7 Quick Takes about the Trick Part of Trick-or-Treat, Trying Not to Anthropomorphize, and Reading in Spanish

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week? 

—1—

This year for Halloween, my 14-year-old decided to get serious about trick-or-treating and brought home 467 pieces of candy.

Yes, you read that right. She organized her hoard into 5 separate gallon-sized Ziploc bags by category: chocolate and peanut butter, regular chocolate, fruity candy, gummies, and snacks like little bags of pretzels or chips. Our kitchen counter looks like the candy aisle of a Kroger.

I have noticed, however, that with the cocoa shortages and tariffs and general inflation, fun-sized candy bars are getting slightly smaller. I often see articles like "Why Gen Z Won't Make More Than Previous Generations," which made me think of a really good headline for The Onion: "Today's Trick-or-Treaters Have to Work Harder Than Their Parents."

It's rough out there.

—2—

On Halloween, the kids in our family all went their separate ways and did their own things.

The 14-year-old had a themed costume with her friends. They had cowboy boots and hats, but they also wore cow footie pajamas with tails, so they were either cowgirls or girl cows. I think you might have to be 14 to completely get it.

The 11-year-old joined a neighbor friend and went as a mad scientist (we've definitely gotten our money's worth out of these costume steampunk goggles) and my 9-year-old went with a different friend group as a duck.

And the 17-year-old totaled the car.

Everyone was okay, except the car of course.

Most importantly, everybody in both cars involved was completely okay. My son was driving his sister to her friend's house for trick-or-treating when the teenagers in front of him slammed on the brakes. My son couldn't stop fast enough and plowed into them. 

Yes, he hit a BMW. I don't want to talk about it.

The front of the car did exactly what it's supposed to do and crumpled to absorb all the impact so neither of them were hurt. And it was another random small blessing that just after I got there, my ministering sister from church happened to drive past and ended up taking my daughter to her Halloween party so she wasn't even that late.

—3—

So all of a sudden, there's no vehicle for my son to drive himself to school or work or anywhere else. Not only that, but he also can't help out by driving his siblings to their activities, either, which I've really come to depend on.

But I can't exactly complain about how hard my life is without a third car. Like, boo-hoo, why don't I just get on my yacht and have a good cry about it? We have a lot to be thankful for.

It's logistically complicated, but we're figuring it out one day at a time. For now, my kids who need rides are — as the lady who interrupts your hold music says — currently experiencing longer wait times than normal. 

—4—

The accident happened on Friday evening, and in the chaos both kids left their backpacks in the car when it was towed to the towyard, which is closed on weekends. So they both had to go to school with nothing on Monday until I could get over there to retrieve their stuff.

After it opened I went over and got the backpacks, took everything out of the glove compartment and the trunk, and searched under the seats for library books and water bottles. And then I took one last look at our smashed little car (why, oh why do the headlights have to look like sad eyes??) and left it there.

For the rest of the week, I got a little misty-eyed every time I passed a double-decker trailer full of totaled cars on the freeway.

—5—

My 17-year-old has been working really hard on his college essays. He's been making daily and weekly goals to stay on track and get everything done in time for one school's early decision date, but he told me, "I hate self-imposed deadlines. Because I know the guy who set it, and he has no idea what he's doing!"

So far, though, he's in pretty good shape. When they were his age, both of his older sisters stayed home from school frantically finishing their essays on the day their applications were due.

—6—

After almost 5 years of learning Spanish, I'm still not sure that I'm much better at conversation (to be fair, I'm a below-average English conversationalist, too) but my reading skills have definitely improved.

The first book in Spanish I read was a translation of a kids' graphic novel, then I graduated to a translation of a book from the YA section. And now I've just started my first adult novel!

Not a translation, it's originally written in Spanish so the grammar is really challenging.

Look at how thick this novel is! This is the real thing. It takes me half an hour to read 3-5 pages, so assuming that speed I'll owe $50 million in library late fees by the time I finish.

—7—

I've also been lifting weights with Kaleigh Cohen on YouTube since April, and not only am I proud to say I've put on 10 lbs of solid muscle and I can do squats holding a cinder block, it's actually functional (because how often do most people really need to squat cinder blocks?) 

This week I did a reorganization project that required moving around heavy boxes for an hour, and I felt NOTHING in my back afterward. In fact, I wasn't sore anywhere, at all. A year ago, just thinking about doing a project like that would have made my back hurt.

On a related note, here's an inspirational meme I saw on Facebook that made me laugh:

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