MBT from 7-17-7

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Back to Halloween sale? It was Sunday morning,so of course I was on my way to Michael's to pick up more frosting. Figured I might check out the selection of paints and markers while I was there, too. Once in the door, I head over to where the cake decorating stuff is, and I work my way past a huge display of silk flowers. Lovely shades of orange, red and yellow. Quite fallish in appearance, really. Then I see the aisle. It was topped by an archway of woven vines and fall covered leaves, and from where I stood I could see a group of grinning skeletons hanging from a peg right next to some black spiderwebs covered in purple glitter. Halloween stuff. All thoughts of frosting forgotten for the moment, I checked my watch. The little black numbers said 7-15. I counted the months off in my head, and sure enough, the number 7 coincided with July. I continued with my count, and was reassured that when I got to 10, that was where I found October. My grade school math skills allowed me to figure out that I was indeed 3+ months away from Halloween. The fabric of space and time seemed to shift uncertainly around me. Parts of reality as I knew it started winking in and out like stars as I tried to assimilate this new data. Like the scene of some gruesome accident, I felt myself drawn to this calendric abberation. I walked down the aisle, past witches and bats, skeletons and spiders. The tiny Halloween village houses played their music and sound effects through their tiny speakers at volumes far beyond acceptable for a Sunday, much less a Sunday in July. I stumbled out the other end of the aisle and into what must have been the land of wicker. For once the smell of varnish and the scent of plastic plants was somewhat comforting. Still, the sound of creaking doors, cackling witches, and bonging cathedral bells echoed toward me. I shuffled around the corner and found the frosting and started towards the checkout, still trying to make sense of what I had just experienced. That's when I ran into Julie (sort of, she was in some kind of staff meeting, and I don't think she recognized me. but for her to go from Ben Franklin to Lowe's and who knows where else in between, to end up at Michael's, well, goood for her. if you're in the neighborhood, drop by and ask for her, she's a real gem. but, I digress), which further spun my morning around. On the way to the car, in the bright, 80 degree, JULY sunshine, I still couldn't believe it yet. Halloween in July. What the hell. Now don't get me wrong here, I'm all for the enthusiastic and extravagant celebration of Halloween, but as of right now, I haven't even seen any Back to School ads, and that's about 1 month away. The corn is still bright green and growing for crap's sake. You can get into the proper mood when the freakin corn is still green. The tail end of summer used to be the time when I was looking forward to the Christmas edition of the JC Penney catalog. And when that arrived, it still seemed like Christmas would never get here. Now this. Last year, when I went out looking for Halloween decorations, in October, mind you, I was hard pressed to find much of anything because of all the Christmas stuff that was out. I just can't believe it. No, actually, I can belive it. It just makes me somewhat sad that this may become the next fun holiday that has every last drop of enjoyment sucked out of it by those who just want to make a profit on it. The focus of my dread now becomes the appearance of Christmas stuff in September, most likely. All of this because of the need for frosting.