handful of dust

i know there's comfort in your bed/it's warm and soft inside/ but all the visions that you dread/and all the blankets cannot hide/come with me and we will go/to the coolness of the dark/where daylight never shows/and your nightmares never start/come outside, come outside/hear the calling of the night/come outside, come outside/while the moon is full and white/come outside, sings the night's lullaby



It's nearly Halloween, and we don't have a pumpkin yet. I also don't have a costume. This, my friends, is not good. I've been chained to my desk and staring deeply into my computer screen for the past week. And yet, here I am now as well. It looks like 2 months of taking it easy are beginning to catch up, and I've found myself in the classic student predicament of work negligence = work overload. But nothing should get in the way of Halloween.

I simply don't think it's a holiday that people should give up on. When you're a kid it's for the candy, when you're an adolescent it's for the parties (and okay, the candy too), and when you are a young adult it is for reminding yourself to have fun (and candy). And, you better believe if I have children, I will be stuffing them in miniature pumpkin and ghost costumes at the first available Halloween. A chubby baby in a pumpkin suit is arguably one of the cutest things in existence.

As if to remind me that there is a world beyond my desk and the blinking pixels of my computer screen, the temperature has dropped, the wind has started to blow, and event promoters have started to collage the city with their Halloween party posters. It's time for everyone to get out of the house!

I can't help but wax nostalgic over autumn nights past, wandering in the forests of the suburbs, sitting down by the lake on a friday night with the wind whipping at our jackets. Now it's about finding a place that feels special, adventurous, unique, in the context of a city. A little different.

The other day was a welcome break; Brian and I went with a bunch of other students out to a local Irish pub for happy hour, and surprisingly good (though sketchy) free food. It's nice to gossip over a pint, and speaking of which, every MIT student's favourite 301 prof is coming to give a speech on sports journalism as spectacle next weekend. Is that road trip worthy, Larkin?

Let the costume hunt to begin!