watching horror movies since 1974

September is fast waning, despite the summery weather, and October looms. And that means Halloween is on its way.

In years past, I have embarked on the blood-spattered journey of watching a horror movie a day in the month of October, something I like to call my Month of Madness.

In 2004, I just had fun. In 2005, I nearly drove myself crazy trying to write and balance my schoolwork, but I somehow crossed the finish line.

So this year, I need you to help me get organized. I need suggestions. I need ideas for movies that I haven’t seen a gazillion times.

I need to get a plan now, so that I will have a store of films ready for the watching, and my schoolwork won’t suffer from my scrambling around to find something. I’m thinking of setting a theme for each week in the month, and watching films related to that theme. What do you think, oh wise friends? I need your advice. If so inclined, post a comment with your thoughts on:

and

I’d love to hear what my horrorlicious friends would want to see. So help a girl out and I’ll share my candy with you.

I have always loved being whatever age I am at the moment (nine! I’m nine! wee! Fourteen rulez! I’m twenty six! wee!) and this year is no exception. Thirty-three. 33. Double threes are really cool. I love the roundness of the number and the asymmetrical symmetry of turning 33 on the 13th.

I don’t remember what I did when I turned 13 on the 13th, back in 1987. I’m sure there was a party of some sort, involving my bff Alix, and a cake from Allen’s, which was a family tradition. I know I was in eighth grade, having a happy fall and going steady with a boy named John who was cute, geeky, shy, and played the trombone. He may have given me a birthday card, but I might be making that up. I do know he broke up with me a couple months later, for my friend Laura D, and she turned him down flat. Laura was the shit.

But I don’t remember much about turning 13, which is funny because it’s supposed to be a huge deal, you know, becoming a teenager and all. I’m sure I got something Monkees-related, and there were balloons. I love balloons.

They aren’t any balloons in the house this year, ’cause as much as I love their joyful defiance of gravity, I find them sort of wasteful now. But there are lots of pink things piled up in the living room; gift bags and cards in pink envelopes, and a pink and white pet bed which was supposed to be for a future dog-to-be, but has been commandeered by The Lant. There’s also the remains of a pink and white cake, and a craptastic Italian horror movie fresh from Netflix, and books galore.

Oh, and there’s gin.

So, it’s a happy day, with a crazy good weekend to come, when D gets back from business in Albany. I am as happy as a cat in a pink and white dog bed.

Especially ’cause I got this in my inbox:

OMG!

for absent friends