vovat | That's Not Scary

In an attempt to remain somewhat current on writing about seasonal events, I'll start this with what Beth and I did the Saturday before last. There's a Halloween event called Halloween House set up in malls around the area, and it's advertised as being not scary. Of course, what's scary is very subjective, but there's no one jumping out at you or anything. See, this guy is just chilling on the couch.

And this witch looks friendly, right?

We went to the one at the Menlo Park Mall, and walked around for a while before we found it. It has several rooms, each decorated in a different spooky theme. One had witches and potions, others were themed like a pumpkin patch and a graveyard, one was based on Stranger Things (which I haven't seen, but Beth has), and another on The Nightmare Before Christmas.

It didn't take long to see everything, but you could throw bean bags at targets.

There weren't any employees in the individual rooms, just at the entrance, so I have to wonder if kids are touching stuff when nobody is watching. Maybe they have cameras or something. The mall also had a store with Batman holding Pikachu in its display window. Has that crossover happened yet?

And Wonder Woman was getting in on the Halloween spirit.

On Thursday, we went to Green-Wood Cemetery for their Nightfall event, which was pretty similar to Moonrise last year, although we didn't get tote bags and they didn't have any food. While there were lanterns lighting the paths where stuff was happening, it was still kind of confusing to figure out which way to go, and to make sure we weren't just passing the same stuff over and over again.

One person was giving a lecture about ancient Egyptian beliefs on the afterlife, and comparing it to going on vacation. The Bindlestiff Family Cirkus was there again, and we saw a magician, jugglers, a tightrope walker, and a guy on stilts playing the ukulele.

I also went to the eye doctor that day, and it turned out my prescription hadn't changed. That's good, as I only just got new glasses a few months ago.

Friday's activity was the Haunted Junkyard for the Scullville Fire Company near Egg Harbor, New Jersey, which had both a maze and a hayride. What was kind of interesting about the maze was that the way through, while it twisted around a lot, was pretty obvious, except for one dead end near the exit. One thing they did quite a bit in it was to have colored lights to make your eyesight go wonky. There were costumed people sneaking up on customers in the maze and in line. The hayride was fairly standard, except with more old cars and trailers along the route. And this wagon had actual hay in it. Some kid sitting near us kept pointing out that he didn't find it scary, which is annoyingly common on things like that. What, do they expect people to be impressed? That happens at amusement parks, too. Anyway, we went to a Spirit Halloween for the first time this year on Saturday, although we didn't get anything. I noticed they're still really emphasizing creepy clowns. They had several of this guy, whom we saw outside a grocery store in Brooklyn a few days earlier.

Anyone want to stand under a clown crotch? Beth tried it, but the pictures didn't come out well.
And quite a few costumes were identified as "union suits," which really just means it's a one-piece outfit, but some of the labels made me think that maybe animals are starting to participate in organized labor.

That's it as far as actual activities, but I will mention that we've eaten at Panera Bread three times this month, once before Dorney Park, once at the mall, and once yesterday. Beth hadn't even been to one prior to last year. They're kind of pricey, but I do like it. The past two times, I had flatbread pizza and chicken noodle soup, kind of a weird combination, but it worked for me. I remember Panera having annoying commercials where they said it had "good, clean food," as if implying that the food was dirty elsewhere. There's also a billboard on the New Jersey Turnpike (I think) that says "Eat clean, bro," although I can't remember what it's actually advertising. I guess I kind of see it as a combination of shaming people for liking unhealthy food and accepting that something IS healthy because the people selling it tell you it is. But plenty of things are much better than their advertising would suggest.