Halloween Spookiness

Last night I barely slept because of the car-rattling, howling winds outside my window.

I do not exaggerate.*

Even though many people who live in Los Angeles are transplants, and presumably knew at one point how to drive in bad weather, for some reason when the weather drops below 60 degrees and rain or wind sets in, everyone here seems to lose their minds. However, last night the fear made sense; during my commute, cars and traffic lights were swaying back and forth like crazy.

At home I baked and ate about a pound of pumpkin seeds (here's the simple recipe I used) and read "A Great and Terrible Beauty" by Libba Bray, which has plenty of ghostly scares.

Last but not least, I had to contend with a monster red spider** that was lurking in my bathroom. While brushing my teeth, at my most vulnerable, I saw it lowering itself quickly toward my face! I backed away, and could only watch in horror as it zipped up its web to the ceiling again. My husband's out of town, and I have an irrational fear of spiders landing on my face and eating my eyes, so obviously I had to kill it.

This task required a chair, paper towels, a can of Raid, and lots of whimpering. I was also concerned I might have nightmares about its revenge, but since I didn't sleep much, that wasn't an issue.

Clearly the best course now is to eat lots of Halloween candy to stay awake.

* At least, not yet.

** I'm willing to concede it was a normal-sized spider.