OUT: Haunted House. IN: Haunted Ship

Ladies and Gents, it's that time of year again. Time to get your spook (or fright) on. Time to eat too much yummy candy and dress up in too-revealing ridiculous costumes or wear unnerving face paint. Time to carry scythes and machetes, fairy wands and red tridents (the glorified fork, not the gum).

Historical Side Note: Tridents were used in gladiatorial contests in Rome and throughout the Roman Empire during the more ancient part of Western history. A retiarius traditionally carried a trident, as well as a net to "fish" for his opponents. Unfortunately for the poor fisherman gladiator, he also had less armor. He's the nearly-naked one bleeding from the calf.

(courtesy Brooklyn College Classics Department)

Okay, history lesson over.


Back to Halloween. There's the monster Nightmare on M Street pub crawl (bar crawl if you're from the States), which is good fun, and there're your generic haunted houses...

And then there's Ghost Ship Barry. Seriously, if you can make it down to the Navy Yard (Eastern Market or Navy Yard Metro stops) the day before Halloween (still a weekend, given the spooky holiday falls on a Saturday this year), the sailors really have too much fun with the decorations and the being-scary. Early in the evening is reserved for the little bitties, but later on the sailors are given free reign to scare older children and adults out of their wits. I went last year and had a ball. Note to those looking for a less-scary experience: contrary to popular belief, the front of the line is the least scary. Or so I found. More info can be uncovered here. In fact, the link provides other Washington Navy Yard/US Navy Museum events this month.

Just Say Yes - To Recycled Furniture

And no, I don't mean recycled as in that grotty, stained, lumpy old couch someone put on the curb to wait for a special trash pick-up.

I do mean Craigslist. After months and months (years even, if one counts the apartment-searching I did on that website) of using Craigslist to no avail, I finally met with success! In actuality quite a lot of success. In a very short period of time.

Last weekend, I purchased two beautiful charcoal grey, wool slipper chairs. Not exactly what I had in mind for my home decor, but neutral enough (as far as charcoal grey falls into the neutral category), simple, and oh-so-comfy. Plush, sink-just-a-little comfy. Sit-with-legs-crossed, OR whole-foot-flat-on-the-floor comfy. And that last one's special, given that my heels don't always touch the floor in every chair made by (tall) man. Only three days later, I picked up a steal of a table - solid mahogany, late 19th c. card table. It's beautiful. There's definitely some evidence of hard loving, but totally worth it.

So now my apartment doesn't look like my apartment, and I feel a special little swell of pride when I rest my eyes on my small but cozy (with furniture!) demesne. I especially enjoy knowing that my furniture has now lived at least two lives, and even though neither purchase was likely to end up in the landfill if I hadn't bought it, I did engage in "green" shopping. It's wonderfully satisfying to take one more small and so-rewarding step towards my goal. Not to mention I've finally gotten back on-topic on my blog!