Halloween - The College Years

I may have moved to college and no longer have a house to work with on Halloween, but that's not stopping me.

The residence halls at my college planned on having trick-or-treaters go through on Halloween, and from what I could tell, the majority of the 24 dorms on campus were involved. Our complex was having a contest to see who could decorate the best floor, and a budget of $40 was given to each.

Even though our  floor pulled everything together at the last minute, it was impressive. A few cobwebs, plastic, and colored poster paper to cover the fluorescent hallway lights can go a long way. Add loud obnoxious Halloween music, a couple of dummies, and people roaming in costume, and you have the mood to scare trick-or-treaters.

I created a mad scientists' lab in my dorm room, and was able to convince a friend down the hall to be the guy on the operating table. As the trick-or-treaters or judges would walk by the room, there would be some kind of struggle between me and the  monster on the table. I'd eventually be thrown aside, and the monster would get up, run into the hall, and chase after the trick-or-treaters, me following all of them with the bloody knife.

However, no trick-or-treaters showed up, so we just wound up going through our own residence hall trading candy. Our floor ended up getting second place out of 12 in the contest.

I also think I scared a few of the people in the dorm that didn't know me very well. I got a lot of weird stares since I was wandering around through the complex in costume that evening, carrying a bloody knife.

Above: Operating table scene.

Pumpkin Bowling

I'm not sure who originally came up with this idea, but it was probably Dave and/or Adrian. The goal is to take a pumpkin and roll it to another person about 10 feet away down the hall. If it reaches them and doesn't break, you take a step back.  Eventually, it ends up being rolled most of the way down the hall. You keep going until you reach the end of the hall or the pumpkin breaks.

The pumpkins roll surprisingly far and fast. The main danger is the pumpkin hitting the corner of a doorway or bouncing too high as it rolls.  When they do eventually break, they can often be duck taped back together, and the game can resume for another round or two.  Also it is generally a good idea to do this when your RA is not on the floor.  :)

Dave, Adrian, and Josh. Pumpkin bowling.

Above: The pumpkin broke JUST as the RA from another floor was making her rounds.  She was pissed.