Happy Halloween!  It's kind of an anticlimactic day here in Sofia.  I was out and about today and I saw a couple of teenagers kind of dressed up--one wearing a mask and the other a black pointy witch's hat.  And frankly, this was more than I expected seeing as this is a country that doesn't celebrate Halloween. More or less, it's a day just like all of the days that have come before it.

The thing is I don't really miss Halloween.  It's a lot of pressure to figure out what you are going to be for Halloween; not to mention the time you spend actually worrying about a costume, putting the costume together and then hoping that you can pull it off.

What I do miss is celebrating Halloween in DC.  It wasn't until today that I realized the big thing I am going to miss is 1324-o-ween. <!--more-->This is the party that the group house I used to live in would throw every year.  It was a great party--we would decorate the house, make loads of jello-shots, invite 200 of our closest friends and hope that we'd wake up the next morning and the house would be more or less in one piece.  Sure I am going to miss the carnival of the event--the costumes, the drinking and the dancing--but I am not going to miss waking up the next morning, going downstairs and realizing that your entire house is sticky and smells of stale beer.

But more than this, I realized that I miss the planning, the excitement and the anticipation of the party. Sure it's hard work to plan a party that five people will be happy with but when it comes together and the party is a success it's all worth it.  I guess what I am trying to say is that I miss the people I used to throw the party with.

Sure I could have planned and hosted a party here in Sofia but it wouldn't be the same really and without Scott's famous buffalo wing dip it would be a pretty fake imitation of the party anyhow.  Oh and I don't have the paticence to cut out hundreds of construction paper bats, hang fake spiderwebs, or rent a helium tank and blow up a gross of orange and black balloons.  And to top it all off, after my going away party in July I think I am retired from making jello-shots and we all know you can't have a serious Halloween party without jello-shots.

So, instead of dressing up in a scary, sexy or funny costume tonight, I am sporting jeans, a layered t-shirt look (surprise, surprise) and my chucks.  I am going to meet a couple for dinner tonight--he's Fulbright scholar and retired college professor and his wife, she's along for the ride--at Sofia's only vegetarian restaurant for some amazing food and to have a beer or two and then I'll call it a night.

A little piece of me wishes that I was in the States so that I could pass out candy to little kids in costumes or so that I could attend 1324-o-ween but I am glad that I can spend the night with new friends because it turns out this what the holiday is really all about for me.

To my friends attending  1324-o-ween: I look forward to seeing pictures of your costumes, I hope to hear all about the trouble that everyone gets into and I hope that you don't run out of beer to early in the night.  It's bittersweet really... I am a little sad that I won't find myself lying on the couch the next morning reliving the night photo by photo and story by story while also fighting off a hangover, throwing empty solo cups away, fighting deflated helium balloons and praying for a Law and Order: SVU marathon but then again I won't be doing all of the things I just listed...

This said, go get 'em, have a great time, drink a beer or two in my name and think about me while you're on the dance floor!!

Happy 1324-O-Ween!! XOXO.