Skipping Halloween

One thing about moving to a new town...about 80% of the integration is pretty easy. Getting to know the places to get stuff, people at work, neighborhood you live in, where to eat, and those sorts of everyday things aren't too difficult and for the most part just come naturally through the act of existing in the new location. You need to stock the fridge? You gotta find the grocery store. Need to fill up the car? You have no choice but locate a gas station. It's the minutiae of a new community that's a bit more tricky, especially in a smaller town like where we live now. There was a big Homecoming celebration a few weeks ago, and we weren't sure if we were going to go or not. It sounded kind of interesting, but in just hearing about it we weren't exactly thrilled to go, nor did we understand what the big deal was. But when we went for a walk down the main drag on Homecoming night, saw the amazing displays outside the frat houses, and moved our way slowly through the thousands of people checking out said displays, as well as street vendors, carnival rides, and parade floats...we finally got it. And next year we'll know. :) But we weren't so lucky with the trick-or-treating situation...

Last night was Halloween, but not around here, since it was apparently moved to Thursday night. Neither my wife or I are really into the whole Halloween thing, but we thought it would be a good chance to meet the neighbors around here: pass out some candy to the kids, talk with the adults, and work our way into the neighborhood consciousness. But alas, due to the OSU football game on Saturday, and another game the night before, trick-or-treating was bumped back to Thursday and we didn't even know it until Friday morning. :( Lesson learned: keep our eyes peeled and ears to the ground, and maybe read the local paper a bit more. :)

In our quest to make our house more of a home, we have been doing lot of little things that, taken as a whole, are serving to turn this place where we exist into a place we really live. One of the most useful tools we have discovered, though, is patience. Rome wasn't built in a day, nor are house projects completed all at once. But our list of things to do is slowly decreasing, as is our list of stuff to buy from Lowe's, and yesterday we finally took care of the light bulbs (replacing some oft-used incandescents with CFLs), blinds in the dining room, and a few other miscellaneous items. Today we are going to go get some wood for the fireplace and maybe do some yard work too. And my goal of having our moving boxes unpacked by the end of October was mostly accomplished: everything is out of the boxes, but there are still a few items that need to be actually put away or hung on the walls. We're getting there, though, and it's a fun ride along the way.