Horrible at Halloween...Again

I still don't have a pumpkin.

It was the one thing on my Halloween 2011 must-do list that I figured would be easiest. And yet here we are on October 28, and I still don't have a pumpkin. With my schedule, I usually have a hard time keeping up with personal Halloween traditions that I've developed through the years, but you'd think that making a quick stop at any one of the multitude of pumpkin-selling places on my way to work would be something I could have managed.

But no. Well, not yet, anyway. Maybe I'll pick one up tonight or tomorrow.

As mentioned right around this time last year, I'm developing a bit of a track record when it comes to being bad at Halloween. And I can't have that.

The toughest things on my Halloween must-do list to keep up with are the books/comics I'd like to read throughout October, like Ray Bradbury's The Halloween Tree and Something Wicked This Way Comes, and the excellent Halloween: Nightdance comic series put out by the now-defunct Devil's Due Press.

Finding time to read in my spare time is always a little tough, but it's been especially so lately. So sitting down and watching a two-hour film can prove to be even harder to do (especially during an incredible World Series this year).

Still, so far I've managed to sneak in a few holiday classics--The Lost Boys, Halloween 2 and 4, and the Disney adaptation of Something Wicked--so that's something, at least.

Halloween falls on a Monday this year, much to the chagrin of kids (little and big) around the country. But that also means that a late-night movie fest is out of the question on the holiday itself.

The plan right now is to carve out (get it?) a chunk of time on Sunday to watch my personal favorite Halloween movie, John Carpenter's original Halloween. If I plan it just right, it will directly precede this week's new episode of The Walking Dead.

Not exactly a mirror of perfect Halloweens past, but for this year at least, it'll do.