Day 24: Perspective

So it seems that my 24th Thought of the year was a little too amazing to handle. I had just hit the save button when the computer transitioned to the blue screen of death and announced that it had a fatal system error. Then it muttered a bunch of techno jargon and promptly shut down. Various bouts of begging, pleading, threatening, plugging, unplugging and fist shaking did nothing to help matters. Not exactly the October treat that I was looking for. I blame November for this whole debacle.

After I put down Big Carl (my really big wrench of doom that I thought might intimidate the computer into working) I went and sat in the semi darkened living room to cool off. And there it was, a gorgeous October evening. There was a nip in the air coming through the screen door and a brilliant yellow moon peeking in at me through the window. It was the yellowish color of old parchment and was a bit hazy which made it look like a child’s water color of the moon rather than a perfect snapshot. It shone right in on me and I began to relax. This is what October is all about. Taking the time to just sit and enjoy. So what if an evil computer ate my thought for the day. This is October, there will be another thought right around the corner. I mean come on, it isn’t like October only has thirty-one amazing things in it and no more.

So instead of worrying about how I was going to rewrite my though, I took the evening off. I made myself a large glass of cider, turned on the tub and poured in a generous helping of candy corn bubble bath. I lit a few spooky candles and popped in a violin cd. For some reason I equate violins with fall. Don’t ask me why, but I do. They are not the only fall instruments though, but they were my music of choice tonight. I took a good long soak and let the October goodness seep into my weary and still a bit agitated bones.

After I turned really good and pruney I wrapped myself in my old raggedy yellow bathrobe and wandered around the house looking at the decorations. And you know what, things didn’t seem so bad. So now I am sitting in the orange glow of a pumpkin night light and typing out a new October Thought. I love how October has so many surprises like that. I happened to glance at my Twitter feed and saw a quote that totally captures tonight, “Pay attention to your outlook on life. You can either regret or rejoice; it’s your choice.” I choose to rejoice. I choose to stop and smell the pumpkins and let the October goodness wash over me. And if that doesn’t work, I will just have to eat some candy corn until I feel better ;)

Day 23 : Pretty Poe

I am pretty worn out and everything else I tried to write was either woefully short or not very good, so today I’ll let the lyrical stylings of Mr. Edgar Allen Poe entertain you. Poe is one of my very favorite authors, and hey if you add and "st" sound to the end of his name he could be a distant relative. A girl can dream. As a young lass I always did go in for the strange and unusual............(and to steal a quote) I myself am, strange and unusual. ;-)

Being the voracious reader that I am, Mr. Poe kept me entertained for hours on end. My very favorite is The Masque of the Red Death. I read it in elementary school and was hooked ever after. Imagine that, a small girl child loving a colorful story about a party and the plague. hmmmm. And what do you know; this year plague doctors and masks are all the rage again. I was a tiny hipster trendsetter and I never even knew it.

I also dearly love To Helen, A Dream, Dream Within A Dream, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Cask of Amontillado, the Black Cat, Eldorado and the Bells.

But, what would October be without The Raven? It would be a sorry slip of a month, doomed to wither away in the shadows without so much as a backward glance. So, for your reading pleasure I will whet your whistle with a bit of my second favorite Poe story,  the Raven, and leave you to search out the rest. And you want to know the coolest bit, now I actually know someone named Lenore!

The Raven
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore--
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
"'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door--
Only this and nothing more."

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow;--vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow--sorrow for the lost Lenore--
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore--
Nameless here for evermore.

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me--filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating
"'Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door--
Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door;
This it is and nothing more."

Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
"Sir," said I, "or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;
But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,
And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,
That I scarce was sure I heard you"--here I opened wide the door--
Darkness there and nothing more.

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before;
But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token,
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, "Lenore?"
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, "Lenore!"--
Merely this and nothing more.

Back into the chamber turning, all my sour within me burning,
Soon again I heard a tapping something louder than before.
"Surely," said I, "surely that is something at my window lattice;
Let me see, then, what thereat is and this mystery explore--
Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore;--
'Tis the wind and nothing more.

Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,
In there stepped a stately Raven of the saintly days of yore.
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he,
But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door--Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door--
Perched, and sat, and nothing more.

Then the ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,
"Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said, "art sure no craven,
Ghastly grim and ancient Raven wandering from the Nightly shore--
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!"
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."

Day 22: Candy Corn Tribute

Well folks, there are only 9 days left till Halloween and 10 till my perfect month ends. Everyone talks about how time is moving slowly with Covid, but I feel like October is positively flying by, like a witch on a turbo charged broom. I keep expecting to wake up and find that it is already Thanksgiving. I’m glad it’s not, but it seems other people are anxious for it to be December already. The personalities on the radio have already started talking about Christmas shopping, Hallmark started advertising their Christmas bonanza in August and I found a radio station that has started playing Christmas music. Good grief, plus now there is talk of snow. At least let me have fall for 10 more days.

But enough about Christmas and snow, today’s Thought is in tribute to my mom (I started writing this before her hospital shenanigans). She is my original October Thought fan, and  is the one who encouraged me and offered suggestions or pointers when I first started writing. One Thought that she always asked for was about candy corn, she loves the stuff. Well, she really likes the fondant pumpkins and spice drops, but candy corn is right up there. She would get very upset if I forgot to give the humble corn its due.

The little tri color triangular treats came into being sometime in the 1880’s, except they weren’t called candy corn. They were known as “Chicken Feed” and their invention was credited to a George Renninger of the Wunderle Candy Company. The original recipe was sugar syrup, fondant and marshmallows.  Now candy corn is made up of sugar, fondant, corn syrup, vanilla flavor, and marshmallow crème along with corn starch. Maybe messing with the recipe jus ta bit is why not many people like it anymore?

Wunderle is no longer in business and so the second longest producer of the tri colored triangles goes to the Goelitz Confectionary Company of Cincinnati which you know as the Jelly Belly Candy Company. Jelly Belly to me makes the best candy corn, plus, they sell it in little fun sized snacking bags so you don’t get pounds and pounds of the stuff and you never get any that are stale.

Every year candy corn makes the top 10 list of candy that people hate, last year it was voted the MOST hated Halloween candy in America, yet that doesn’t seem to stop the sales of it. Last year 9 billion pieces of candy corn were sold. Personally I think most people craft with them rather than eat them, but who cares? You can do all sorts of things with candy corn if you are creative. My favorite thing is to make fangs out of them and then eat them.

In case you were wondering, the other hated candies were circus peanuts, those mysterious orange and black wrapped confections known as peanut butter kisses and wax soda bottles, along with licorice, Tootsie Rolls, Smarties and Good & Plenty. I agree with the hatred of the first 3, but come on with the last 4. I used to have to beg my parents to give up the Tootsie Rolls. What is wrong with the youth of America today? More for me I guess.

Candy corn eventually branched out into holiday corn and for a brief moment even capitalized on the pumpkin spice craze. Now there is candy corn for just about every holiday, there is  Indian Corn  or Harvest Corn for Thanksgiving, Reindeer Corn for Christmas , Cupid Corn for Valentine’s Day,  Bunny Corn for Easter and 4^th of July Corn for, well, you get it. I’m kinda miffed that there is not Guinness flavored corn for St. Patrick’s Day or Champagne Corn for New Years. I think they are missing a market opportunity there.

This year’s seasonal “treat” is Haunted Tropics Candy Corn which boasts the sour flavors of, Watermelon, Pineapple, Banana, Kiwi, Mango and Tropical Punch. Cuz nothing says Halloween like bananas or the tropics? And what exactly does a sour banana taste like? Just cuz you slap a skull on something doesn’t make it fit for October. I can’t believe I just said that.

In addition to the holiday corns are other seasonal favorites like Pumpkin and Apple pie flavors along with caramel apple, sour corns from the Trolli brand, giant candy corns, cinnamon, blackberry cobbler, grape soda, caramel, Donut Shoppe, mermaid , and unicorn horns just to name a few. There is even a turkey dinner candy corn that even I am not brave enough to try. It says it is a limited edition but I don’t think it is limited enough. The description reads “flavors include roasted turkey, green beans, ginger-glazed carrots, sweet potato pie and cranberry sauce.” Nope. Nope. Nope.

National Candy Corn Day is the 30 of October, but I wasn’t going to wait till then. So, what’s your favorite flavor of candy corn? And would you be brave enough to try Turkey Dinner Corn?

Day 21: Why I Have Phobias or Why I Love Stephen King

WARNING: Today’s thought is short and may be a bit disjointed because I am still on the mend.

I wasn’t feeling all that great yesterday. I woke up with a headache that steadily evolved into a full on Godzilla type migraine by the end of the day. I didn’t realize how bad it was until I was playing Boo-Opoly with one of my residents and I couldn’t remember how to play the game. I knew I had to go home then.

The headache didn’t surrender when I got home, so I made some toast to feel better, but after I dropped 2 slices because I couldn’t remember how to hold things I decided to just go lay down. I couldn’t read cuz my eyes were all wibbly but I needed something to distract myself. So of course I chose a horror documentary and what do you know, I felt loads better after watching it. I think it was because my brain identified with all the gory stuff on screen. Creatures popping out of stomachs, alien life forms morphing out of dogs, King Kong squishing someone, yup, that’s what my head felt like on the inside. Finally, someone understands.

The documentary is a TV series on AMC called Eil Roth’s History of Horror and it is in its second season. People in the genre comment on a selection of topics for an hour and it is so interesting to get their input. The segments aren’t nearly long enough but they are so, so good and  I do love me some history.

In the various segments they sometimes have my favorite movie critic Leonard Maltin and one of my favorite writers, Stephen King. That man has a way with words that makes me want to cry, both out of a deep sense of inadequacy and for the fact that he is just that good. He can write long things, short things, scary things and thought provoking things. Back in the day, if you picked up a copy of Entertainment Weekly (now Monthly) and flipped to the very back page, he had some fantastic things to say about modern day pop culture. He is just great, and where Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley left off, Mr. King has picked up the slack. He doesn’t to my knowledge throw scary costume balls like Anne Rice, but he has helped to make October a very spooky place.

Consider some of my favorites:1408 (which totally made me never want to stay in a hotel room again), Apt Pupil (which gave me a fear of ovens) Carrie (which made me laugh and cheer) Christine (which was the reason that it took me 25 years to drive a car......not really but it sounds plausible) Cujo (which just plain freaks me out, dogs are supposed to love people not eat them) Dolores Claiborne (which made me fear housewives and wells) Firestarter (which made me fear blonde children) The Green Mile (which touched my heart and made me cry) Insomnia (which totally got bootlegged from my life........ya know, minus the whole mass murder part) The Lawnmower Man (which made me fear computers, toasters, mowers AND the telephone) Misery (which just made me love Kathy Bates that much more and made me terrified to ever get famous) Needful Things (which just made me laugh and laugh and laugh) The Secret Window (which kept the laughter going) The Shining (which made me deeply afraid of hotels, made me proud of Timberline Lodge, kept me out of bathtubs and freaked me out about little boys with bowl cuts, big wheels and twins) and the Stand which was just too long but helped me to spell the word MOON.

So yeah, thanks to Mr. King I am just a big ball of neurosis. But you get over it, sort of, and wait until the next one comes. My order for you today, go out, find a book, movie, short story of Mr. Kings and scare yourself silly, then just repeat after me, “there is no such thing as monsters, there is no such thing as monsters.....................;-)

Day 20: October Joy: Part 2: In Which our Heroine Adults and then Descends into Madness: and uses a lot of colons to explain the journey

WARNING: This October Thought comes with footnotes. They jump out in crazy places. You have been warned. 

Monday’s are my errand days. Everything that needs to get done for the week happens on Monday. I cook extra meals; I do laundry and yard work, pay bills, visit vendors etc. When I get in to work on Tuesday everyone always asks me, ooh what fun things did you do on your days off, and of course I sound like the most boring person on the face of the earth. Um, I folded my socks and took a nap after I got done cleaning out the drip trays on the stove. I swear, 5 year old Rebecca is shaking her head in abject misery at hearing about how I spend my weekends. At least sometimes I have ice cream for dinner, so I have that going for me. 

This Monday was no different. I had a very ambitious list of grown up things to do. I always have ambitious lists on Monday. I make them on Sunday when I am rested and feeling energetic. I KNOW that I will never accomplish everything on the list, but maybe, maybe I just might so I had better put everything on there I can possibly think of. Then Monday rolls around and I cross a few things off the list, but not enough and eventually I have to be happy that I crossed off anything at all. But seriously, the only way I will ever be able to cross off all my things is if I get my hands on Hermione Granger's Time Turner. Apparently the one you can buy from the Noble Collection and the one in the movie do not possess the same magic, but I digress.

So yesterday I adulted with the best of them. I voted. I paid my taxes early. I did both the laundry and the dishes and I stripped and remade my bed. I was the epitome of a responsible adult, if you discount the t-shirt I was wearing, but that is a story for another day. Then 3:45pm rolled around and all my best laid plans went straight down the tubes but in the best way possible. I stopped by work to drop of bingo prizes and to pick up some stuff. I ended up staying for an hour and a half talking to coworkers, buying donuts for a resident and watching a Halloween baking challenge with my mom who was horrified by what those people were doing to perfectly good cakes.

After that I went grocery shopping (back to adulting) but I did buy 4 giant bags of candy* so I wasn’t totally responsible. All month long I have said that this year, I am not going to open my door for trick or treaters. I don’t know if there will even be any out and about, but I didn’t particularly want plague children willingly running up to my door. You all saw the sign I bought in preparation for my Halloween grinchiness. But, as I was driving around doing more errands I got to thinking, I really want to keep my lights on. I don’t want them off or have to explain to those who come to my door why the lights are on but I won’t answer. I’m sorry small child, I know trick or treat etiquette, but you see, this middle aged spinster would like to look at her Halloween lights and not be bothered by the likes of you. Off you pop you little germ goblin. Yeah, I don’t see that going well for me or the side of my house. So I totally caved and WILL be handing out treats this year. I am getting pretty excited. I honestly don’t know who is more excited by this, me or the trick or treaters? Last year I didn’t even let them ring the bell; I was already on the porch waiting for them as they walked up the driveway. I even scared a few with my over eagerness. Yup, I’m a middle aged spinster creeper. I don’t even need a costume.

Anyway, I got back home and unloaded all my candy and made dinner and then sat down to do finances, (yup, back to adulting) when I noticed that the grocery store had overcharged me. So back I went to straighten things out. Turns out it will take me more than one visit to get this fixed. Of course. On the way back home I totally could have stewed and grumbled, but instead I decided to keep being responsible and drop off some Tupperware I had borrowed. It was early enough in the evening and the bowl was in my car, so I stopped at my friend’s house. What started as a simple drop and go ended up being an hour long visit where I laughed so hard I cried, and I got a cookie. I left in much better spirits.

As I started driving home I passed by more houses with Halloween décor and I made a decision, the night was not young, but I had a cookie in hand and a full tank of gas and by golly I was going to go out and look at decorations. So, like the middle aged, night time creeper spinster I am, I drove around the neighborhoods looking at lights. I know, I know, most people do that for Christmas, but as you well know, I am not most people. I just happened to have my Songs of Halloween tape in my car (just happened, pfft, who am I kidding, it is in there all month long) so I popped it in and cruised. It was a beautiful night and there were even more decorations to be seen. The people who have my favorite October house have added even more to their tableau. Now there are 9 foot spider webs everywhere and a GIANT spider on top of their house. They have a really cute Frankenstein that I am thinking of offering them money for. I almost drove into a fire hydrant rubbernecking while looking at it. The house is AMAZING and I have decided that I will be marrying whoever lives there. I don’t care if they are already married, a thrupple will work, especially if one of them takes a very loooooong vacation. Hey, people have gotten married for less. I mean, I already know we are compatible. They like to decorate for Halloween, what more do I really need to know? And they say romance is dead.

I got back home around 11 or so and it was an amazing night. It was waaaaay too warm in my house so I decided I needed to camp out in the back yard. Cuz why not just turn on the ceiling fan when you can set up your summer yurt thing that has never been out of the box and then drag your extra twin mattress outside? Sounds totally reasonable and not at all crazy. My dog looked at me like I had lost my mind, but clearly I needed protecting because I had taken leave of my senses and who knows what shenanigans I would get into without him, so he reluctantly went out with me.

Our fun October backyard camping experience lasted until about 1am when some weird demon bird woke us both up. It made the strangest noise I have ever heard. I can't even begin to describe it, that's how strange it was. I tried to record it but it turned out akin to when people try to photograph Bigfoot. You can hear a noise but it really could be anything and it just makes you look extra crazy. The demon bird thing wouldn’t let up and sounded like it was getting closer and closer to our yurt/tent. Neither my dog nor I wanted to have our souls sucked out so we very bravely went back inside the house, which felt even warmer because it was 20 degrees hotter than outside. This time I had learned my lesson and turned on the ceiling fan. As soon as we got in bed the demon bird stopped hoot chirping. I don’t think it liked us being out there. Either that or it sucked the soul out of something else. Either way, we were safe.

So that was my somewhat spontaneous, but wonderful October day. I love unexpected pockets of joy like that. Oh, and the cookie was delicious. 

*When I was very seriously perusing the candy aisle, I found Glow in the Dark Hershey bars and Kit Kats. I was all, WHAT??? How did they make the chocolate glow in the dark? Does this mean it is radioactive candy? Why would they sell that? But how cool! And then I read further and saw that only the wrappers are glow in the dark. I was a lot less impressed. But that does sound safer.

* * This was the very responsible shirt I wore whilst adulting.

. 

Day 19: They're Monstrously Delicious

I know that I write about Frankenberry cereal every year, but I love it so.

I like how despite the fact that it is puffed up wheat that contains dyes, sugar and marshmallows it is still “a part of a nutritious breakfast.” Yeah, if you add a banana and milk and don’t eat the cereal at all it might be. That part of the TV ads always cracked me up. I didn’t even buy that lie when I was a kid. I was a weird child; I didn’t like sugar cereal which was good cuz mom didn’t want to buy it. I liked “old person” cereal. I called it this because only my grandpa ever at it. I am a Grape Nuts fan, though I will admit to a strong desire to gulp large amounts of Cap n Crunch with crunch berries but that is where it ends. I don’t want sugar for breakfast, if I did I would eat a donut or go snack on some candy or just drink syrup straight from the bottle. But when October rolls around all my good nutritional sense goes out the window and I consume my sugary cereal with gleeful abandon. Sometimes it is even dinner.

As per usual, I did my yearly Google search about my favorite monster cereal and man the things that came up. I always find something good. This year there is a contest from General Mills to win carved busts of Frankenberry, Count Chocula and Boo Berry. Admittedly the busts are kinda bad (only Count Chocula looks good, Boo Berry looks like a slug and Frankenberry looks like a pig), but I still feel that I need them. I started an Instagram account just so I could enter. I will be deleting it after the contest ends. My dedication knows some bounds, just not many.

After doing that, I went down the old commercial rabbit hole on YouTube. I find the monster voices amusing. Frankenberry sounds like a British professor, Count Chocula sounds like Snidely Whiplash and Boo Berry sounds like an Igor even though he should sound like Frank Sinatra. I have no idea why I think that but I just do. I remember watching these ads when I was little. I always looked forward to them. I wish they still made them. It seems they do but I haven’t’ seen one on TV in years. I love that there is a continued rivalry between Count Chocula and Frankenberry. Boo Berry is kind of an afterthought. Maybe that’s why they always render him as looking kinda stoned. He’s probably sitting in a back room somewhere half snoozing with a raging case of the munchies. If monsters eat other monster cereals, does that make them cannibals?

In my searches I found a terror alert chart for the Halloween cereals a la homeland security. I also found a recipe for making Frankenberry rice crispy type treats. I will be making them today. I can hardly wait. Let the sugar rush BEGIN!

If you could make a fall cereal, what would it be, what would be in it, and what would you call it. I think I would have leaf shaped cereal in fall colors. It would taste like cinnamon. I have no idea what it would be called. All my ideas are dorky and after I thought of Leafy-O’s my brain short circuited. I know this though, if it ever became a viable cereal source it would be a sponsor of my October Thoughts, I might even print some on the back of the box for breakfast reading.

Oh my goodness, one more thing before I go, I found this funny article about what happened to the Yummy Mummy. It made me giggle like crazy. I think I am going to print it out and stick it with my monster cereals. Give it a read if you want a good laugh. That Yummy Mummy is nuts.

https://www.retrojunk.com/article/show/1123/yummy-mummy-we-hardly-knew-ye

Day 18: All Dressed Up in Hopes of Somewhere to Go

Yesterday I got to clean out the activities storage shed at work. It looked like an episode of hoarders crossed with a hurricane. It took me waaaaay many more hours than I am comfortable sharing to get it organized. I am stiff and sore and could do a really good impersonation of an Igor right now with my humped over walk. It’s a good thing Sunday’s are a day of rest. I will be surrounding myself with cozy blankets, scary movies and pumpkin everything.

While I was cleaning out the shed my mind drifted naturally to decorations. I was quite literally surrounded by the stuff. I found some of my missing fall things I had been looking for, and when I had lugged it all back to the building I realized that instead of hardly having any October stuff, I had oodles. Some of it may still get put up before the month is out.

But what really got my October thinking percolating was the box of costumes that I found. We get all dressed up for those we love, or hope to love. We dress to impress, we dress to make ourselves feel better, we dress for work and we dress to be comfortable. Halloween is the bestest holiday ever for playing dress up because for one night of the year we get to let our inner freak flag fly. We can wear whatever we  please, be it a French Maid, the killer from Scream, body paint, or the cute kitty. I love playing dress up (though you would never know it) and Halloween says, ok, go ahead, have fun.

I love the wigs the wands the fake bloody knives and axes. I love the wings and hair dye. It is all just too much fun. I can remember every costume that I have ever worn. I can also remember almost all the places that I have trick or treated at (but that is for another day). I have been a pumpkin (the cutest ever in the history of pumpkins) the Green M n M, Princess Amidala, a clown (oh how I HATED that costume...........still do......I wore it for EVER and a day), a flapper, a demented cheerleader, the Mad Hatter, a cheetah, a flapper and a nun just to name a few.

You would think in my 40 years that I would dress up more, but the problem was and is, I have nowhere to go most of the time and the other half..........well, I am just too picky. I don't want a crappy costume that looks like it came from a bag. I want something different, unusual, or at least well made. I have several costumes in my TO DO file and I keep looking for them to either be discounted or to find the right accessory that I am missing for it. I also have several costumes in the wings just waiting to be worn. I had grand plans for this year’s costume, but Covid has thrown a bit of a monkey and his wrench into my schemes. I have 2 new costumes ready to go but I am not thrilled about either of them. They are fine. They will work well with our precautions and my work environment but they aren’t super fantastic. I keep looking for something that has that wow factor but, maybe I will just have to save it for another year?   

So I might have digressed a bit there, but my point is, costumes are FUN!!! If you feel like it, post back and tell me some of your best costume moments, or some of the worst. The worst was the STUPID, WRETCHED clown costume. The mask suffocated me, it was ugly as sin, the jumper itched and I just plain hated it. I wore it for like 5 years or more. AHHHHHH.
The best was Queen Amidala. I rocked the face paint let me tell you. I actually had kids taking pictures with me.  Let me tell you, I could have gone on some sort of Star Wars tour. So there you have it, costumes in all their glory. I can't wait to hear your stories.