups. To make it even worse, we only got a couple trick-or-treaters. We may have missed some while we were out, but still, this was a huge disappointment. I made a big deal in the store a few days earlier about picking the right candy to give out. I stood there for at least fifteen minutes contemplating. We ended up getting a decent amount of stuff to give out too. Now we have more candy left than is even safe to have in one house.

If all of this wasn’t enough, I had really been looking forward to taking tons of photos of Halloween stuff this October. I really couldn’t stop thinking about it. It was going to be great, there was going to be so much to photograph. How much did I photograph? Like less than a dozen shots…of the same thing. Such a disappointment.

And knowing ahead of time that there was going to be no time for anything, I never even could get in the Halloween mood. It never really hit me that it was October, my favorite month. I couldn’t get excited about it at all. It feels like it didn’t even happen.

So this was the Halloween and October that passed my by. It sucked. Don’t get me wrong, the reason I missed everything was a solid reason that will be worth it in the long run, but I don’t know if I can think of a worse time to move. Even the dead of Winter with snow on the ground would have been better. Or the middle of the scorch-fest that was this past Summer.

This will never happen again. I will never miss another Halloween. Ever.

So let’s start the countdown, 334 days until October 1st!

I took a bunch of photos over this past weekend while we were dog-sitting. We were actually supposed to be in Rochester, but the dog-sitter was MIA so we got left behind to take care of the dog instead.

I snapped about 50 rapid-fire pictures of the lady with my iPhone while we were at Vicky’s Diner in Westfield. We saw on Yelp that they have pumpkin pancakes so we had to go check them out. I also took a few photos of a blowup ghost decoration on a random front lawn. We drove by and my camera wasn’t in the car so I made my fiancée take me back over there after getting my camera. And lastly, I tried to capture some of the Fall colors on the trees. I only took about ten shots total in that bunch.

We tried to have our cat wear a fake bloody finger around her neck for our Halloween party, but it didn’t really pan out so well.

I wasn’t a fan of his music, but as far as his film making goes, holy crap do I love what Rob Zombie does. He seemed to always get it right, but this time around, I think he may have slipped a little. As far as making a brutal horror flick goes, yeah, he pulled that off with Halloween 2, however it is his weakest movie so far.

This movie had a much different feel than the first. Zombie tried to keep the violence, but also tried to get more psychological and weird than he ever has before and while I get what he was going for by trying to connect Laurie and Michael as both suffering from similar pyschological problems, it felt a bit forced. Both Loomis and Laurie came back in this movie feeling like completely different characters. Obviously, the events from the first movie would have changed them, but this didn’t quite feel right. Michael was the only one that felt similar to what he was before, though he was much more intense with his stabbing. A lot more so than in the first film…almost out of character, actually. Also, possibly because the actor looks too old now, Zombie uses a different kid to play Michael as a child. This kid sucked. He was a little too sweet and personable compared to the kid from the first Halloween.

This film is entertaining, but it doesn’t feel entirely like what it should have been. If you want to see an awkward and somewhat failed attempt at being both a psychological horror flick and a brutal stab-a-thon, check this out, but don’t expect the level of greatness that Rob Zombie has been giving us up to this point.

Rating: C+

This guy came from shirt.woot.com. It was one of their Halloween ones. Honestly, I think it looked better online.

I think these costumes came out pretty awesomely!

I’d like to welcome in what is unarguably the best month of the year. I truly love October. Pumpkin flavored…everything (which I started enjoying last month) and Halloween, the best holiday of the year. Unfortunately, I won’t have much time this year to take part in all of the festivities that I love, but I do plan on making the most of it.

What I find funny is that if you type “October” into Google’s image search, the above picture is the first result. Okay, that’s not the funny part. The funny part is that it’s hosted by Jews For Jesus. I’d like to know how the hell those clowns were able to snag the first result! I won’t get started on these guys, but seriously, if you believe Jesus was the savior, you’re not a Jew. Period. If you want to keep the culture, go for it, but don’t call yourself a Jew because you’re not.

I shaved off my beard last night and I immediately regretted it. This is awful. My face is cold as hell and I look like I’m ten!

I did it for Halloween since my costume–which no one will get anyway–kind of requires it. I thought that Halloween > beards, but I’m rethinking this now. I haven’t been beardless in over 6 years and this is why. I feel completely naked! But the good news is that I don’t plan on shaving again so it should be back in full swing in a little more than two weeks.

The process itself was actually quite painful since most of my skin isn’t used to being shaved, but I took some pictures along the way. Horrible photography since I had to do it myself with a point and shoot camera in the bathroom, but you get the point…