2012 Halloween Playlist

Here is my 2012 playlist for Halloween!! It's spooky, dancey, creepy, and fun!!

1. "All Hallow Eve's Ball" instrumental from Van Helsing - I always like to kick off Halloween with this because it's from the film that made me fall in love with masquerade balls

2. "Monster Mash"

3. "Ooh Eeh Ooh Ah Aah Ting Tang Walla Walla Bing Bang" by the Witch Doctor

4. "We R Who We R" by Ke$ha - throwing in some dance numbers

5. "Remains of the Day" from The Corpse Bride

6. Jaws Theme Song by John Williams

7. GhostBusters Theme Song by Ray Parker Jr.

8. "Thriller/Heads Will Roll" mash-up from Glee

9. "Blame It (On the Alcohol)" by Jamie Foxx

10. "The Time Warp" from The Rocky Horror Picture Show (movie version)

11. "Monster" by Hurricane Bells

12. "Supermassive Black Hole" by Muse

13. "For Whom the Bell Tolls" by Metallica

14. "Epiphany" from Sweeney Todd (movie version)

15. "This is Halloween" from The Nightmare Before Christmas

16. "Nine in the Afternoon" by Panic at the Disco

17. "Dance Like a Hippogriff" from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

18. "This Magic Works" from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

19. "Brand New Day" from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

20. "Masquerade" from The Phantom of the Opera (movie version)

Memoir of a Cat Part 2

Read part one here!

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"It was the first night, and Sparta was still nervous and aloof. He missed his companion and his home. He had not yet grown accustomed to my roommates who immediately pounced on him because of his cute face and soft coat. It was the dead of night, but my sub consciousness had been waiting for a sound like the ear-splitting crash that suddenly erupted. Still immersed in darkness, I knew it could mean only one thing: Sparta had knocked over the unstable shelving unit that held my entire collection of snow globes. I flicked on the lights and found glitter, glass, and water all over the ugly carpet of my room. Sparta stood flat against the opposite wall looking scared and not in the least bit sorry. The thought dawned on me that I was in over my head and had never truly been a pet owner before. Was it always going to be like this? With tears in my eyes, my heart ached to have Piddy Paws there and not the Destroyer of Snow Globes as I picked up the large pieces of glass and soaked up the water. Vacuuming the glitter waited until morning.

The dead snow globes

            The next morning, I nearly started packing up Sparta’s belongings to drive him back to my mother’s house. It was not going to work out, I could see that now. He was too rambunctious, and I was feeling guilty for taking him away from his home in the first place. Yet, something stopped me as I watched him sleeping in my beanbag chair. Looking back, if I had taken him home, it would have been the worse decision I would have made.

            Due to the curiosity in his friend’s roommate’s cat, I met my boyfriend Stuart, who increasingly came over to our apartment to play with Sparta. We fell for each other and started dating, thanks to Sparta. Then three months later, Stuart graduated from Western Carolina University and moved to his hometown of Raleigh. We began a painful, lonely one-year long distance relationship. My constant companion and bright star through the entire year was Sparta. He kept me entertained, forced me to get out of bed in the morning, and gave me a living thing to hold at night. Even he knew what it meant when Stuart left, patrolling the apartment and meowing loudly as if looking for him.

Sparta fell in love with Stuart!

            During that time, I also hurt Sparta deeply. In desperation to constantly see Stuart, I often traveled to Raleigh, a five-hour trip from Cullowhee. Because of my few friends and scatter-brained roommates who would most likely kill a fish in a day, I usually dragged Sparta with me. For five hours, Sparta whined and cried down I-40 or settled in my lap between my stomach and the steering wheel wondering when he would never set his foot down on solid ground again. Two nights later, we made the same trip back to Cullowhee with me sobbing at least half an hour of the way after saying good bye to Stuart with Sparta’s pitiful whines in the background.

             After a semester of that, I transferred to UNC-Greensboro to be closer to Stuart. Sparta moved into my new home where there was another male cat and a Labrador retriever. The male cat, Mac, refused to let Sparta out his grasp. Constantly, Mac mounted Sparta and pinned him by biting his neck in his small jaws. It took only a week or two for me to break down in tears over the stress and misery Sparta experienced. I handed him over to Stuart one hour away in Raleigh, heartbroken, promising to bring him back after Mac was neutered. Even then, Mac still abused and tormented my cat. For the rest of the semester, Stuart cared for Sparta, and I spiraled into a deep and deadly bout of depression as I pined away for the cat that had never meant much to me back when Piddy Paws and I were growing up together. Now, I committed so many fouls against my beautiful pet whose personality had started to alter because of the stress of it all."

To be continued...

Two More Hours of 2011

New Year's Eve is never as exciting or awesome as you want it to be. Every year, I sit in front of the TV and watch the ball drop. Once, I tried champagne. That was gross! Every year, New Year's Eve just sucks.
It didn't suck last year. I was with Stuart. We were in Chester, South Carolina listening to a loud group of people drink and shout in the upstairs room at a Motel 6. We didn't care. We had Cheerwine in glass bottles, popcorn, and cable television. It was an awesome night! But not because it was New Year's Eve, but because it was the last night Stuart and I had to ourselves before the start of our long distance relationship.
This year, I'm sitting in Stuart's apartment alone watching the ball drop on a live web cast online while Stuart has been at work since 2 this afternoon and won't be home until after 1:30 a.m... if we're lucky.

I'm going to rain on someone's parade by saying this, but... New Year's Eve will never be as awesome as you want it to be!!! UNLESS... you're that dude that drops the cash on a hotel that you booked on January 3 the year of to be in Times Square on New Year's Eve to propose to your girlfriend on live TV and you absolutely know without a doubt that she's going to say yes, and you get to kiss your then fiance when the ball drops and the confetti flies. Yeah, that's as awesome as it's going to get. Those of us who have to move to Cullowhee tomorrow or can't afford to go to New York City sit in our living rooms drinking alcohol and hoping the new year doesn't suck as much as the last one.
Yeah, that's my take on New Year's Eve. It's another letdown. Like birthdays.
There's no alcohol here, none that I'm drinking anyway. Yet I feel drunk watching this Bret Easton Ellis adaptation starring a bunch of actors on the brink of being famous like Jessica Biel and Ian Somerhalder. You know Bret Easton Ellis. He's the guy who wrote American Psycho! Yeah, this movie is BIZARRE!!! I'm scared to keep watching. I've learned more about college and the perverse mind of college-aged people in the last hour than the two and a half years in actual college. It's gotten so weird that I've zoned out on the Internet and have no idea what's going on anymore.

Ryan Seacrest has taken to his Twitter. He's tweeting answers to fans about Rocking New Year's Eve. The Times Square 2012 Live web cast just announced this year's triangle theme on the ball. Apparently, it's Friendships, and the color scheme of 2012 is blue!!! Facebook is pretty calm though and the latest story on Just Jared.com is Nicole Kidman is spending New Year's Eve with her daughter. WOHOO!! Just found a much better web cast of the ball dropping! CBS is on UStream! Five years ago, I'd have been screwed! 
Now, I have two more hours to stay awake, according to the Toshiba countdown. I'm not quite sure what to do with myself. Eventually, I'm going to have put my laptop to sleep so it won't overheat and then I'm stuck with this Ellis film again.
No matter what you're doing, New Year's Eve is just another night. It's as over as soon as the clock strikes 12:01. For one minute, you get to feel awesome. Then, it's over. But, it's a night meant for reflection and promises of betterment. My 2012 resolution is to NOT MOVE!!! I shall move once this year, and that is all! Once I get to Cullowhee, my bags are staying unpacked.