Masquerade

Listen to them.
Children of the night.
What music they make.
-Count Dracula


Masquerade!
Paper faces on parade. Masquerade.
Hide your face, so the world will never find you.
Masquerade!
Every face a different shade. Masquerade.
Look around, there's another mask behind you.
-Sung in Phantom of the Opera


Bereket as the Mouse

First of all, big hugs dear readers for any kind thoughts you offered the gods. Mom's surgery was an A+ and dad says she was a magpie at 1:00 am last night (that is, the night before I started this post, not last night in real time) yapping away good stuff. Ohhh, those are nice drugs. Drugs good. Keep pressing that button, mom. She's recovering slowly still in Hospital, wrapped like a turtle (fitting for her current walking speed) for many weeks to come, but will come out good enough.

On to Halloween. Firsts are exciting to grandmas and their babies so we are giddy about Halloween this year because we're doing Halloween with the boys, at last, in whatever form; we're finally ready for it. Mom sent me a box of fuzzy animal masks. Adorable out of the box and strange on little faces. I went to Good Will and stocked up on costumes, some for tricks and treats, other for fun. It warms a heart to look down on your little one playing "choo choo cars" in a cow costume as if all is normal.

Sira as the Leopard


So proud of their tails. One would offer it to the other in hopes of being leashed around.



Confession. I hung out at old cemeteries as a teenager. My hometown in SouthCal has the best graveyard of anywhere. Naturally we weren't always, uh-hum, nice girls, but we never-ever would disrespect a grave or leave trash and we felt reading engraved names of the dead aloud was a good thing for the heavens. In fact, my friend named her cat after one of those antique names. It makes sense now. In the middle of urban it was a solitary wild place with ornamented stone, old trees, and wild animals.

My favorite Halloween heroes are Dracula & Frankenstein. I'll watch the old black and whites this season like I always do. (The Invisible Man is worth watching too.) A disfigured monster who wants to be loved, how bitter-sweet. Seriously, I have written (bad) poems about Frankenstein's Monster. "Friend . . ."

I just got back from NYC and we saw Phantom of the Opera (my first time). No surprise, I was bawling at the end. I think I could love him . . .



I was putting off posting until I could capture Tsega in his Halloween costume (The Clown), but I cannot hold any longer. More of him and All Hallows' Eve in later posts . . . Until then, have a ghoul time. Did this cheer you up mom? :)