You know you got a lot to live for and you're gonna be mine

Halloween!  The one holiday I don't mind.  It's so unabashedly commercial and honest.

At work we had our traditional Halloween parade.  The kids all come to school in costumes and all the parents line the roadway around the school, and we all tromp by under their beaming gazes, and then there are photos and such, and then our normal day resumes.  I think it's sweet.  It does this old man's cynical black heart good to see kids enjoying themselves with such innocent, child-like pursuits: dress-up, pretend, creativity, escapism into fiction or adventure, candy.

74's family was there, of course, including two sets of grandparents and the boy D, taken from his school for this important event.  Nora seriously and earnestly hid when they tried to take pictures, but eventually 74 got one and posted it on Facebook.  I know this because LD told me.  I am apparently now excluded from 74's Facebook feed.  Family only!  (This includes LD, since, as 74 is fond of telling me, he and LD's family are "close as cousins at least," even though he doesn't actually like her.  Awesome.)

And, breaking a years-long tradition, 74 and Zaftig cancelled, at the last minute, their planned trick or treating with LD's kids, instead taking her own two kids to a party with some Prestigius parents.  This, I am sure, confused and hurt LD's kids, who practically worship 74's kids (Crab insisted on getting an exact copy of Nora's costume), and pissed off both LD and Eyeball, who has traditionally accompanied them all.  The decision to cancel this much-anticipated-by-kids event was, I am sure, half precipitated by the Rift (per the supercilious 74, LD needs to make her own friends, be taught a lesson, cannot use their old nanny any more, etc etc) and half just pure social climbing on Zaftig's part.

So I went over to LD's house, where her old friend from Boot State, Queen, and her husband, Anderson, and their two kids were.  We had some wine while the five kids tore around the house having fun.  Anderson and I hit it off to a degree; he is a cameraman and has some interesting stories about hi work (he has worked on shows in the lot next to where they shot "Seinfeld," and worked on the show "Homicide").  It was nice to have some adult conversation, if only small talk.

After they left, I read to the kids a bit, and then LD and I sat on the couch watching TV and being together.  It was a great evening.