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One of my favourite times of year is when every single one of us can play dress up and act like a bunch of kids...enjoy some good old fashioned F-U-N! I have loved Halloween ever since I was a child. Mom would make us a costume, usually something nice like a clown or princess or something non-devilish because "that would be bad"...and on Halloween night we would hop in the van and dad would bring us to a populated neighbourhood to go trick or treating. (we were more "countryish" where our house was...kind of outskirts of Winnipeg at that time.) I loved having our pillowcases filled with all sorts of treats to eat later that evening when we were back at home sitting beside a nice fire. Some years, our costumes had to fit over our snowsuits because it had already snowed and it was freezing cold outside. But all of the kids in town would still head out and walk the streets looking for tasty, sweet treats! I remember the last year that I went trick or treating I was in grade 7 and I was still 11 years old. I felt like I was probably verging on the "too old" to go door to door for candy...but that year my mom said that I could go on my own with my friend Cathy. Oh man, I was so excited...my first year without dad hauling me around. Sweet! I also figured that because I was making my own costume that year, that I would go as something scary...the undead. No, I wasn't a zombie...I was a mummy.  I tore up old white bed sheets and wrapped them around my legs, body and arms...it was an excellent costume. Did you catch that?? I said arms...my arms. Ha ha ha! I said it, cause I was in fact wearing an artificial arm. I would never leave my house without wearing it back then. So, to me, when I think back to that "liberating" Halloween experience...being on my own, being something scary...I think I could have been a heck of a lot scarier had I NOT worn that plastic, rubber and metal strapped on appendage.

You would think that in having only one arm I would take full advantage of that simple fact each and every Halloween. I mean, isn't the "holiday" all about creepy, crawly, scary and horrifying things? Yes. It definitely is exactly that...even though people are fighting to make it sweet and friendly. Scary is fun. I like to scare people...I especially like to sneak up and scare people at anytime of the year. I am just a big kid! But I never even thought about using my one armedness in a costume until I was 22. I decided to dress up as a ski bunny who had a horrible ski accident after which a zombie tore off my arm and ate it, in turn making me a "Ski Bunny Zombie". I was cute...but bloody and pale and undead. Awesome costume!

Age 22 was also the age where I fully stopped wearing that stupid "zombie" arm. It didn't do anything for me, it couldn't help me carry heavy things or clap my hands or climb monkey bars...it was a dead arm. I am so thankful I dropped it. It allows me to be really me...who I was born as. A fake arm didn't pop out of my mommy's tummy after me. Yet, since I was a toddler...I don't even know if I was even walking...I had been fitted for an artificial arm every time I grew out of the last one. No wonder I had self worth issues. I didn't think I was good enough...I wasn't complete unless I wore the cumbersome attachment. The limb that would help other people feel comfortable around...simalize me. Honestly, if I still had one of those arms I would wear it at Halloween to be scary. Like be the woman who grew a mannequin arm! ha ha ha ha!!!

 I make an excellent zombie...I love zombies, so I am quite proud of that fact. I have even been paid money, by Hollywood to be a zombie...now that's conviction! ;o) I have always wanted to dress up and do the Zombie Walk when I lived in Vancouver. I never made it. This year...well yesterday to be exact...we had the very first Zombie Walk Gabriola. About 20 of us gathered to get ready at The Roxy; whitening faces, blacking out eye and nose holes, dripping fake blood from our mouths, eyes, ears and head and even putting watery clay into our hair and on our clothes to be more authentic. 1:30 arrived, and out the door we dragged our undead bodies...moaning, groaning and feverishly looking for something to feast on. We walked through Robert's Place while people were sitting and enjoying a quiet and cozy  late lunch...we left them with confused and shocked faces. Leaving there, we began to lumber, trip and shuffle our way down the street, through various shops and banging on windows and just causing zombie havoc. I carried along with me the arm from Rebecca, the lovely mannequin at The Roxy...we bloodied the shoulder bit. I am pretty sure it must be quite hilarious to see a one armed zombie slowly schlepping her way up the street while clinging onto a bloody arm that other zombies try to eat once in a while. hee hee hee. I tried really hard to always stay in character...just doing my uuuuuuuuuhhhh...the occasional drawn out and mis-pronounced word may have uttered out of my drooling mouth once or twice though! ha ha ha! Most passersby were quite amused with our parade...even those on the inside of the Woodfire Grill windows that we were sliding across with moans of hunger were laughing. Very fun!! I can't wait til next year...we will do some massive recruiting by then.

So anyways...I think it is good that I am able to laugh at myself in a fun and positive way. I feel like we all could be a lot happier if we could come to that conclusion as a collective. We all have something that is uniquely special about us...don't hide it...flaunt it whenever possible. Like...don't you wish YOU had the perfect zombie costume??? mwah ha ha ha hahaaaaa Happy Halloween! Be safe and have fun! ;o)

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