Jess tagged me a couple days back, and I’ve been dragging on getting this particular post up and running, but I am getting around to it, finally. I won’t be tagging anyone, but please feel free to visit Jess or Morgen (the originator), who both have lists of folks who’ve responded to the following queries:
1. What’s the scariest movie you’ve ever seen?
If I read this question as “which movie freaked you out to the point that when you got home the night you first saw it, you cringed with every rustling leave or snapping twig as you walked from your car to the front door?” – the answer is The Blair Witch Project.
2. What was your favorite Halloween Costume from childhood?
One year I mocked up a policeman’s uniform (I think I was ten or younger, and yes, I wanted to be a cop when I grew up). It probably wasn’t very convincing, but I think most people at least recognized what it was supposed to be.
3. If you had an unlimited budget, what would your Fantasy Costume be for this Halloween?
Regardless of budget, I’d have to say I was always a little jealous of my sister the year she dressed up as a can of cola – a costume my father made for her out of an old empty caustic soda drum, painted similar to the outside of a Coke can with arm and head holes and the bottom removed so she could walk. I wanted that one badly.
4. When was the last time you went Trick or Treating?
I think when I was eleven, but maybe I was ten. Not entirely sure.
5. What’s your favorite Halloween Candy?
Surprisingly, it was not Candy Corn. To this day, I’m still partial toward the homemade caramel apple. Part of the allure is that snacks like that just aren’t given out on Halloween anymore; the other part of the allure is the fact that, man, I love good caramel apples!
6. Tell us about a scary nightmare you had.
I had a dream once where I woke up with something holding me down in my bed (not a person or discernible form, but more like the the bed had its own gravitational pull) and I was staring up from the bed as a mixture of lights and shadows from outside the window were playing on the ceiling, making different images appear. Then the images stopped changing so much and took on the features of a menacing face that appeared to be pulling away from the ceiling and toward me as I couldn’t move.
I could have sworn I was awake while I was experiencing this, more than in any other dream I’d had. The only discrepancy between the dream and when I awoke was that my bed had just been repositioned in the room a week before and it had been in the old position in my dream.
7. What is your Supernatural Fear?
I don’t know that I have a legitimate supernatural fear.
8. What is your Creepy-Crawly Fear?
I’m not sure I have a good answer for this one, either, but sometimes when I’m half-asleep, I feel like something’s moving on my leg, like a bug or something of that nature. At this point I might experience an brief instant of semi-cognizant panic. Which is weird because when I’m coherent, I don’t really have much of a fear of bugs, spiders, or the like. When I wake, I usually find it’s just a strange reaction to an innocent breeze from the window or a fan.
9. Tell us about a time when you saw a ghost, or heard something go bump in the night.
I can’t recall any times when I really thought that was happening, unless you count the nightmare story from #6.
10. Would you ever stay in a real Haunted House overnight?
Probably. I think curiosity would get the better of me on that one.
11. Are you a traditionalist (just a face) Jack O’Lantern Carver, or do you get really creative with your pumpkins?
I haven’t carved a Jack O’Lantern in many full moons, but when I have, I’m pretty straightforward. I’ve always thought the best effect of a carved pumpkin was that of a sinister looking face.
12. How much do you decorate your home for Halloween?
Can’t say that I do – but then, I’m usually working while it’s going on.
13. What do you want on your Tombstone?
This one sounds a little too big for a simple Halloween meme, which I guess is why so many other have resorted to answers inspired by the old Tombstone Pizza commercials. And I’m not a vampire like Jessica, so the immortality thing doesn’t work for me. Hmmm… how about, “Here lies Howard; he was smart enough to fear the underworld, just not smart enough to let his fears stop him.”
Yeah, I know. It’s weak.
