Entry tags:
Spoopy Times
Thursday I woke up on my back and with a feeling like a boulder was lodged under my ribs.
I'm assuming it was some sort of acid reflux. I didn't feel sick but was burping all day and felt weird burning and cold sensations in my upper stomach, at the bottom of my ribs.
Luckily I had a lot of data entry to do: learning how to process audio files, then working on crossword/coloring page uploads, and before I knew it I'd logged four hours before lunch.
It was another lame day, really. For dinner I made our last HelloFresh meal, a weird "cheesy pasta enchilada casserole" or something. It tasted fine, just, was really a cheese-and-cream-drenched casserole with a packet of taco seasoning. Kinda lame.
We tried to go for a walk since it was 80°F, the coolest it's been all summer, but a huge storm moved through and dashed our plans.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, and we have tickets for Howl-o-Scream, so we both took covid tests this morning.
Both negative! Yay!
It's been a humdrum week so we both looked forward to getting out!
There were five haunted houses and we did them all. For two of them we had to wait in line for 30-40 minutes, the others were 20 minutes or less. My favorites were the new one called Delirium 666, and a bayou-themed one that had a lot of fake plants. Delirium 666 had really good theming and jump scares. The bayou one, the theming was just "ok" but I liked it because it was the only haunted house where someone actually got me with a jump scare :) I was excited about the plastic plants because there were a lot of carnivorous ones among them, so I got too focused on checking them out and forgot to keep my peripherals open for scarers.
You see, I used to be a scarer myself. I was Maggie Maggots for Busch Gardens Williamsburg.
Every weekend I'd throw on a white sheet, paint my face to look kinda rotty, and sprinkle myself with little plastic maggots from the bucket-o-maggots that I was supplied at the beginning of the event.
Then I'd go to my spot in my "maze", which was a haunted house based on phobias. My room was the insects room (there was also an arachnophobia room) and there were plastic bugs everywhere plus fake rotting meat hanging from ropes in the ceiling, with bugs sprinkled on 'em to make them look like the bugs were eating the meat. My trick was to stand a few feet behind a meat-rope near the room entrance, holding the rope. Then when someone came in, I'd put most of my weight on the rope and lean forward so you couldn't see my feet, it just looked like my top half was diving forward out of the dark. And I'd croak, "MAGGOTS" right into someone's face. Got a lot of good scares.
But the result is that haunted houses do not remotely scare or even startle me. I've been through quite a lot of them in addition to the ones at Busch Gardens; I know all of the hiding spots, I see the drop walls, and even without all of that I'm just not easily startled. In other words I am absolutely no fun in haunted houses. But I do my best to act scared, and give scarers the opportunity to come after me by looking away so they think they've got the jump. And boy do they take that opportunity! After years of this Jameson still exclaims over seeing me get "targeted" by scarers; I'm not sure it's easy to see what I'm doing unless you've been a scarer yourself.
Anyway, getting back to this spooky time :)
As I mentioned earlier, a scarer got me to jump in the bayou house because I was well and truly fixated on plastic plants :P
Jameson got a lot of jump scares in the third house we did, I forget the exact theming but there were a lot of drop doors in there, and some creatures on bungee cords that would spring out of the shadows (that was REALLY cool!)
We also enjoyed the "scare zones" throughout the park--parts of the public walkway that had been themed and where scarers could pop out of the mist with chainsaws or whatever--and we walked through them several times.
Our favorite was this carnival scare zone because there were identifiable characters here. Like, The Popcorn Vendor, The Mustard Man, The Strongman, The Ringmaster, etc. In most of the other zones it was just "a bunch of chainsaw dudes" or "vampire chicks" or whatever. Everyone did an awesome job, we both had a great time interacting with the people trying to scare us silly!
We wanted drinks but most of them were crappy beer or sugary "blood bag" mixed drinks that weren't very appealing.
Then we found a stand doing mystery shots!
You spin the wheel, and the bartender pours your shot in a blacked-out fridge so you can't see what you're getting. I got 7 and Jameson got 6. His shot was clear, mine was a little pinkish. I smelled his and identified cucumber; turned out it was cucumber jalapeno! Mine was easy: grapefruit!
TBH I was nervous to take a shot with my stomach acid being weird this week. But also, it's important to eat and drink normally so that I can see how much of what is happening might be anxiety as opposed to an actual health issue. It's amazing what the mind can do to the body. My stomach burned for a bit, but no more than usual for straight-up moonshine. I wasn't doubled over with cramps or nauseous or anything. I don't know what to think.
We had a good time, it was a much-needed night out.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday was slow, I woke up at 7am against my will and did some work before cracking open Baking Yesteryear to make some old-fashioned rice pudding. Ingredients: cooked white rice, whole milk, sugar, egg yolks, raisins, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
I was out of pre-ground nutmeg, so got to use freshly-ground stuff, which if you've never used it before it's AMAZING. Totally different flavor, fresh and bright, woody and spicy. Makes a huge improvement in flavor.
For some reason it baked up yellow on top, maybe because of the egg yolks or oils from the spices.
When I mixed it up after it had cooled somewhat, it was a more normal color.
We each had a small bowl of it.
It tasted like fall...it made us FEEL fall.
Creamy and custardy, those warm wood spices and plump raisins...it made me want cool weather and crisp air so badly. Strange, how a little bowl of warm sweet spiced rice could trigger such a strong ache. We looked at each other, and I saw nostalgia and longing for snow behind Jameson's eyes. A mirror of my own feelings while eating this.
"You need to make this again at Christmastime, please," he said. And I knew what he meant.
But it was 84°F today, humid and sunny, so all we have is our imaginations, and our memories.
I did a big Publix run for ingredients because now that we've cancelled HelloFresh, it's up to me to cook for us.
Next week I'll be doing shrimp po'boys; a summer pasta with zucchini, tomato, basil, and pancetta; and air fryer chicken parmesan with homemade breadsticks and side salad.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday was fairly slow, I didn't bother to get up early because I knew errands would keep me from getting much work done anyway. After breakfast I drove to Whole Paycheck for the rest of ingredients for dinners (plus Mezcla bars because I freaking love them and they're hard to find.)
Back home, lunch and doing about two hours' worth of work before calling it quits.
I felt strangely tired, but this is another fun facet of anxiety: anticipation of an event--i.e. The Waiting---can strain your nerves far more than the event itself. I was fixated on my sore throat and how tired I felt, though my throat has been getting better and tiredness in the late afternoon is, frankly, normal.
Anyway, I'll post about our Universal doings next week since we won't get back until late.
It'll be good to go out with friends, despite my unasked-for anxiety I really am looking forward to a night out.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This week, the last week of September, is looking straightforward.
Jameson will be very busy with his full time job and Disney gigs in the first week of October, so it will be my job to look after the house and make sure the fridge is stocked while he's out. I'll also be working of course, and once October hits it'll be time for me to start thinking about things I'd like to do before going back out on tour.
There is some significant yardwork to do, and of course cleaning.
There are supplies that I'll need to buy, and I'll have to start packing and also practicing more seriously than I have been.
Megan's Foodie Finds will need to be finished, and I'll have to promote it.
I still need to find a trombone substitute for Candlelight (the coordinator has been in touch but hasn't picked someone.)
And on top of that, here come the holidays! If nothing else I want to carve pumpkins this year, and make a few fall-type foods before I have to leave.
In closing, here is a cloud that we saw while waiting in line at SeaWorld......that looks like.....well....
I'm assuming it was some sort of acid reflux. I didn't feel sick but was burping all day and felt weird burning and cold sensations in my upper stomach, at the bottom of my ribs.
Luckily I had a lot of data entry to do: learning how to process audio files, then working on crossword/coloring page uploads, and before I knew it I'd logged four hours before lunch.
It was another lame day, really. For dinner I made our last HelloFresh meal, a weird "cheesy pasta enchilada casserole" or something. It tasted fine, just, was really a cheese-and-cream-drenched casserole with a packet of taco seasoning. Kinda lame.
We tried to go for a walk since it was 80°F, the coolest it's been all summer, but a huge storm moved through and dashed our plans.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, and we have tickets for Howl-o-Scream, so we both took covid tests this morning.
Both negative! Yay!
It's been a humdrum week so we both looked forward to getting out!
There were five haunted houses and we did them all. For two of them we had to wait in line for 30-40 minutes, the others were 20 minutes or less. My favorites were the new one called Delirium 666, and a bayou-themed one that had a lot of fake plants. Delirium 666 had really good theming and jump scares. The bayou one, the theming was just "ok" but I liked it because it was the only haunted house where someone actually got me with a jump scare :) I was excited about the plastic plants because there were a lot of carnivorous ones among them, so I got too focused on checking them out and forgot to keep my peripherals open for scarers.
You see, I used to be a scarer myself. I was Maggie Maggots for Busch Gardens Williamsburg.
Every weekend I'd throw on a white sheet, paint my face to look kinda rotty, and sprinkle myself with little plastic maggots from the bucket-o-maggots that I was supplied at the beginning of the event.
Then I'd go to my spot in my "maze", which was a haunted house based on phobias. My room was the insects room (there was also an arachnophobia room) and there were plastic bugs everywhere plus fake rotting meat hanging from ropes in the ceiling, with bugs sprinkled on 'em to make them look like the bugs were eating the meat. My trick was to stand a few feet behind a meat-rope near the room entrance, holding the rope. Then when someone came in, I'd put most of my weight on the rope and lean forward so you couldn't see my feet, it just looked like my top half was diving forward out of the dark. And I'd croak, "MAGGOTS" right into someone's face. Got a lot of good scares.
But the result is that haunted houses do not remotely scare or even startle me. I've been through quite a lot of them in addition to the ones at Busch Gardens; I know all of the hiding spots, I see the drop walls, and even without all of that I'm just not easily startled. In other words I am absolutely no fun in haunted houses. But I do my best to act scared, and give scarers the opportunity to come after me by looking away so they think they've got the jump. And boy do they take that opportunity! After years of this Jameson still exclaims over seeing me get "targeted" by scarers; I'm not sure it's easy to see what I'm doing unless you've been a scarer yourself.
Anyway, getting back to this spooky time :)
As I mentioned earlier, a scarer got me to jump in the bayou house because I was well and truly fixated on plastic plants :P
Jameson got a lot of jump scares in the third house we did, I forget the exact theming but there were a lot of drop doors in there, and some creatures on bungee cords that would spring out of the shadows (that was REALLY cool!)
We also enjoyed the "scare zones" throughout the park--parts of the public walkway that had been themed and where scarers could pop out of the mist with chainsaws or whatever--and we walked through them several times.
Our favorite was this carnival scare zone because there were identifiable characters here. Like, The Popcorn Vendor, The Mustard Man, The Strongman, The Ringmaster, etc. In most of the other zones it was just "a bunch of chainsaw dudes" or "vampire chicks" or whatever. Everyone did an awesome job, we both had a great time interacting with the people trying to scare us silly!
We wanted drinks but most of them were crappy beer or sugary "blood bag" mixed drinks that weren't very appealing.
Then we found a stand doing mystery shots!
You spin the wheel, and the bartender pours your shot in a blacked-out fridge so you can't see what you're getting. I got 7 and Jameson got 6. His shot was clear, mine was a little pinkish. I smelled his and identified cucumber; turned out it was cucumber jalapeno! Mine was easy: grapefruit!
TBH I was nervous to take a shot with my stomach acid being weird this week. But also, it's important to eat and drink normally so that I can see how much of what is happening might be anxiety as opposed to an actual health issue. It's amazing what the mind can do to the body. My stomach burned for a bit, but no more than usual for straight-up moonshine. I wasn't doubled over with cramps or nauseous or anything. I don't know what to think.
We had a good time, it was a much-needed night out.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday was slow, I woke up at 7am against my will and did some work before cracking open Baking Yesteryear to make some old-fashioned rice pudding. Ingredients: cooked white rice, whole milk, sugar, egg yolks, raisins, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
I was out of pre-ground nutmeg, so got to use freshly-ground stuff, which if you've never used it before it's AMAZING. Totally different flavor, fresh and bright, woody and spicy. Makes a huge improvement in flavor.
For some reason it baked up yellow on top, maybe because of the egg yolks or oils from the spices.
When I mixed it up after it had cooled somewhat, it was a more normal color.
We each had a small bowl of it.
It tasted like fall...it made us FEEL fall.
Creamy and custardy, those warm wood spices and plump raisins...it made me want cool weather and crisp air so badly. Strange, how a little bowl of warm sweet spiced rice could trigger such a strong ache. We looked at each other, and I saw nostalgia and longing for snow behind Jameson's eyes. A mirror of my own feelings while eating this.
"You need to make this again at Christmastime, please," he said. And I knew what he meant.
But it was 84°F today, humid and sunny, so all we have is our imaginations, and our memories.
I did a big Publix run for ingredients because now that we've cancelled HelloFresh, it's up to me to cook for us.
Next week I'll be doing shrimp po'boys; a summer pasta with zucchini, tomato, basil, and pancetta; and air fryer chicken parmesan with homemade breadsticks and side salad.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday was fairly slow, I didn't bother to get up early because I knew errands would keep me from getting much work done anyway. After breakfast I drove to Whole Paycheck for the rest of ingredients for dinners (plus Mezcla bars because I freaking love them and they're hard to find.)
Back home, lunch and doing about two hours' worth of work before calling it quits.
I felt strangely tired, but this is another fun facet of anxiety: anticipation of an event--i.e. The Waiting---can strain your nerves far more than the event itself. I was fixated on my sore throat and how tired I felt, though my throat has been getting better and tiredness in the late afternoon is, frankly, normal.
Anyway, I'll post about our Universal doings next week since we won't get back until late.
It'll be good to go out with friends, despite my unasked-for anxiety I really am looking forward to a night out.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This week, the last week of September, is looking straightforward.
Jameson will be very busy with his full time job and Disney gigs in the first week of October, so it will be my job to look after the house and make sure the fridge is stocked while he's out. I'll also be working of course, and once October hits it'll be time for me to start thinking about things I'd like to do before going back out on tour.
There is some significant yardwork to do, and of course cleaning.
There are supplies that I'll need to buy, and I'll have to start packing and also practicing more seriously than I have been.
Megan's Foodie Finds will need to be finished, and I'll have to promote it.
I still need to find a trombone substitute for Candlelight (the coordinator has been in touch but hasn't picked someone.)
And on top of that, here come the holidays! If nothing else I want to carve pumpkins this year, and make a few fall-type foods before I have to leave.
In closing, here is a cloud that we saw while waiting in line at SeaWorld......that looks like.....well....
