This is Halloween, everybody SCREAM!

Wednesday before Halloween: After School Costume Contest!

Kristen (mouse), Me (Nancy Drew), Katie (kitty), and Brandy (Ginny Weasley)

have a War Head face contest. We're still not sure who won.

Louis showing off the costume I made for him-- Hershey's bar was a big hit!

All the counselors decked out; from closest to farthest:

Richard (Max from Where the Wild Things Are), Sam (African Princess), Kristen (mouse),

Brandy (Ginny Weasley), Jenny Lind (Dorothy), Sharon (M.I.A. or Lady Gaga),

Louis (Hershey's Special Dark Bar), Me (Nancy Drew)

My friend Octavia's boys-- Jacorey (Buzz Light Year), Jordan (Lion), and Trevon (Transformer)

Our finalists for the costume contest: Nailah (old lady), Juliana (magician), Lyle (Indiana Jones),

Bryce (someone who's actually a football player), Eli (policeman), Kanyisile (cowgirl),

Henry (wolfman), and Sydney (Gryffyndor student)

Jenny Lind (one of my oldest friends) and I with Juliana

Friday before Halloween: We all just dressed up for the fun of it again!

Brandy (vampire) bites me! Oh no!

Well, at least she didn't get blood on my sweater. I did feel a little under the weather, though...

Halloween Day! We went and helped the Kelly family with their Haunted House and handed out candy.

The chandelier in the entry way

Daddums, master of his domain

Staircase with lighting

Spider!

The overactive fog machine

Spooooky even in the daylight

And they mean it!

Cool shot by Jeremy

Jeremy and Daddums, creators of the outside scariness

Me and Bobcat protecting the candy from grabby kids

All in all, it was a good Halloween! We had a lot of fun at the Kelly's, even if some of the kids were a little rude about "only" getting two pieces of candy! We hung out afterwards and watched the original Halloween, which I'd never seen so that was a lot of fun. We also had the best little munchies from TJ's thanks to Shannon! Halloween is the best holiday ever :) I was pretty proud of coming up with three different costumes (even if they were gimmies) in one week, too!

Palate

First night at work was awesome. I worked with Peter, whose girlfriend is a flight attendant for AirTran, and even though it was a super slow night it was good because it gave me a chance to learn the ropes. The wines are super nice, and I'll probably only ever get to try a few of them (we can't taste the "fourth tier" wines, the ones that cost upwards of $100/bottle), but we do get a free meal every night we work, and 50% off on nights we're not working.

Tonight I had macadamia encrusted scallops with sauteed green beans and garlic mashed potatoes. It was amazing. Also, for those of you who were wondering about the chocolate peanut butter mousse cake (given the "Better than Sex" award by Creative Loafing, the local rag), I don't know if it's better than sex, but it's pretty darn good! It's like a really well made, high quality Reeses cake or something, just delicious.

Peter was really nice, and John (the cook), too. One of the regulars came in and hang out and we talked about airlines, Hawaii, fixing cars, marketing schemes (Peter had one about a really large wine glass put on the front lawn...), and our significant others. There was a book club that came in reading "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" which I haven't read, they recommended it though, so I may swing by the library. Other than that, there were just a couple of two tops and us. Even though the opening and closing stuff is kind of a bunch of tedious little things, it's really not that bad and I don't have to mop three levels of restaurant like at Birdi's, so I don't really mind at all.

Even though I told him not to worry about it, Peter tipped me out $10 (sadly only a third of what we made tonight) for the night, but he said that there are nights he'll make $10 or $20 and then come in for a Friday and pull $350 so I'm not too worried. That and with the $10 from tonight, I know I can pay for my Netflix addiction this month!

Friday is the 4th Anniversary party, so I'm going to that to meet the rest of the staff and have a glass of wine (they're knocking down all the high price wines by the glass, so I'm going to try the ones Peter recommended) and get to know my coworkers. If they're all as cool as Peter, and in a small staff they probably are, then I'll actually have a new group of friends!

I also, for the first time in a while, feel like going to bed at 1130p! I'm so glad this happened!