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Halloween and homecoming

So yesterday was Halloween. Halloween is fun if you’re a little kid because you dress up in a costume and get free candy. Halloween is also fun if you’re a college student because you party. But that’s not generally true. I mean, I didn’t party. I don’t like to party — I don’t, I don’t like to party. So I didn’t do much last night other than try to forget how much money I owe. But in the afternoon, my sister and I went to see The Nightmare Before Christmas in 3-D. Wait, didn’t I do that last year? The answer is yes. It was so cool that I wanted to see it again. It is pretty amazing that they can convert 2-D films to 3-D. In fact, I first heard about the technology a while a back when Guess Who showed interest in using it on his old films. That’s right: George Lucas.

As is the way of these things, the festivities leading up to the holiday were probably better than the holiday itself. Every year, each floor in Hume Hall makes a haunted house for local kids to enjoy (?). My side of the floor wasn’t really interested, so the other side used their common room (and their hallways) for the haunted house. We decided on the theme “Haunted Hospital.” I checked it out on Tuesday, and it was really cool. It wasn’t like people jumping out and shouting at you, but it was like people lying around on stretchers and bleeding. It was cooler than I made it sound. I would be scared if I were a little kid. The only other haunted house I checked out was a haunted summer camp where people come out of nowhere with giant guns or something. I think it was voted the scariest. Why do we put so much effort into frightening children, anyway?

Today, as my friend Ashley and I were walking back to our dorm from the library, we ended up walking next to a family. There was a mom and a dad talking, and a boy and a girl not much younger than we (or us). I couldn’t help but hear that they were talking about the honors program. Then, since we were right there, the dad asked me and Ashley if we lived in Hume Hall, the honors dorm. We said yes. They were from Atlanta, and the dad introduced everyone to us. I don’t remember their names, except that the wife’s was Nikki (or however you want to spell it). They had just come from a campus tour and wanted to check out Hume, where the dad had lived in 35 years ago. We explained how Hume had recently been demolished and rebuilt, so everything was nice and shiny. They asked if they could possibly have a look at our floor and were very grateful that we obliged. They asked to see my room, and when I said they probably wouldn’t want to, they assumed it was because it was messy. It is, but the real reason was because of the posters we have (my roommate has) on the wall. Anyway, they looked in Ashley’s room, asked some questions about the honors program and meal plans and the like, and made their way out. They were very nice.

I’m done with class for the week. Oh yes, it’s like high school again. (My high school had no classes on Fridays, a fact I took for granted so quickly that I don’t think I even mentioned it here very much.) There are no classes tomorrow because it’s homecoming. Gator Growl, The World’s Largest Student-Run Pep Rally, will be tomorrow, and I’m not going because I really don’t care about seeing a guy from MADtv and a group that claims to be Lynyrd Skynyrd, but the guy who always shouts “Free Bird” will be happy. No, instead, I’m going to try to get tickets to the homecoming game. I haven’t been to a football game yet, so I need to fix that. I do enjoy football, you guys. Since I have to reserve a ticket by phone, it’ll probably take quite a bit of calling. I hear the phone lines get jammed right away.

A guy decided to listen to Abba’s song “Dancing Queen” non-stop during a multi-hour, solo road trip. Here’s a video of the highlights.

There are “plenty” of examples of quotation mark abuse at The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks.