I wrote this a couple years ago, and since it's (almost) Halloween I thought I'd share it with you today. Boo!

Do you like scary movies? I love scary movies! Except for when I’m watching them, scared out of my mind, then I wonder why I love scary movies so much.

I think it’s the adrenaline rush that I get from being scared? Or maybe it’s the cuddle-factor? I love to cuddle up with my husband while watching a movie.

Years ago we rented Scream, and within 10 minutes I was curled up on the sofa with him, and the two dogs. After the movie we had to walk the dogs. In the dark. On a summer night. He tried to get me to walk them, I tried to get him to walk them. Finally, we walked them together. Every little noise made us jump. It was breezy, so even the rustling of the leaves was enough to get our hearts racing. Every shadow became a dark cloaked figure. We learned our lesson, no more watching scary movies at night, in the dark.

When we rented The Others, we watched it during the day.

All the lights were on.

All the blinds were open.

And I think we played music in the background.

It was still pretty scary. I didn’t see that ending coming. Did you?

There have been plenty of scary movies since then, the last was The Grudge. We saw this in the movie theater. Hello!? What in the heck are you thinking??? This was clearly a dumb idea. Have you seen this movie? There is a scene where Sarah Michelle Gellar is in the shower, and a hand comes out of the back of her head, which she touches while washing her hair. THAT was creepy! Can you even imagine??? Here you are, alone in the shower, relaxing, washing your hair, probably even singing a little tune, right? And all of a sudden there is a hand behind you! That would totally freak me out.

And it did.

One day I was in the shower, alone, relaxing, washing my hair, not singing a tune because I can’t carry one. I was standing under the showerhead, facing the back of the tub, with the water spraying down onto the crown of my head. My hands are washing the suds out of my hair, when all of a sudden I feel something behind me. I barely grazed it, but I touched it enough to know that it wasn’t my other hand, nor the wall, and the showerhead was above me about 6″. I jumped out of my skin, and might have even let out a shriek! As I snapped my head around, looking for the guilty Grudge hand I saw not a hand, but the other showerhead!

Oy! The other showerhead. Yep. I picked the damn thing out, and paid extra to have it installed when the bathroom was remodeled. It’s adjustable, sliding up and down on a vertical bar so that shorter people (like kids) can use the shower. Or I can shower without getting my hair wet. And it comes off the bar all together so you can rinse the shampoo off a kids head who wants to take a bath instead.

Whoever used showerhead #2 last (that would be me) didn’t swing it in towards the wall, so it was sticking out and the rest is history. Creepy. Scary. My-heart-skipped-a-beat. History.

What about you? Anything creepy, scary, your-heart-skipped-a-beat, ever happen to you?

Don't forget about the photo hunt!

The Trick or Treat for my subdivision is being held tomorrow night between 5 p.m. and  7:30 p.m. The only thing I need to do to participate is turn on my outdoor lights. It seems to be a simple task. It's not.

All of my outdoor lights are the kind that automatically turn on when it gets dark, and off when it's light. They are also hardwired and I don't even have a switch to turn them off and on.

It gets even more complicated because my house is the very first one in the subdivision, my driveway is the only one on that particular stretch of road, and you can't see my front door, or porch, from first street corner where the other homes are located deeper into the subdivision. It's a tough call for a kid. Should they walk all the way over to my driveway to see if I'm indeed handing out candy, or assume I'm not and hurry on to the next house.

Last year was the first Halloween that we were in our house, and it took me a good hour of not having many kids ring my bell before I realized that I needed to do something to attact their attention. First I hung a pumpkin basket at the end of my driveway, on my mailbox, which did bring a few trick or treaters my way. Then I opened my garage door so they'd know we were indeed home.

One of the parents asked me, why don't you turn on your lights? To which I explained, as I was applying electrical tape to what I thought were the sensors on my lights, that I couldn't because they turn on automatically as it gets dark. (The tape did not work, by the way.)

So I went for my last option. My house came fully equiped with Christmas lights strung all along the soffits, and they are controlled with a timer in the garage. All I had to do was turn on the timer .... and like magic, wah-lah, my house was lit up like a carnival ride at the State Fair.

Tomorrow night my house will be lit up with Christmas lights yet again: Christmas Lights = Halloween Candy.