Malinda Lo

Last Friday was my first Halloween in Fairfax. Talk about small-town shenanigans! Apparently Halloween in Fairfax is a Big Deal, and it draws hundreds and hundreds of costumed children from the surrounding area. They get there early, around 4 p.m., to go trick-or-treating at the businesses in downtown Fairfax, then they go trick-or-treating down the neighborhood streets just behind the downtown area.

I missed the kids’ parade because I was busy watching my girlfriend and my friend Karla carve pumpkins in preparation for this event. See, don’t the pumpkins look great?

Afterward, we carried the pumpkins down the hill to a friend’s house, where they have a tradition of pouring glasses of wine for the parents (the kids get candy, of course). Needless to say, the parents love it. They also informed us that a house down the street was giving out beer, so as to not compete with the wine. At this rate, next year there will be an open bar somewhere!

The kids’ costumes were all excellent, and I was surprised to see how many Star Wars costumes there were until someone reminded me that George Lucas has this new Star Wars cartoon series on TV now. So there were lots of Jedis, but there was also an adorable Princess Leia in her kickass outfit from the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back. You know, this one:

Except the kid wasn’t carrying such a large gun.

The turnout, however, was apparently lower than in the past (even though there were still hundreds of kids), and my friends theorized it could have been due to the threat of rain (although it didn’t rain and was quite balmy), but might also be due to a new, fancier neighborhood Halloween party in this place called Sleepy Hollow, a neighborhood near San Anselmo (next town over). Apparently in Sleepy Hollow they set up a movie screen and show free movies for the kids.

When I was a kid in Colorado, it always seemed to be snowing or sleeting on Halloween night, there was no free wine, and there were definitely no free screenings of anything! I also had to walk uphill both ways wherever I went.

It’s a good thing I’m now an adult in California. Happy belated Halloween!