Turning Myself and Friends into Foods

1. Hello, my name is Jennifer, and I am a candy apple. I’m round, and have this hard outer coating. If you’ve never had one before, maybe you wouldn’t know that the hard coating is nothing but candy – sweet. And if you break through and get to the center, you get a juicy, delicious, good for you treat!

2. Kandise Bowser: My spicy mango grilled potato friend. When you first encounter Kandise, she looks a bit fried and hard around the edges. At closer glance, you’re engulfed in her chili powder – very spicy. But keep “chewing”, eventually you start to notice a sweet taste to Kandise. That’s the mango sneaking up on you. Once you’ve experienced her, you get used to her spicy personality because underneath all that fire lies a secret sweet potato. The more you experience it, the more you notice it.

3. Jeffrey Dorvil: A staple in my group. He’s white rice. Not very special at first glance, but an every day necessity. You get used to having him around, and when he’s gone, you miss him terribly. He goes with everything, ya know!

4. Ashley Pardo: This particular friend of mine likes to make noise. She likes the attention. She’s all colors and is sweet, but she’s more than that, she’s sassy. Ashley is a bag of Pop Rocks

5. Alyssa Vaquero is a box of grape and strawberry Nerds. Tiny, sweet, and with a crunch. Like Nerds, you like Alyssa the moment you first “try” her, and you never get tired of her. Forever sweet, forever colorful. Just looking at a box makes you smile.

My most memorable Halloween experience

It’s a little hard to pick just one. Halloween has always been my favorite holiday, but I didn’t get many chances to celebrate it how I wanted to. There are a few key moments throughout the years that stand out in my mind.

I love when trick or treating happens on the 31^st. it is so bizarre a concept that different towns celebrate Halloween on different days. It takes the magic away. As a child, even if I wasn’t allowed to go out, I would see the kids. As early as 4 o 5 p.m., you could see kids in their costumes running around. But the magic always happened later. The sun would set, and it would get dark. The wind would pick up just slightly, blowing the leaves on the ground, and the streets would be filled with monster, clowns, fairies, all sorts of things. The sounds of kids, their laughter, their footsteps as they ran down the street, the words ‘Trick or Treat’, all carried throughout the neighborhood by that chilly wind. It was a different world. I wanted to sadly to be part of it.

I remember one year, I convinced my mom to take me trick or treating. I was so excited! I got dressed up as a witch – all in black. I even put fake nails on. I was ready, but my mom said it was too early. Kids began to knock on our door. We had candy, so I opened the door and gave them candy. It was the first year we had people knock on our door. I was excited, but anxious to get out there myself. Finally, after bugging my mom for what felt like an eternity, she relented. As we were leaving the house, I began to realize that we hadn’t had a trick or treater at our door for a while; and when I looked up and down my block, not a single soul was in sight. Only the wind with the leaves. It was too late. My mom walked me up and down the block – I guess to say that I at least got to dress up and parade around in my outfit. Then we went back home.

In middle school, I was old enough to go out on my own. That year was a fun year. I was in the 7^th grade and me, and my friends Ana L, Ana M, and Steven went trick or treating. I don’t remember what I dressed up as. It was either a witch or a vampire. I remember I was excited though. Finally, I would be part of the magic. We headed out and knocked on a few doors, and got candy. We even went into a bar and got candy from them as well. We passed so many kids. I didn’t even care about the candy. I was just in awe of all the costumes. After a while, Steven told us that he had heard that the skating rink had free ice skating with free skate rentals on Halloween, so we all decided to walk to Wonderland of Ice and check it out. Once there, it was confirmed by the long line of kids, that they indeed had free ice skating. We managed to get ice skates and got on the ice. I’m not a good ice skater, I learned that night, but I still had a great time. We eventually left the skating rink and knocked on a couple of more houses. It was getting late and Halloween was almost over for that year.

As I said goodbye to my friends, we talked about the idea of having a party next year. That idea was wonderful and so, the following year a bunch of us got together and threw a party at Steven’s garage. We decorated the garage and put a tap in the front to cover the entrance. It kept the wind out, and gave it a spookier feeling. We lit candles, and even got a few couches in there. It looked great. Once we got the stereo pumping, the party began. We danced and talked, and even played truth or dare. In the middle of our game, I saw a shadow on the other side of the tarp. It looked like a man with a chainsaw. I tried to tell everyone but it was too late. A split second later, we heard a chainsaw go off and a man lifted the tarp and came at us. We all screamed. It was Steven’s dad, wanting to get in on the fun. That was the best prank ever!

But my favorite Halloween memory didn’t actually happen on October 31^st. My freshman year of college, my roommate and some hall-mates all decided to go to Trail of Terror. A section of woods that is closed off and turned into a huge haunted house sort of thing. You go through mazes, cabins full of bloody body parts. Hands come from the walls and grab you, zombies pop out of the dark. You meet witches, and giant tree people. The little girl from the ring even came out of the well! It was the most fantastic Halloween experience of my life. I don’t even know how long we were walking around for – 30 or 40 minutes. It was long, and spooky, and perfect. I honestly don’t know what was the best part – watching the little girl crawl out of the well, cackling back at a witch, getting turned around in a moving maze where our entire group got separated…I don’t know. All I know is, there hadn’t been another Halloween experience that I’ve enjoyed more than Trail of Terror.