happy halloween. . . here's all my money

So since I remain unemployed, my days are spent perusing various sports and news sites, and today I came across a tasty little article on Raleigh's News & Observer site. . .

Tonight, sweet street is Durham's Club Blvd.

I wasn't sure what they were talking about so I read it, because our new home is a couple blocks down from Club Blvd. Well, I'll spare you the time that it would take to read it (it's not that interesting). Basically its about how the W. Club Blvd area between 9th St. and Hillandale (right where we live) is, and I quote, "the epicenter of trick-or-treating in Durham". Awesome right?

Especially since last year, our first as a married couple and with our own apartment, we bought like three huge bags of candy excited about getting to hand out to all the cute little kids that would come through. The only problem was that our apartment complex last year was on the border of sketchy Durham and was very poorly lit, which equals scared parents, which in turn equals a sad, lonely Brian (Melissa of course had to work on Halloween - have you no decency Starbucks? I mean its a national holiday or something right?) sitting on his porch eating 3 lbs. of Kit-Kats. Believe it or not, that's not a healthy way to spend an evening.

So now we live in the "epicenter of Durham trick-or-treating". And as I continue reading the article, I'm thinking "Great! We're already set!" because I bought two bags from Kroger the other day and now we have about 30 pieces of Reese's and Kit-Kats. (Didn't want to go overboard with 3 bags this year, just in case). But as I continue down the page it begins to dawn on me the scope of trick-or-treating that we may be dealing with here. . .

"Rae Jean Proescholdbell [she lives on Alabama St., the next block over] has counted a steady increase at her home every year. In 2001, she and her husband marked down 404 children with a pad and pencil. Last year on Oct. 31, using a silvery hand-held gadget, they clicked off 954."

Wow! That's a lot of kids! . . . That's a lot of answering the door. . . Wait! . . . That's a lot of candy!

So I do some quick calculations:

2 bags from Kroger ($2 a bag) = 30 peices of candy = $4 = $0.13 per piece of candy

Assuming there is an increase again this year in the number of trick-or-treaters, if we hand out one piece of candy to each snot-nosed brat that comes through then it looks like this. . .

1000 kids x $0.13 worth of candy = $130!!!!!!!

So I'm supposed to spend $130 (atleast, you know some of those kids are going to grab more than one piece!) on some unhealthy little treats for a 1000 people I have never met before? No way.

Now, as it turns out, I managed to get tickets (yay, craigslist!) for us to go to the Avett Brothers concert in Greensboro tonight, so we're not even going to be here. So I guess we'll just plan on leaving a bucket out or something, but when teenagers come up and find out all the candy is gone after the first 15 minutes of halloween I fear the things that will be done to our house.

Happy f'n Halloween. . .

The Big 2-4

Today is my birthday. Yippee! The day when random people who you never talk face to face with and really don't know anything about your life at this point decide that they should write "happy birthday brian!" on your Facebook wall. Cool. Thanks. Talk to you next year. . .

I don't mean to be a scrooge, but I do think its pretty funny. People just start coming out of the woodwork to say happy birthday and never ask how you are doing or what you are up to. Now, I'm a big fan of Facebook, and without it 97% of my "facebook friends" wouldn't have any idea that today is my birthday, but for real, could we be any more impersonal? Couldn't I at least get a text message?

Come to think about it, what the heck is the big deal about a birthday anyway? I mean it's not like I did anything to make this day special? Bah humbug!

p.s. i'm not really upset. apparently my old age is getting to me. on the off chance that someone who posted "happy birthday" on my facebook wall actually reads this, I want you to know that I am grateful, and that this was just an attempt at humor :) . . . but seriously, send me a freaking card or something, you impersonal jerk. . .

So I stole this link from J.D. Greear's blog. He is the pastor of the Summit Church in Durham. He used it as an example of some of the many "injustices" Christians have committed. This one is right up there with the Crusades and slavery. . .

OK, it's not up there with those two, but it does seem really close. . .



Oh yeah, and I also stole this from J.D. because it totally sums up how I feel about this whole thing, and yet I continue to post stuff. . .


So pretty much you should just be reading his blog instead of this lame one. . .

. . . I wish I was cool and funny like J.D. . .

However, I wish I was UN-like these idiots. . .



Why God, why?

If it was good enough for Jesus. . .

www.jesusisarebel.com
*check it out - its owned by a friend, and is where I got my red "love your enemies" shirt

So we are officially no longer residents of Marble, NC. Yesterday we stuffed all our belongings into our cars and returned from the wilderness to attempt to assimilate ourselves back into civilized society. I guess I'm going to have to cut my hair and shave my beard . . . maybe.

Future plans haven't really gone according to plan, which is why we're back in the Triangle, but it's all good. We don't have a place to live, so we're mooching off of the Browns and Greenes in married student housing at UNC right now until we can find a place of our own in the Durham/Chapel Hill area. Once again Melissa is the one bringing home the bacon, as she started working back at Starbucks on Guess Rd. today. Meanwhile I am busy updating a blog that no one reads and determining whether Willis McGahee or Laurence Maroney is a better play in fantasy football this week. Really important stuff.

On a side note, being a Cubs fan is pretty much torture. I often wonder why I do it. The freaking baseball season is 162 games long, and the Cubs were great for all of it. One of the best teams in the majors for 6 months, and now that we're in the playoffs and the games mean something they absolutely play two of the worst games I've ever seen. Only the Cubs could pull this off. . .