by Cathy
The other day (September 29th to be exact) I got off the bus on my way home from work, happy that it was my last workday of the week and that the sun was finally shining after a week of rain and gloomy skies. With a spring in my step, I rounded the corner leading to my block and suddenly stopped in my tracks when I saw this:
It took me a while to process what I was seeing. "What the...wait a minute...what's the date?"
This is how far removed I am from Halloween right now, maybe because, um, I don't know, it's more than a month away? Yes, I've seen the costumes at Costco and Target that hit the shelves in early September but I just scoffed in disgust as I passed them by. "It's waaaaaaay too early," I mumbled to myself then as I did on this day. I stood and observed the elaborate scene before me and imagined the hours of planning, details, storing, designing, purchasing and decorating that went into a creating a scene like this. I'm not this organized with the essentials in my house and I barely have enough room for said essentials in my house, let alone for holiday decorations of this size and quantity.
But I didn't expect anything less from these guys. You see, this is our neighorhood Holiday Hoarding House. You know, every neighborhood has one: the house that has 53,724 pieces of decoration for every holiday out there, and all of these thousands of pieces are presented on their lawns, porches, decks, fences and even sidewalks ALL at the same time. Or they could be the ones with the biggest, gaudiest decorations like inflatible Frosty the Snowmen that end up 'melting' and lifeless on crowded lawns. These are the people with turkey shaped flags for Thanksgiving and bunny planters for Easter. These are the people with heart-shaped rope lighting in their windows for Valentine's day and life-size leprechaun cut-outs on St. Patrick's day. The Holiday Hoarding Houses.
Why is everyone is such a friggin hurry to get on to the next holiday? Doesn't time fly fast enough already that I need to buy my kid's Halloween costume the same week I buy back to school supplies? Must I be subjected to viewing these decorations more than a month in advance of the actual holiday and worse, for quite some time after the holiday has passed?
Is this a trick? Cuz it ain't no treat.
