Halloween and COVID Happy October 1st! 🎃 👻

Disclaimer: I used Bazaart to make this photo

Happy October 1st! Ah, it’s the season of…

Scaring kids? Yes! Becausethat’s fun!

But that’s not what I’m talking about today. Today, we’re diving into one of the craziest Halloween’s to go down in history, where I’ll be talking about how Halloween will be effected by COVID-19… MUAHAHA!

(Don’t worry, I won’t punctuate every third paragraph any more… muahaha! Sorry, couldn’t resist.)

Halloween Talk no. 1: Costumes

So, I can’t speak super easily about Trick or Treating, seeing as I’ve only done that once, and I only went to one or two houses. But, I travel the world, so I consider it an equal trade-off! Kind of!

One way that it will be strange, what with COVID-19, is the masks. Yes, the masks. Do we need to wear a mask over our scary Halloween masks?Strange. Or is the Halloween mask enough?

And speaking of masks. Specifically, masks… while you’re wearing makeup.

Now, I might not have gone trick or treating very much, but I’ve been dressing up since I was 1 years old (my parents dressed me up as a burrito. Don’t ask)!

And I think it’s safe to say, in quite a few of these costumes, I’ve worn makeup—there was the time I dressed as a dog, and my mom used eyeliner to make whiskers (it was adorable).

But now… there’s no need? And if you still want to be in the full-out-Halloween-Spooky-Spirit, then just… try not to get any makeup on the inside of your mask… word of advice:

My mom wears makeup… but I guess you can already tell…

Halloween Talk no. 2: Trick or Treat!

Trick or Treating will probably take a crazy twist for you.

Like I mentioned before, I haven’t gone Trick or Treating very much… which is why it’s hard to talk about it, but ‘here goes.

If you’re like me, you’ll ring the doorbell by nudging it with your elbow, to avoid touching it. Doorbells hardly ever get cleaned!

Next, you scamper back six feet. Social distancing! The person answers, holding a bucket of candy.

Oh, did I mention you’re alone? You and five friends probably are not cramming onto the porch all at once. So, you smile at the person, but she doesn’t see it, because of your mask.

You say, “trick or treat!” but you are muffled by your mask. The person says, “could you repeat that?”

You shout, “trick or treat!” Only then, do you get your candy.

Yikes. But it’s not over…

When you get home, your mom sprays every single piece of candy with Lysol. You eat it later, and it tastes not only delicious, but slightly chemically.

Halloween Talk no. 3: Bobbing for Apples

Is the Halloween Carnival your favorite thing of the whole year?

Then I’m sorry to say, I doubt there will be one! Don’t worry, I’m sure there will be next year.

One thing that is iconic for Halloween is bobbing for apples! Yet another thing I’ve never done. But I’ll try to talk about it anyway.

You are so excited, but when you get to the big bucket of water, you only see one other person. You suddenly fear that his or her saliva is going to get in the water, and jump back.

You shout, “you win!” and hurry away.

Halloween in the times of COVID.

Bats! Bats! Bats!

You remember my blogpost on bats, right? I wrote that based off of research—things I found on the web, really.

But I hadn’t had a true bat experience, until just a few nights ago…

It was a dark and stormy night… just kidding. It was a perfectly normal night.

My mom and I were playing a card game. It involved fantasy, animals, and dice! I had to set out five cards. And one of the cards had a bat on it! But this was typical—why would I care?

My dad was in the other room (which acts as our office), talking with my grandma.

“#$&**#@$!”

My mom and I looked up. “What is it?” she asked.

My dad continued swearing before we heard, “I’ll call you back.”

Then, a bat flew into the room!

Mom and I screamed, running for the master bedroom.

“Come on!” I yelled, knowing full well that we were ‘coming on’.

As soon as we were both inside the room, my mom slammed the door shut. We were in darkness.

“Get the light!” I panted.

A few clicks later, the lights came on.

My mom ran for the other entry point of the bedroom, slamming that door shut as well.

“There is a bat in our house. There is a bat in our house.” Why couldn’t I get my head around that? Bats flew into houses all the time—um, right?

My mom was on the bed, lying down as though everything was okay.

“We let Dad fend for himself with that rabid beast!” I gasped, throwing my hands up in the air. Then, I halted. “Wait—it’s a bat, not a rabid beast. What’s wrong with me tonight?”

“There’s a bat in our house. Compared to that, you seem perfectly normal,” Mom shrugged. “Don’t worry. Dad will be fine.”

Then, I grinned. “This will totally go viral! I’ve got to get it on camera. Can I see your phone?”

Mom gaped. “Absolutely not! You are not letting that thing into our bedroom—I mean, um, endangering yourself!”

(By the way, if you want to check out my YouTube channel, here’s the link )

I grumbled. “Dang it!”

“Okay, sorry about that. A bat got into our house.”

Mom and I looked towards the closed doors. “He must have gotten it out,” I murmured. “It sounds like he’s back on the phone.”

We opened the doors and went out to continue our game.

“Oh god there’s another one!”

I threw my cards, but Mom kept hers in her hand. We ran back into the bedroom, shutting the door. Darkness again.

“Get the light!” I demanded. “Come on! I don’t like this darkness.”

I heard a click. “Oops, wrong one.” Two clicks later, the light was back on.

“We really aren’t good at this,” I mumbled.

Seconds later, we heard my dad’s voice.

“Ok, I trapped it in Kamea’s bedroom.”

“YOU WHAT?!” I moaned. “I mean—uh—I’m glad it’s confined. Yay?”

My dad opened the door, which was closest to my room.

“It’s not using my room as a giant toilet, right?” I asked, hesitant. “You promise it isn’t?”

“I can’t promise anything, but I think it’s too busy flying around to do that. You know, going batty. Ha!”

“This is no time for jokes.”

So, was there a happy ending? Sort of. At least one of the bats got out, which is great, We aren’t sure if there were two bats, or if one kept returning. We’ll never know. I personally prefer the two-bat theory, because they acted differently. Or at least, that’s what my dad reported.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, my mom and I did finish our game. She won. Yay, I guess.

So, take away from this blogpost an important lesson—bats might fly into your house, and if they do, trap them in your very loving daughter’s room. Now that is what a parent would do.

Don’t forget to check out my YouTube channel, using the link I provided! See you there!

Special Announcement!

Hey everyone! Hope you are all well.

So, you might have noticed that I don’t blog as much. Barely at all! I think this is my first blog post in 2020, and it’s already past the middle of the year. Hasn’t time flown?

You also probably noticed that The Epic Tales of Gussie and Bertie (did I say tails or tales?) have stopped. Sorry. I haven’t had much time (I know, ironic, right?) and I’m afraid, until further notice, it’s being cancelled. But my time isn’t just disappearing. I’ve been working on a great project:

I’m going to be publishing a book this summer! Yeah, I know, it’s exciting! It’ll be on Amazon. I’ve been writing stories for over a year now, and this is the first that’s come close to being published.

So, if you’re considering buying it, I want to make sure you like it. Here’s the Prologue.

The harsh white light of headquarters flooded Pukie’s vision, and he shied away from it.

Realizing he was standing in the way of traffic, the stout pug dodged out of the way as five Golden Retrievers jogged through the main entrance.

“Hey Maria! How’s that paw fungus?” Pukie yelped out to one of the passing dogs, who blushed and shrank into the cluster of big, butterscotch animals.

“Yo, Walter! What up?”

The small Welsh Corgi named Walter kept padding along, although he smiled at the pug slightly.

The pug slumped on the cool floor in disappointment. He began licking the polished diorite tiles, then his paw, then back to the ground.

“Oh, would you stop that?”

Pukie looked up, allowing his eyeballs to loll to the back of his head. It was Travis, the head commander of it all!

He was a very, very large husky, with piercing blue eyes that shone with intelligence.

Pukie popped up and, in a dizzy spell, flopped down.

When Pukie was finished with his head-rush, he sat back up carefully.

“Pukie, what were you doing?” The huge dog asked, raising a brow.

“Sorry Commander. Sat up too quickly. One minute…”

“Um…” Pukie knew that honesty was best with Commander Travis. “Licking the floor, sir.”

“And why?”

“Because… it looked like it needed cleaning.” Honesty crashed and burned.

“We just mopped the entire headquarters this morning, Pukie.”

Pukie sighed. “Well…there was a dirty… paw print! Paw print, yes. I thought I should clean it up for you.”

Commander Travis eyed Pukie carefully. “Ye—no. With your tongue? Come on, Pukie. What is actually going on?”

Pukie grumbled and straightened up, feeling Commander Travis’s eyes hot on him.

“Well… no one here likes me. I mean, all I’m doing is being nice.” Now he was blurting out everything. “I don’t know why, I mean, I’m a perfectly likable pug—I think. I love everything the other dogs do. Conversation, meatballs, and meatballs.”

“You said meatballs twice.”

“Now you get it!”

Travis grumbled something under his breath, and Pukie guessed it wasn’t meant for him to notice. The pug continued. “I even memorized the Super Dog Headquarters anthem!”

“Pukie…we don’t have an anthem.”

“Oh. That must have been a Lady Ruff-Ruff song. My bad.”

Commander Travis rolled his shining eyes and sat down.

“Pukie, I hate to tell you this… but you are a very weird dog, you know that?”

Pukie sighed and nodded solemnly. “Yeah, I know. I’ve been told that before. Many times.”

“Really?” Awe filled the pug’s big, chocolate eyes.

Commander Travis smiled kindly at the pug. “But…maybe we do need an anthem.”

“Um…sure. I guess. I mean, it’s not priority one, or two, or three, but—”

“Yay! I can’t wait to memorize it! Ooh! I’m late for cadet class. See you soon best friend!”

Pukie skipped off as the commander yelled out to him, “We’re not friends!”

The pug returned his attitude with a wink and skipped through a dog-door.

Commander Travis shook his head. “He is so not ready. I’ll have to talk to Coach Barks.”

I hope you enjoyed the sample.

So, I don’t have a release date yet. All I know so far is that it will be out during the summer. I’ll have more info soon, so make sure to come back!

I will see you in the next post!

Five Things to do in Quarantine 😷😷

Many people are bored.

Like, seriously bored.

And I’m here to help…or at least, try! So, here’s my list of 5 awesome things to do in Lockdown.

1. Watch YouTube Videos

I have personally experienced that this is something many people are already doing. I once posted a YouTube video on my vlog, Gussie Goop, and it got a comment in the first TWO MINUTES. That was cool!

2. Binge Watch Netflix

Netflix is full of plenty of funny, dramatic, weird and time-passing videos, like one of my favorites, Fuller House, and another show, Raising Dion.

3. Listen to Music

Music is something everyone loves. At least, everyone I know.

Some of my favorites are: (and you might recognize some of these from my Top Five Fav songs post,)

1. Dance Monkey, by Tones and I,

2. Daisies, by Katy Perry,

3. Glow, by Ella Henderson,

4. Empire, by Ella Henderson.

4. Art

Anyway, one super-fun thing you can do is make bookmarks. I’ve been (I personally made the picture at the top of this post.) reading the Twilight Saga, and I make a new bookmark for each book!

5. FaceTime/Skype/Zoom

FaceTime, Zoom, and Skype are all great options for calling with friends and family, if you aren’t living with any at the time. Lately, I’ve been having four-hour calls with two of my best friends.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this post! Hopefully I’ll see you later, if you didn’t miss the real awesome thing to do in quarantine: read blogs!

So, see you soon! Diamonddogdasher out.