I love Halloween. Jack o' lanterns enchant me, and pumpkin seeds are delicious, though I haven't carved a pumpkin since I was a kid. I haven't celebrated many Halloweens since childhood, come to think of it. I did go to a pagan Samhain celebration once, which was kind of fun, kind of not - it seemed many new people had arrived to the group that day in order to be their extreme wacky selves, something that is unfortunately a bit common among public pagan gatherings, especially around Halloween. They seemed fake, and seeing as how most of the newbies didn't return for the next holiday, that impression of them remains. But anyway, the fact of the matter is, celebrating Halloween just isn't as easy to do when you're an adult. Which is why I became so excited to learn that Disneyland was hosting an event this year! Adults and children alike can always have fun at Disneyland, providing that they, you know, like Disney. Which I totally do!

While I was still contemplating when I should buy my ticket and how many I should buy, and whether or not I'd even be able to make it because of school obligations, the tickets sold out! And I, feeling hopeless about it, gave up. No cool Halloween for me. My friend, Ruthie, had already bought tickets for herself, her daughter, Harper (who is nearly four years old), and her brother, Brian. There was a brief moment where she didn't know if Brian would be able to make it, and said if he couldn't, she wanted me to go with her. Suddenly, my hopes soared! And just as suddenly, Brian adjusted his schedule, and could go. Yay for him, but sad faces for me.

But then, a light bulb flashed over my head as a word slowly crept into my brain: eBay!

I frantically searched for auctions and found several, all pretty expensive, because they were for groups of tickets. I started bidding on an auction for a single ticket, and the price climbed high. It seemed hopeless until I received an email from an eBay user, asking if I still wanted tickets, and if so, to call a number. I was skeptical. People have gotten scammed on eBay before. But I called, ready to hang up if things felt too fishy. Things seemed a little weird. The woman was talking fast, telling me details I didn't want to know (a classic scammer tactic!), and generally rambling, but finally she told me the price she'd sell a ticket for, and where to send the PayPal money. A quick internet search provided no warnings about her, so I took a chance and paid for the ticket.

The next morning, there was no email to let me know where to pick the ticket up. Growing antsy, I called the woman again, and she told me where the ticket would be waiting for me. Another internet search revealed the address she gave me to be the hotel she named. This was pretty strange, but things seemed to be coming together!

I headed out to pick up Ruthie and Harper so that we could get to Disneyland early (we took a little "holiday" from school), and enjoy the day there before the evening's festivities. Harper was talking a mile a minute when I arrived, showing me her Snow White costume, and toys. "Meg, isn't this dress SO cute? It comes with shoes!" she said. She showed me her pretend credit card, and pulled out a book, informing me, "You can read this to me on the way to Disneyland."

I laughed and said, "But I'm going to be driving! You can read it to me, though, how's that?" And she DID. It was really funny!

The drive down was uneventful, no traffic at all (even included some snacking on pumpkin seeds), and soon I was at this little motel, asking for my Halloween ticket. The first guy didn't seem to know what I was saying, so he went to get a lady. She surprised me by actually pulling out an envelope with my name on it, and handing it to me. Back in the car, I compared my ticket to Ruthie's, trying to tell if it was counterfeit or not. There were some minor differences in the boldness of the printed text, but the two Disney illustrations on the back looked identical. I felt better to have the ticket in hand, but I knew I wouldn't completely believe it until they let me in the park with it. It was going to be hosted at California Adventure, later in the evening, so we had plenty of time until then.

We headed into the park, where Ruthie got Harper's picture taken for a new Annual Passport. Then we headed off to lunch at the Buzz Light Year stage, where they played Beatles' songs and let the kiddos dance.

We also went on Pirates of the Carribbean, and Haunted Mansion, which is all decked out Nightmare Before Christmas-style now. I love the holiday decorations! Harper started singing songs from the movie soundtrack as we approached the gate, and we had a really fun time on the ride. Inside, I overheard two women speculating about the ride who both said they'd never seen the movie. Amazing! And so very wrong!

We also played the Buzz Lightyear shoot the bad guys game, and rode the Winnie the Pooh ride and bought some chocolatey treats. Last but not least, we made a stop at Bengal Barbeque to load up on some dinner food and caffeine before the Halloweeny fun. I don't normally drink caffeine, but I was really dragging, so opted for some hot chocolate, while Ruthie grabbed some coffee. And then it was time to change into our costumes!

Ruthie didn't change. She was wearing her UCLA sweatshirt and said, "Um, I'm a UCLA student for Halloween!" She did, however, get Harper into her Snow White ballerina outfit, which looked simply adorable. I, going for simplicity, had only brought a set of punk cat ears. I think they looked slightly more fitting when I still had facial piercings, but I still like them a lot, and I even got a couple of compliments on them. Most notably from Harper, who told me several times. "Meg, excuse me, Meg? Meg! ... I like your cat ears!" Brian didn't dress up, either, but did join us in the line outside California Adventure as we waited for the whole extravaganza to begin.

On the wall were lighted shapes of bats flying against the background of fake mountains. Outside, a baby dressed as Raggedy Anne out-cuted them all, and a dude dressed as Jack Skellington looked pretty good. At least he had the tall thing going on, unlike the much shorter and crappier looking Jack Skellington we saw around the park several other times. Before we knew it, the gates were open and they were letting people in. I stood with my ticket in hand, thinking, pleasepleaseplease as we got closer to the gate. I inserted the ticket into the turnstyle machine, and boom - "Welcome, enjoy your evening!" - I was in! I was in!! All the worry and agonizing melted away as I entered the park, snapping pictures of the front gate and the flourescent greeter witches. It was all just too cool.

We gathered maps that had a page for collectible stickers, as well as some trick or treat bags. There were 13 trick or treat stations in all, and every station would be giving away these stickers as well as candy. I hadn't gone trick or treating since I was very small, and I was truly excited about the prospect. Of course, my excitement made me feel like such a complete dork that I almost backed out, but then I was like, "Hey, I worked hard to get here! I'm trick or treating, damn it!" And trick or treat, I did! It was so much fun walking around to all the stations, gathering candy and stickers, saying "Trick or treat!", seeing all the costumes and smiles, and watching Harper take pictures with the various Disney characters. She got a huge kick out of it, especially when she met the princesses. It's funny, because Ruthie is not a very girly girl, but her kid is totally into princesses, the color pink, and purses. It cracks me up!

We walked all around the park, and saw some inflatable costumes that made it look like the wearer was riding on the back of, say, Frankenstein's monster, or a witch. It was crazy. I saw a family consisting of Cruella de Ville, a very large dalmatian, and an itty bitty dalmation (that kid was cute!). There were several people dressed as teapots, as well as tons of interesting Disneyland employees that were dressed up, too. There were some guys dressed as scarecrows, posted in places in the garden areas. Standing still for 3 hours does not sound like fun, but they seemed cheery enough. What if they were told, "You smile all night! We'll be watching you."? Heh. I like to imagine the crazy scenarios, don't mind me.

I liked that we could play games on the boardwalk for free, and receive candy just for trying. At least the chocolate relieved the disappointment of realizing I can no longer shoot a basket with any skill whatsoever!

We talked and laughed and watched the live band play Monster Mash while Chip n' Dale rocked the tambourines. We shopped a little in the stores, where Harper cracked me up by picking up an interesting antenna ball and saying, "Meg! Isn't this SO stinkin' cute??" I busted up and said, "Ruthie, your daughter talks just like you!" I've totally heard Ruthie say that bunches of times, but if Harper hadn't said it, I never would have thought twice about it. The crazy thing is, her expression even looked like Ruthie's when she said it, and it weirded me out, in a good way. I'm just fascinated by kids, as I was telling Brian. They're these little people, with their own impressions of the world, their own personalities and thoughts, but they're so new to the world that they're still trying to piece these bits of information together. There's so much they do and don't know at the same time when they're that young, but it's just weird and awesome to know they're growing up to be adults later on, these active members of society, and to realize we all started out the same way. Too, too crazy. It's great!

One of my favorite moments of the night was watching a child dressed as Batman have a full-on meltdown in the store. He laid on his stomach, crying - wailing, really - while his parent walked off (still keeping him within eyesight). He cried and flopped his hands around, and if it had been any other day or time, it would have merely been slightly annoying. Instead, it was incredibly funny, because with that mask on, he looked like a miniature adult version of Batman, and all I could think was, what if Batman really behaved that way? I turned to Ruthie, giggling and said, "Even superheroes have bad days."

I also loved all the moments that Harper ran around, excited, saying things like, "That's gigantic!" about the huge decorations, and "Isn't this wonderful??" about the whole evening all together. She is so full of life and excitement, and she is a fantastic kid. At the end of the night, we sat and ate hot dogs and fries, proud of ourselves for having gotten a ton of candy and all 13 stickers! Sleepy Harper was beginning to have meltdowns of her own, but she only cried for a minute or two before recovering.

Soon, three hours was up, and it was time to head out. Mickey and Minnie had a farewell concert near the main entrance, where they rocked out to a trick or treat song in which we all shouted, "Trick or treat!" together a million times. It was fun! All the characters were up at the front, saying goodbye to the kids and parents, giving hugs and taking those last pictures of the night. Harper finally got to see Goliath and Jojo, who I didn't even know existed until that night. Harper usually gives these wacky toothy open mouthed expressions when you ask her to smile, but man, when she saw those two, there was no need to ask her to smile, because she was beaming from ear to ear. How cool must that be to be her age and see these characters and get to hug them and everything? It was too adorable.

And then we headed back to the parking lot. The trams were crazy crowded, so we walked. Ruthie swapped out the carseat from my car to Brian's while Harper gave me a big hug and complimented my ears one last time. We exchanged our hugs and goodbyes and Ruthie said she was so happy I got to come with her. Me, too. My only regret is that Joe couldn't come, too. That would have been really cool.

That was definitely the best Halloween I've had in a long time. It was so fun getting to feel like a kid again! Which is probably why I can't stop eating that candy - I still think I have the metabolism I did when I was eight! Anyway, it was a total blast, and I look forward to doing it again next year!