Friday, October 27th
Mom wanted to carve pumpkins as a family this year. We picked Friday evening after everyone got home from work. I told everyone to bring their own pumpkin and bring a snack to share. I got out the carving tools, large bowls, knives and spoons. Ben and I had gone to the pumpkin patch in Orting a few weekends ago with his family so we had our pumpkins already. I was nice and bought one for Mom and Dad too.
I told everyone through text messaging that we were going to have it here around 6 p.m. and what kinds of foods were going to be available. That day, I went to work, logged out at 4, ran to the store really quickly to get the rest of the ingredients for pizza skulls, a pumpkin for Grandma, stuff to make pumpkin cookies and headed home. I quickly put the stuff away, I put up some more decorations, got the tables and chairs out in the living room, Doug cleaned the bathroom, and I started cutting up and preparing the food.
Mom and Grandma showed up early so I put Mom to work in the kitchen helping me assemble the pizza skulls. I turned on the World Series and it played on silent in the background. Sonya arrived with her party platter, followed by Dad, Erika and Zac. Everyone hung out while we got the first batch of pizza skulls done. Mom forgot to bring the other mold, so we could only do six at a time. Once it was done, people started eating food while the others waited for the next batch. Everyone had at least one pizza skull among the stuff Sonya brought. We did manage to get a small third batch with the remaining ingredients.
We cleared out the food and the plates and got all of the pumpkin stuff out, including the carving tools and marker pens. We had our way with the pumpkins and had a great time carving them. Everyone did something different which was fun to see. It took us all about an hour or so to finish.
We got candles in them and posed them outside on the front stoop and got a bunch of photos of them. I told people to take theirs home with them, but they didn't. We cleaned up the table and everyone thanked us for a good time.
We watched the rest of the World Series and Texas won with a walk off homerun in the bottom of the 10th inning.
I stayed up pretty late cleaning up, taking stuff down and vacuuming. I went to bed around 2.
Saturday, October 28th
We didn't get up until almost 10 and then hurried to get ready for our WSECU appointment at 11 a.m. to open up our joint bank account. Once we got there, it took us about a half an hour to get it up and running. Their debit card machine was broken so we had to go to the other branch to get our debit cards made. We were pretty much in and out.
We got home and Ben went on his date with Josh to talk about their business venture at 23 Kitchens in Hawks Prairie. They were there for over an hour. Meanwhile, I made gluten free chocolate chip pumpkin cookies and watched some college football. Dad stopped by to drop some stuff off and so I gave him some of the cookies that were already done. He even tried one and though they were good. He said he was running around doing stuff because Mom was at Saturday sew with her ladies.
I finished up the cookies, Ben came home, took a short nap and I got the stuff ready to go to take over to Celeste and Isaac's house, the tables, chairs, food, costumes, etc. I got Ben out of bed, up and ready. I wanted to be over there somewhat earlier than everyone because we had to help them put together the tables and chairs in the dining room.
I had not been to Celeste and Isaac's house yet. This was my first time and Celeste did say that parking in her neighborhood was awful. She wasn't kidding. A Kia hamster car was in the way, and I didn't realize it was Megan's car, lol. Because we were bringing the tables and chairs, Celeste saved me a spot in her driveway so I could back up into it and unload easier. The boys brought all the stuff in, I changed into my costume and waited for everyone to get there so we could start eating food. Ben and I decided to be cops and robbers since we had most of the pieces for the costumes.
I brought gluten free cookies, Nicole made a mummy meat, cheese and platter, Lindsay made a soup, Celeste had veggies and other finger foods, there was also Halloween candy. Everyone dressed up too. Ben was a cop, I was a robber, Nicole was a dinosaur, Del was fat Thor, Celeste was Kim Possible, Isaac was a Jedi, Lindsay was dressed like a student from Hogwarts, Justin was a Jedi, Wes was baby Yoda, Megan and Miles were Pokémon avatars. Mason came too, but he wasn't dressed up.
We dished up on food, ate, chatted, goofed around and then started some games. We spent most of the night playing Poetry for Neanderthals. It was a pretty hilarious game, and everyone got hit with the plastic club. "Square! Rock! House!" (Celeste while trying to describe a brick in one syllable words.) We had a blast.
I was not aware but sensed something weird, I asked Megan where Matt was that night. Miles said that he was in Ohio. I thought that was an odd response but let it happen. We moved on from that conversation and onto to the next game. My phone buzzed, Celeste texted me that Megan and Matt were no longer together, and she thought I knew. I didn't, but suspected something odd was going on. Again, we moved on with the night.
It got late, Megan took her children home, we all stayed behind to play a short game. Celeste filled everyone in who knew and didn't know. I felt like a complete idiot asking where Matt was. I had no clue! We chatted about it for a little bit while we put Celeste and Isaac's living room back together. They helped me pack up the Escape and we all left around 1:30. Ben and I got home around 2ish, got ready for bed and went to bed just before 3:00. My mind would not relax after finding out something like that. I did eventually fall asleep, but it wasn't great sleep.
Sunday, October 29th
Ben's alarm went off somewhat early since he had to get ready and go to shift at the fire station. His shift began at 10, so he got to sleep in a little bit. He got ready and I got up shortly after he left for Tenino.
I got up a little bit after 10, got ready, grabbed a quick bite to eat and drove into Tenino for the geocaching event at the park. I got there before it started, chatted with a few people, listened to stories and hung out with the geo peeps. I hung out with Bob and Bev while we waited for the event to start. It was chilly and I am glad I wore my layers and hat. I was surprised to see that Antoine showed up, all the way from Issaquah. We all found out that Gabe, created the event and then couldn't come because he double booked himself and went to the Seahawk game instead. We all thought that was pretty lame of him.
Antoine basically pulled an event out of his butt. We talked about the upcoming events such as the newly established cache machines, the resurrection of the Ape event in Hyak, WSGA news, the new Adventure Labs (in Rochester, Napavine, Winlock and Vader) and I think Antoine felt bad, so he gave each person who came to the event a trackable out of the WSGA tote. I received an old Ape coin from a past event. He thanked everyone for coming out. I decided since the Adventure Labs were somewhat close-ish, to go get them a different time. I was not prepared to drive all the way down to Vader. Bob and Bev decided to go home and spend time in front of their lava fire. I think very few people went and grabbed the Adventure Labs that day.
I stopped by the fire station for a few minutes to say hi to Ben. He was glad I stopped. They soon got busy and had to go. I went into Rainier to fill up my water jugs and I ended up staying to watch the Seahawk game. They beat the Browns 24-20. Mom made me a hamburger for lunch. We chatted and I texted Megan to see if she was home. She was and told me to come over. I drove over not realizing how long I was going to stay over there.
When I arrived, Miles was carving his pumpkin and Mason was working on his homework in his bedroom. Megan was doing some chores. I told her I felt bad the night before about the question I asked. She said not to feel bad about it because no one really knew. She was keeping it to herself and recently told Celeste at a hair appointment. She added that they've been separated since late June and has been learning to navigate life as a single mom. She did say that she's glad that her dad, Carl, also lives on the property nearby.
She told me about the pattern of behavior that has been happening for years and she finally just got tired of it and finally did something about it. She was sick of feeling bad about herself and having someone treat her terribly. I did contribute to the conversation by telling her how we (her friends) did notice some weird things over the years but didn't want to interfere with her life or be nosy. She said she understood where we were coming from. This conversation went on most of the day.
Miles wanted to show me his schoolwork, I asked him questions about school and his favorite subject, he took me outside to collect the chicken eggs and showed me how he catches the chickens so he could pet them, lol. We gave them scratch and made sure we picked up all the eggs to bring back to the house. Carl came inside while Megan made food for everyone. She offered me food, but I had just eaten a hamburger, so I wasn't hungry but appreciated the kind gesture. I chatted with Carl, asked what he's been doing all of these years and vice versa. It was a nice visit.
Megan cleaned up the kitchen and told the boys to get their chores done and to get cleaned up and ready for bed. I hung out with Megan until about 10 p.m. just chatting. I think she was happy to be able to talk to someone and express her feelings toward the somewhat recent events. She hoped that the finalization of the divorce didn't get too messy, but she wasn't going to hold her breath. I thanked her for letting me come over and visit. It's been way too long, and I now know the reason why. I headed back into Lacey, chatted with Ben for a bit and got ready for bed. Monday morning comes awfully fast.
Next Adventure: My Birthday Weekend -- the Big 4-0!
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