Halloween

After throwing together costumes from the .25 cent Mission Clothing Room (I'm a truck driver, he's a fisherman) Matt and I took the dorm kids trick or treating. They chose to go with the morbid (left) "Father Nate" (right) and very much themselves (rest.) Our first stop was the St. Labre "village," which is home to teachers, staff and of course, the JVs. We lost several boys momentarily into their favorite teacher's house, but when they emerged having nicked only a "Men's Health" magazine, I chose to let that go. From there we progressed to the "Heights," to the homes of the administrators, directors and our three resident sisters. If Sister Bernadette was surpised to see "Father Nate" on her doorstep, she didn't miss a beat. It was a beautiful night -- a balmy fifty degrees in a state accustomed to its first snowstorm on Halloween -- and the kids made out well on the candy front. Back at the dorm, we finished the night with burgers and cupcakes.

Earlier in the day, Steph and Susan had set up a haunted house in the elementary school and recruited me, Cassie, Joe and Matt as spooks. We had a lot of fun, and we turned out to be pretty scary, judging by the kids coming back three and four times, and the couple of little girls who left crying. To the boys, the tears may have meant success, but I felt pretty bad. I couldn't blame the kids, however -- when I first saw Joe lying corpse-like in a pitch-black room, I almost cried too.