Halloween

Earlier today I told Leland "if they got rid of all holidays except Halloween and Christmas I'd be happy." He made a pretty good case for Thanksgiving (and Leftovers night!), but the point is that lately Halloween hasn't been everything I've wanted or expected.

Last year I spent Halloween frantically finishing my early application to Yale, and quite a chunk of that time curled up in the fetal position in my kitchen.

This year, despite having a nice time for a while with Leland at his house and Harriet's house, was even worse. I didn't even think it was possible. First I got to the airport in NYC just over 1/2 an hour before my flight was scheduled to leave. The self check-in kiosk wouldn't print my boarding pass -- it made me register for standby on a later flight. I tried asking an American Airlines lady about it, because I was getting pretty worked up and my flight was leaving in half and hour, but she kinda got snippy with me and was like "well you got here too late!" So I took my standby thing and decided to just go through security with that and get my boarding pass at the gate. However, I patted my pocket and discovered that my driver's license had disappeared. In the cab I had paid with a credit card, and I'd pulled my ID out of the wallet while I had it out so that I wouldn't have to go into it again. However, I guess the license fell out of my pocket when I got out of the cab. So I'm running around the terminal, searching for my license, crying, and muttering "This isn't happening to me, this ISN'T HAPPENING to me!!!," when I run into the same American Airlines lady. She tells me to go on standby or something, I should have shown up earlier (traffic isn't my fault, neither is being unfamiliar with the amount of time it takes to get to the airport in a city I don't actually live in), blah blah blah, and I just kinda went into how my flight was leaving so soon, I NEEDED to make that flight, I'd lost my ID. Then she started in at me, saying how I couldn't get through security without it and getting kinda upset at me, but clearly I knew that otherwise I wouldn't be standing there crying about it. I went to security anyway, and told them I was 15 and I didn't have a driver's license. Luckily for me, I look kinda young (since I am), I wear very 15-year-old type clothes when flying, and in my experience people tend to take a lot on faith if you seem worked up enough. I get into the terminal, and thank GOD my flight was leaving from a nearby gate, since they were giving the announcement for final boarding right as I walked up. I RAN to the gate, and, on the verge of tears, beg them to give me my boarding pass, which they do since thank GOD (again) the flight wasn't overbooked. I get on the flight at the very last minute, and I'm SO worked up. The guy in front of my leans his seat back ALL THE WAY, making it extremely hard for me to lean forward and sleep on my tray table. In my worked-up state I take it somewhat personally and start pushing my head hard into his seat. He turns around and says "you are pushing this forward" (gesturing to his seat -- he didn't speak English too well), and I just say "oh, uh, sorry." (Later in the flight I saw him trying to turn his light on by standing up and pushing on the actual light, rather than the button on the armrest. It's not the biggest mistake ever but I got some sick schadenfreude out of watching it). The flight wasn't too bad, and when I got in I got to see Leland which is always nice.

But later I tried to go to the parade in West Hollywood and I was meeting people there but they were maddeningly unspecific about where I was supposed to meet them and extremely bad about returning my increasingly frantic phone calls. I ended up just going home, because I was just too pissed to have any fun. I'm just annoyed. So now I'm sitting here eating Halloween candy (my mom "accidentally got two bags" this year, which is WAY more than necessary since my house averages about 2 people on a busy Halloween), drinking a big glass of milk, and getting ready to go to sleep.

I'm voting tomorrow on my absentee ballot! Very exciting!

There's a pro-prop-8 (the anti-gay marriage bill) rally tomorrow and I might go take some pictures. Or I might go to the Obama phone bank and make some calls/take some pictures. And there's an anti-prop 8 rally on Sunday that I'd love to go to as a participant and also to take some pictures, but I'm leaving Sunday afternoon so I'll probably either be sleeping or maybe hanging out with Leland. (or taking a nap with Leland, which would be the best!)