Cowabunga ?

 

I met Mark in April of 1997, I didn't get to know him as well as maybe I should have before he moved in with me. It was June and the stormiest month in South Florida. Mark's apartment building got hit by lightning and his apartment became unlivable. It blew out all the electricity leaving no lights, no air conditioning, and no way to cook the great meals he had been luring me with. So I suggested he move in with me. It took me about six months to figure out a lot of things that I should have known before hand. Like the fact that Mark liked to shop. He had taken over the redecorating of my house and we spent about two months shopping for a dining room table. It had to be perfect for him, and cheap for me. This sort of thing went on again and again for twenty three plus years. Mark also loved holidays. Christmas became a nightmare for me. Mark would make it a very beautiful holiday that Dickens or Clement Moore would love, but a nightmare for me. Mostly because I did all the grunt work while Mark was the overseer. But this story is actually about our first Halloween together. I did not know how seriously Mark took Halloween. It meant nothing to me, but Mark insisted we have costumes and go out on Halloween. During one of Mark's shopping safaris he had found giant rubber Simpson's heads. One of Homer and one of Bart Simpson. These were to be the basis of our Halloween costumes. So on that evening we dressed as the cartoon characters, and slipped the giant rubber heads on. I don't know why, but we drove through Wilton Manors, Florida in Mark's little red Miata, with the top down, wearing those giant rubber heads. This was seriously dangerous. I couldn't see anything but straight ahead. Not only that, it was probably eighty degrees with ninety percent humidity and my head was inside a giant rubber Homer Simpson head. I was sweating profusely, I couldn't see where the hell I was going, but Mark was having a great time. I definitely was not. Not until I took off the giant rubber head, cooled down, and had my first vodka cocktail.

Over the many years, Mark continued to dress in some really great costumes every Halloween. I never dressed up in costume again...  Oh sure, Alexis and Alicia. But those girls stayed home and hated Halloween too.