No, not the actually “adventure,” but the way it was written.

I simply tell what’s happening in order to tell what’s happening. I don’t have a greater point in mind. The events don’t lead anywhere. I could start anywhere in the narrative, and the story will sound the same. There is no beginning. There is no end. There is no conflict, no tension. Most of all, however, I reiterate that there is no greater point in mind. That’s what makes it uninteresting. The only thing separating those entries from a typical Xanga entry was complete sentences.

There’s a difference between telling a story and rambling. I was merely rambling in those entries. The only reason I wrote them was so I could revisit them later. Yet, now I think, will I care later on?

Stories always have a point — even humorous stories. You can’t just tell a tale, then trail off. There has to be some type of punchline. That’s what makes them good. That’s what my entries bad. Now, compare this with the list of my “action-packed weekend.” The list is more powerful because it takes out the repetitive narrative. Although the list has no beginning or end, it has more tension than the Halloween Two narrative. You won’t get bored as easily.

Either tomorrow, or the day after, I’ll be posting pictures. That’s what I should’ve done in the first place. A picture can say much more than words. It would make the entry more interesting and, again, less repetitive.

From now on, I will try to make posts that are more cogent — that have a point. I must remember to differentiate myself from others’ uninteresting rambling. Part of the point of this weblog is to have other people read it, and if I’m writing junk, how can others find a modicum of respectability?

No website for the past few days. No weblog. I had had little sleep over the past few weeks, even missing fencing on Thursdays. I was no closer to finishing any projects. I had a whole bunch of tests lined up that day. Yet, I was really happy sitting there on the bench, eating my lunch. None of my friends were dressed up for Halloween Two, but I was still incredibly happy. I tried telling random people, “Happy Halloween Two,” but they ignored me. They didn’t even have the courtesy to gawk at my ostentatious royal purple king outfit, with construction paper crown. Hah, but I was still happy in my dumb costume. Why? Perhaps because I felt so incredibly alive?

Tension had sort of abounded lately amongst my acquaintances. Yet, in that silly costume, none of it mattered. No, putting on the king outfit wasn’t an escape. It wasn’t the costume that was fake; it was life that was fake. I felt so, well, alive, knowing that life was just a joke. People take it way too seriously. If people took life less seriously, then I could kill way more people. But really, if life is a joke, then isn’t it easier to find a place in our hearts to forgive? Those transgressions against us, they’re just part of the joke. Stop taking them so seriously. Why waste energy on something so trivial? Remember, to err is merely human. To err a lot, that’s just a lot more human.

In my Major Religions class, we were learning about Hinduism, and “maya.” Maya is the cosmic illusion — its the finite. We perceive ourselves as separate, but we are really one essence, according to Hinduism. Now, I didn’t see this, but this realization was similar. It also reminded me of another school topic. In English, my group is doing a project on the Theater of the Absurd. The tragic absurdist hero is one who attempts to insert order into a naturally illogical universe, and suffers as a result. In essence, the absurd nature of the play is more real than a more logical play and plot.

I was piercing through this veil of the routine of life. I could see the world clearly for what is was: insignificant. All our little, and big, problems mean nothing. My problems, too, meant nothing. I was without a care. That’s partly why I must have been so happy.

All those people seeing me on the bench, dressed as a king, who thought, “What a fool!” were wrong. Really, the joke is on them. They’re the fools! They’re taking life way too seriously — wrapped up in their little world, where all that matters are their problems. In the grand scheme of things, is what I’m doing any less absurd than what they’re doing? They’re trying to inject all these rules, and it comforts them, but they’re arbitrary. They’re just following. Following the others and their rules. Following the day as it goes along. I’m the one living in reality, they’re not.

Once inside French class, I once more draped the cape over mineself. Hans had drawn chest hair with a black pen. Katie had a pumpkin, but it was faded so I didn’t take a picture. Someone else had a good pumpkin, which I did take a picture of (I’ll include the name later). Ms. Schroeder found a dress for Richard, and a mask. He looked great. We three kings (well, I was the only one dressed like a king) stood outside the door, wishing mostly random people a Happy Halloween Two. I saw Jason in the hallway. He had on a helmet, which wasn’t actually for Halloween Two, but it was cool, anyway.

We had an oral and written test in French, but I guess it wasn’t too hard. At least, Richard, Davin, Han, and I “rocked out” with some singing. “Under Pressure,” “Chamelion,” “Louie Louie,” the charge fanfare, and general beat-boxing. Most of this was recorded on the French oral test tapes, heh. After the quizzes, — suprise! — FIRE ALARM! This is not a drill, folks. (Just not a true emergency either). That just gave us a chance to parade out in our costumes. We wore them as we evacuated to the football field. Mr. Newton wasn’t there, so band just socialized at its designated spot. And yet, we didn’t lose anyone. I learned from Delora that she thought “Halloween Two” was some sort of movie, not a holiday. Slick! All told, the way there and back (and trust me, we took the long way back), we told a lot of people, “Happy Halloween Two.” I absolutely loved it. Mr. Lee even stopped by the French room, asking about it. We told him that it was Halloween Two. He said he would’ve dressed up as Jamie Lee Curtis, if he had known. Instead, he says that Richard already did, or something to that effect.

I kept the outfit on for lunch. Lunch gave me a chance to show people who saw the crown, but not the cape, like Corinne. I kept a look-out for people dressed up to some degree. I took a few more pictures. I think I missed Sonja, though, she had on an excessive amount of eye-liner. I told more people to have a Happy Halloween Two. I even told Mr. parker, my freshman history teacher (coolest teacher at Moreau), and he said he wished that he had got the memo. That was encouraging. Ryan didn’t come until later in lunch. He wasn’t dressed up, but he had some Valentine cards off that “intro-net” that were hilarious. [website later] Before Ryan came, Ms. Roach, an AP, asked about my costume. Hans had already told me earlier that “Phyllis” already knew about it. I told her it was for Halloween Two. She told me to take off the crown. I started to take off the cape, as well, but she told me to keep it on! Wow! And, I had gone through the day half-thinking I would get a detention. Maybe all teachers aren’t out to get you.

So, because of all that, I had the self-confidence to stay in costume during Major Religions. No one else in that class was dressed up and half (probably more than half) hadn’t even heard about Halloween Two. Mr. Steeb asked why I’m in costume. I told him it was for Halloween Two. People were kind of going, “What?” And Mr. Steeb said that he didn’t want to get into it (such a great conversation on Hinduism). Heh.

In chemisty, we had a test, but I kept on the costume. Mr. Fryman asked if anyone called me a “royal pain.” Mr. Fryman is a funny guy — sometimes boring during lectures, but still a cool person. I think the general atmosphere of Friday, before the 3-day weekend, and Valentine’s Day, helped me stay out of trouble, too. I’m sure I got every problem correct on the test, except one. anyway… a subplot: Some wears my hat (not the first person — Chris, Alex, Kalpana, Davin…). Recently, in Major Religions (the class before), we learned about how Hinduism says not to repress desires. Mr. Steeb also goes into the psychology a bit, with little kids, how they want ice cream. So, give them enough until they get sick of it. Thus, I had asked for the crown back, but he said no, and I decided not to press the issue. He eventually realized the crown would not bring him happiness. It was taken off during the test, I think; I got it back later. I leanred that Nick was dressed as “badminton Joe.” Jarod was wearing his “Tony” sweater that he wasn’t wearing earlier in the hallway.

So, with the whole day, I was surprised by getting way more positive feedback than I expected, even if it felt a bit hollow, at times. People hadn’t dressed, but after seeing my follow-through, I think some partly regretted not dressing up. It rained after school, but even that didn’t dampen my spirit. I continued to wear it in the rain.

The End

[Note: Not yet grammar-edited.]

I walked into jazz band with only a yellow construction paper king’s crown on my head. Actually, first, I talked to Darryl, my second trombonist, outside the bandroom. He said everyone called everyone else to chicken out at the last minute. I said, “What? You guys are all bastards.” But I’d already made up my mind to wear the stuff anyway. Luckily, he told me he was lying.

In jazz band, we didn’t have the strict Mr. Newton; we have Joel. If Newton was there, we would’ve gotten the ol’ exasperated, “Stop that,” or “take that off,” which is a reward in itself, but Joel is looser. so, I whipped out the purple — royal purple — cape from my backpack. It drapes over the shoulders, and has two white strips on the collar area, with black dots all over the white [pics to be added later]. I ended up wearing my costume during all of jazz (pretty much, I do shrug it off because it gets a bit itchy). At the beginning of jazz band, Hans took off his dress jacket, revealing his “sailor shirt.” He told me that he was Russel Crowe from Master & Commander. He had his hair tied back, too, which is different from how he normally wears it. Darryl wore mostly green. He donned a towel as a cape, and then put on construction paper eye-wear. He says he’s a “Super Hero In Training (SHIT).” Alvin said he had a costume out, but didn’t have time to put it on because he was running late. Biff only brought in a Count (from Sesame Street) mask, on a popsicle stick, but he did bring in a real pumpkin. Rather than being disappointed in those who didn’t dress up, I was happy about those who did. Okay, so Hans and I came up with the idea and follow-through of Halloween Two, but at least Darryl dressed up.

Math class wasn’t so great. I took off the cape, but I held the crown in my hand, because, you know, stuff I was wearing wasn’t exactly in dress code. It was geting late, so when I walked to math class, the halls were rather empty. I was even late to math, but I told the substitute teacher that I was late because of jazz. Even if I was marked late, it wouldn’t matter, I just decided to try the excuse. Wait, rewind a bit — substitute teacher! If my regular teacher had been there, I would’ve sat down, and pulled out the cape, but no… So, we started the day with an unexpected quiz. Joy. I always get 100s in the class, however, so I didn’t worry. Math class was boring as usual. Notes were handed out that didn’t even explain the tedious homework. No one else dressed up for Halloween Two.

It did get better. As I walked down the halls to French, I greeted people. Tony was dressed in all black; it was great. I donned the crown at various times to wish various people, “Happy Halloween Two.” I only specifically remember greeting Emerald and Corinne. No one besides Tony was dressed up.

Once inside French class…

To be continued in My Big Halloween Two Adventure Part Two.

[Note: I haven’t spell- or grammar-checked this entry yet.]

[Another note: Links in various old entries are not working properly. I think it’s because I had previously deleted some files. Thus, when I exported and re-imported, certain entries had been pushed back to fill in the deleted files spaces.]

I was going to post the first installment of my narrative of Halloween Two, but I now realize that some of you don’t know what Halloween Two is all about. Therefore, I present to you, the Legend of Halloween Two (barely edited from its original improvised form from an AIM conversation):

“One day, the people dressed up on Halloween. And they had fun. They wanted to have more fun, so they decided to dress up the next day. But the next day, the others ridiculed them. They said, “It’s not Halloween today.” And they laughed. And the people who had dressed up cried. The Halloween Fairy saw this, and it saddened her to see the people crying. She decided one Halloween was not enough. So, she borrowed Santa’s sled, to spread the news of a new holiday, dropping oranges decorated as pumpkins, and new costumes. The oranges splatted and the costumes ripped, but that’s not the point. The point is that this new holiday is called Halloween Two. This year, it will be celebrated February 13th, a Friday. To celebrate, all you have to do is dress up. It doesn’t have to be elaborate. It can be even be a hat or mask. Also, if you don’t want to dress up, you can at least bring in an orange, decorated with sharpie, as a substitute pumpkin. In order to be fun, Halloween Two must be celebrated by many people, lest we have a repeat of the sad scenario in the story. So, make sure you tell everyone about it.”

As you can tell, it’s a bit outdated since it gets preachy at the end, but that’s not the point. The point is, now you know what Halloween Two is all about.

Hans and I are the architects of this little holiday; we are the ones who followed through with the idea. We just wanted an excuse to dress up on a day that wasn’t Halloween (One).

A little bit more information: Halloween Two was not originally planned to be on Valentine’s Eve, but we changed it because it originally coincided with the MLK Mass at my school, and Hans was in the skit. Oddly enough, it was Biff who thought up the new date.

Anyway, this whole week is basically a feature on Halloween Two. I have a two-part narrative of the events. I also have some… I guess one could could call it… philosophy of Halloween Two. Finally, I’ll be posting all my pictures.