Halloween Junk

Plastic stuff from China all over my kitchen island is what I found Sunday morning after spending the wee hours hunched over the toilet. Regretting the velveeta and ground beef dip, the cherries covered first in a layer of coconut and crushed walnuts then coated with chocolate; definitely regretting the candy corn.

The evening started innocently enough. I had the normal Halloween day of running around frantically buying the last touches for the costumes. The clip to make the bow a hair accessory, the knee socks, a thimble so we could finish retrofitting an adult double-blaster-holster so Will could be authentic in his Jango Fett-ness. We ended up only being a couple of minutes late to the party and all was well. I did, however give myself a black eye early in the evening when my cell phone rang and I smacked myself in the head trying to answer it.

I gave myself permission to eat whatever I wanted Saturday night. I normally eat pretty healthy. No hydrogenated oils at my house, no conventional apples or potatoes. You won't find macoroni and cheese, canned tomatoes, beef or anything that goes from a box to the dinner table. I endulged. I ate con queso dip and sour cream dip and candy, candy, candy. I did break from the junk long enough to eat a bowl of vegetable soup along with 2 slices of a French baguette. Then I went to bed. I woke up at 4:30 a.m. rushing to the bathroom.

I finally stopped around 6:00 a.m. then slept a little before coming downstairs to the aftermath. Just like the junk food that poisoned my digestive system, the toys were crowding my normally neat kitchen island. The piece of plastic with the circles and the hole in the middle and you try to get the tiny bee bee into the center hole. The stick with the paper wound round and round it and then you fling it at someone and make them flinch. I also found spider rings and plastic skeletons and all of it went in the bag I keep for my mom's classroom. I recycle what I can but these plastic odds and ends, the toys from McDonald's, the stuff the kids bring home with them after a birthday party, these cannot be recycled. I try to make sure these things get reused by giving them to my mom to use as prizes in her classroom. She often has students who don't get a lot in the way of material things and to them these plastic pieces are treasures. I know it will end up in the landfill eventually but at least I put it off a little while.

Of course this is coming from the same woman who stripped at least $20 worth of reworked rubber and plastic off of her son when he couldn't even walk because of all the gear he had to have, which of course we had to buy!

Let's go on a diet. I challenge parents to give consumable products as favors at parties, or just a smile and a, "thanks for coming!". We are overstuffing our mouths and our homes barely leaving room for our lives and as long as our existence thrives on things this will be our fate. Obese people in over-stuffed houses scooting to work, then the shopping center and finally the restaurant.

Don't even get me started on shopping for a costume with a 13-year-old girl!