We've Been Ghosted

In case you have never experienced this somewhat-new suburban phenomenon, let me share. You come home from work/school/errands to find a bucket/bag/box on your front doorstep. It's filled with goodies and two pieces of paper. The first is a sign that says "We've Been Ghosted" which you have to hang in a window or front door so that other potential ghosters don't hit you twice. The second piece of paper is a letter explaining that you've been ghosted. Your job now is to ghost two more unsuspecting members of your neighborhood, by leaving them the same letter, sign, and their own containers of goodies.

Now it gets to be a hassle, first of all because I'm one of the last people in our neighborhood to get ghosted. That means traveling to friends' houses, friends who I know are as busy as I am and who can barely get the candy in the house for trick-or-treat and figure out costumes for whomever isn't old enough this year to go out. Oh, I didn't include decorating the house for Halloween. Or carving the pumpkins the night before until 2:00 a.m. because if you do it any earlier they'll rot or serve as sustenance for the damned squirrels living in the big tree in the yard, or even better, the deer that have overpopulated suburbia.

In addition, this game is all about the element of surprise. That means that when you ghost someone, you're supposed to run up to their front door, put the goodies down, ring the bell, and run. Little tough to make a clean getaway when you're the strange car in the neighborhood and your 6 yo would just as soon say "hi" to whomever you're ghosting.

I know who ghosted our house. I truly adore this girl and her family. I've known them all my life. She even sits in my driveway on Halloween night for trick-or-treating. I have a bunch of moms who come over, hang in my driveway while we drink wine and eat cheese and crackers, and hand out all our treats, sort of a one-stop trick-or-treating stop, and she's one of those moms. So I am sucking it up, and trying to find the fun in this. I'm just not having any luck doing that right now. It's just one more thing to do on my overloaded "to do" list.