where does October go to?

I always wonder this. I consider October to be my favorite month of the year. I've thought about this a good deal, and if you keep the things we associate with each month out of it and only factor in the environment, it's number #1 for me. I love the feel- the leaves, the colors...Halloween, but that's one of those things of course. Halloween's today. It always sneaks up out of nowhere and every year it's the same. Mid-September comes and the retail stores start putting out their Halloween items. I get excited...absurdly excited actually. My reaction upon seeing gigantic rats and dripping blood wall decorations is like that of a 5 year old when he first gets a puppy. I love the stuff and the thought that I can just walk into a store and buy a sack full of imitation shrunken heads, no questions asked. It's completely normal. About a month ago I bought a skull stress ball that is filled with fake blood and bugs. Therefore when you squeeze it, the gooze bubbles out of its eye sockets. That is brilliant. I will present anyone who doesn't love this time of year with this wonderful toy. They won't dare to question it anymore. What...you say June is superior to October? What can you buy in June...a pool noodle? A noodle? What about a motion activated hand stuck in the middle of a blood fountain? Hmm? What reigns superior?

So come late September early October I am a ball of joy. These ridiculous items are appearing in stores, the weather stops being so blistering hot, and the leaves are on the verge of of their colorful cathartic deaths. Then mid October comes. Mid-terms. I'm forced to ignore everything but books for a period of 2 weeks, right when it's prime October- the leaves at their most lovely. I feel like I miss the world during this period. This year it was especially heavy, given a history exam I spent what should have been a fantastic October weekend where I fully embrace everything the month has to offer studying my eyes off. For nothing too. Grrrr. Mid-terms come and go, and when they're finally gone, the month is winding down and I've fallen off the metaphorical hayride that I was so excited about at the month's start. (Speaking of hayrides, it's been much too long since I've been on one. 10 years maybe? Shit.. where can I do that?) By this time I don't even know how to hop back on. Watch horror movies? It's Halloween and I have no plans. If I controlled the world, I would make the school year run during the summer and have the 3 months of vacation be October, November, and December. There's something I love about these months... how I find it so much more difficult to concentrate on necessities like school work during these rather than in the summer (Summer courses are no big deal in my eyes.) I want a huge Fall vacation. I want hayrides, haunted labyrinths, apple picking, costumes, cider, pumpkins...

Pumpkins! I never even got a pumpkin this year. Halloween of 2005 I didn't get a pumpkin. I promised myself I'd carve a pumpkin the next year. When I say I'm going to do something, I will do it, so I did carve a pumpkin last year- a fantastic wolf one to be exact. I did nothing this year. Fuckkk. Halloween's not over yet. What can I do?