Halloween Preview

Last night, I trekked out to the 'burbs for some good ol' fashioned Halloween fun with the Fed crew. Britton really wanted to go to a haunted house, and this one was advertised as being the #1 haunted house in IL. I glanced at the website, and figured that if it wasn't scary, at least they had a sense of humor when they included directions from Hell. (Take Lost Souls Blvd. and take a left on Decapitation Drive. Travel 666 km, then take a sharp right on Brimstone Blvd. Enter through the gates and listen for the screams...)

We showed up at 8:30 and ended up waiting in line for at least 2 hours. No worries though, before we got in line, we managed to mix up some vodka & gatorade and jack daniel's & coke. I swear the giggling and pouring out of liquids in the parking lot didn't look uber sketchy or anything. Plus, there were all sorts of dressed up zombies and ax murderers heckling us while we stood in line. All in friendly fun, and after Chris let loose a really loud, high-pitched scream, one of them turned to us and said, "Is he gay?" Thought: what if some psycho decided to show up and chase people around for kicks, and you couldn't tell he wasn't part of the show?

Going through the house itself probably took 15-20 min, but with a proper suspension of disbelief, it was lots of fun. I was never that scared, but it's fun to scream your head off with other people. The best part was a tunnel with swirling lights overhead, which made you think the walkway was rotating. I could've sworn the floor was moving, but then I stepped into another room and all was righted.

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Now, on to the scary part. I got my wisdom teeth pulled this morning, and after last night, had decided that I wasn't that squeamish and didn't need to be completely knocked out for the procedure. So, they gave me local anesthesia and laughing gas, and pretty soon I was feeling quite content, like I'd just downed about 4 beers, happy to ignore any sort of drilling noises or sutures going into my mouth. About 40 min later, I was done and ready to bounce.

Katherine picked me up after surgery, and when I stumbled out, she was a little concerned and kept asking me if I was all right. Too bad I had gauze in my mouth so I couldn't really talk, but instead kept mumbling incoherently and laughing, which elicited blank looks from her which caused me to laugh harder. It probably didn't help that I was still sort of on the laughing gas high. Simultaneously, blood was dripping out the side of my mouth, not that I could feel it because my entire face was numb. So picture us in the middle of the Loop, me laughing hysterically with bloody tissues clutched to my mouth and Katherine frantically telling passer byers coming out of the American Girl Store that everything was ok, really. I think I scared some small children today. And adults. And Katherine. At one point, she told me, "Um Crystal, you just dropped a piece of bloody gauze on the sidewalk," which made me laugh some more. It was highly special.

Anyway, we finally managed to get me home and find a box of popsicles. The right side of my face is swelling, but it's not noticeable, and I haven't been taking the Vicodine they gave me (just a few over the counter Motrins), so if anyone is interested in purchasing some narcotics, just let me know...