A Halloween For The Ages

A few years ago, to the Ds' lasting laughter, Wifey declared "I'm just not in the mood for Halloween this year." Still, we rallied her, put up some of our aging decorations, and gave out candy to the neighborhood kids. And so it has continued over the last years, as the Ds were off in Gainesville, though one year, I think 2009, D1 surprised us with a trip home, and she helped me give out candy to the kids. It was lovely. This year, due mostly to the epic pathology my mother in law has decided to heap upon her only daughter, Wifey again "wasn't in the mood." Mike and Loni announced they were hosting a party, so we simply put some bowls of candy in front of the gate, and left for our friends' house at sundown. I wore a vintage (late 90s) Canes Hawaiian shirt, and Wifey wore a purple blouse. She explained it was in homage to something she did in 1994. Our team had the longest home winning streak (58 games) in NCAA history, and after missing most of those games, Wifey decided to come. I guess I wasn't paying attention to her garb, but she wore a purple sweater -- and purple was the color of our opponent, Washington, that day. Sure enough, the Canes lost, and my friends blamed Wifey -- who wears the opposing team's colors? Several of my friends suggested we had to sacrifice Wifey, in order to start a new streak. I thought about it, but didn't do it -- the Ds needed their Mom, and, well, you just can't off a spouse that easily in America... The sacred Orange Bowl was demolished, and now our Canes have hit rock bottom again -- last week we lost to Clemson in the worst loss of the history of the program. We fired the coach, and were set for a Halloween night game with Duke -- listed as 13 point underdogs. So we went to the party -- it was terrific -- great costumes, and great food. Mike catered with Chick Filet -- I joked that with every chicken strip eaten, somewhere a gay marriage ended -- and we drank and ate and watched the Canes play well against Duke. In fact, the Canes never trailed, and it appeared the upset was in place. But then, late, the defense collapsed, as they do, and Duke drove to the goal line, and scored with 6 seconds left on the game clock. We gathered to watch the last kickoff, thinking we could shut off the game and return to the great food -- Lili made her famous brownies, which are as addicting as cocaine... And then we saw college football history. Rugby-like, the Canes returned the kickoff for a TD! A flag was thrown, and an epic 10 minute referee review started. Finally, the announcement came -- play was ok -- Canes won! The party erupted, and Wifey, to her credit, filmed the whole thing. It was appropriate for the woman at the end of a Canes era 21 years ago may have recorded a new rebirth of our team. Everyone left happy -- even the few Gator fans Mike allowed to attend his party. Mike's sister Jeannine was there, too, and whenever I'm with her I love to reminisce about her Dad -- one of my life's mentors. He would have loved being there last night. So it was a Halloween for the ages. We returned to our house, and the bowls of candy we left were empty -- and the bowls neatly stacked together. Today, we have to visit the ghoul of Wifey's life -- Halloween still lasts a bit longer -- and then we're going to Joe's with Norman and Deb -- a fitting end to an awesome weekend.