Halloween Slogging

 When I was a child I wanted to be a witch for every Halloween.  And I don't know what it says about me that whenever I thought about playing a part from a Disney Movie it was never Snow White, or Sleeping Beauty, or Cinderella...but instead the evil crone, Maleficent, or the Wicked Stepmother.  You know...a role I could really sink my teeth into. 

 My little girl has no such leanings.  It's princess all the way.  We left the house in a downpour on Saturday at 6 P.M.  Me in a rain poncho, holding an umbrella over our little superstar and my husband with his own umbrella playing the part of bodyguard.  Can I tell you that I was roasting in that plastic poncho?  The sweat was rolling down my face and my hair was like an Andean blanket on the back of my neck.  I swear I was the only warm one out that night.  Now I know how wrestlers feel when they're trying to drop weight before a match.  Ava's mood was not dampened and she set a brutal pace.  Her bucket was half full by the time we had got half way around the block.  People were being extremely generous. 

The bucket dropped twice and broke open because of the heavy load, and I had stashes of candy in my sweatshirt pocket in an effort to lighten the bucket.  We simply weren't home yet and Ava wasn't having any let's just skip a few houses.  Because lot size in the city is so much smaller you can hit what amounts to half of my hometown in three or four blocks.  It's crazy.  But Ava had a very successful night and stayed relatively dry.  As for me...not so much.  I had to remove the hood of the poncho halfway through the night in order for the sweat streams to stop stinging my eyes.  I'm not kidding.  And so I looked like a drowned poodle with Alice Cooper makeup, but that was okay.  At least I got some relief from the plastic sauna.