"The public's thirst for vampires seems as endless as vampires' thirst for blood."

   It's the Middle Ages and you're in Europe, and you you're walking down the street when you look up to see a family wrapped in their cloaks, standing in front of their sizzling, black house that was burned to the ground the night before. Their melancholy faces hang to stare at their freshly packed luggage. It's apparent they have just lost their home, but you have no idea how the fire started. Your immediate thought is that a small fire went awry, feeling sorry for the young family, yet not wanting to get involved you continue on your way to the village. When you get there however, the talk of the town is incidentally about the fire, and not about how a their supper got too overcooked. You learn the real reason they had a fire was because (dun dun dun) they were vampires! Bad things don't just happen to good people, therefore they must be cursed. You decide you will stay away from them forever.
     Okay, so maybe this wasn't the exact thought process of Europe during that time, but it was close. The theory of vampires was brought to life in order to blame bad things happening to good people. If there was a sudden unexplainable death in one's family, it was because one of them had supernatural powers. (Do the Salem Witches ring a bell?) Naturally people terrorized it more and more and it became this huge phenomenon mixed with garlic, burning skin at the touch of sun, sucking blood, and coffins. Regardless of their lack of logic, you have to give them props on their imaginations.
   

halloween, the art of enchanting the soul

Halloween 1999

Halloween 2000

Nowadays, Halloween has a completely different meaning to me than it did when i was five. Back in the day, i would get so excited to get dolled up in my glamorous princess dresses (there was always a dress involved in everything i wore) and flaunt my practiced skill of "princess hand waving". You know, because princess's have different hand waves than the common person. It's more of a roll in the wrist than a sharp hand jerk from side to side. Princess's are elegant- and that is exactly what i wanted to be. A lady.    

      "Momma make me pretty!" She would curl my hair, paint my nails brilliantly red, and- if i was lucky- let me use a dab of her soft pink lipstick.


When i was five, the only statement i tried to make with my costumes was that i was a polite, beautiful princess (who maybe had magical powers, maybe not, depending on the day). In the first picture, i am hiding my teeth in a sweet smile, while clutching my sisters hands with mine. My 'Snow White' attire would most likely match Plato's definition of rhetoric: the "art of enchanting the soul". The sharp red, deep blue, and emerald gold of my attire suggest that i was royalty, a classy young woman who was a leader in the way she walked, talked, sang, cleaned, danced, and ate apples. This dress certainly mesmerized me. In the next picture, my brother and sister are sitting on rocks while i'm rocking the shot with my sassy hip pop and awkward wave. Again, our attires suggest our heroes, yet they also reflect our personalities. But that is the point of children's costumes; their only statements in appearance is to become something or someone you admire, even if it is for just one night.

      Flash forward and you get our Senior Year Halloween. My sister and i are still together in matching costumes, but we left our princess dresses at home. My friends and i went to our halloween party as The Pink Ladies from the movie Grease. Obviously the spandex is a little tighter than my flowy princess dresses, and sure- our shirts are just a little lower than they used to be. If you were to ask Francis Bacon, he would say rhetoric "is to apply reason to imagination for the better moving of the will." The reason we thought the Pink Ladies would be an appropriate option because we are senior ladies at the high school, all blonde and outgoing, energetic and pretty, but we also are really close. Our costumes reflect our imaginations and personalities (loud, crazy, and dramatic) as well as how we view each other- as a group. The shiny, pink, awesome jackets suggest that we like to have fun and are ready for a good time. As for the spandex.... well there isn't really a plausible explanation for that one. Let's be honest, it's just what everu girl wears nowadays. The point is, now we don't dress up to our aspirations; we pick a reason for our costumes (a cute group idea) and use our imagination (the Pink Ladies....perfect!) to turn it into something great. Back then there was more meaning behind it... now we just throw something on to dance in for a night.

Halloween 2012

eyes

     Over the weekend i went on an STLF tour to do service work with thirty other high school students from the Twin Cities area. Not only was it an eye opener to the difference kids like us could make on someone else's life and the environment, but i also learned so much about people and how they interact. Every night in each city we did an activity to connect the group as a whole and "bond" us together so we could relate to each other more. The second night they had us all line up in a circle. Our leaders then broke us up into two groups- one large circle, and one circle in between that circle. We were told to face each other (inner circle looking out, outer circle looking in) and stare into each others eyes. If we made any noise we would have to close our eyes. I was in the inner circle, and i turned to face my partner: a tall, handsome boy with dark hair named Blake, who i had learned earlier was a junior at Eagan High School. At first I didn't understand what they wanted us to gain from this activity. Not only was it completely random, but i soon found it impossible to do. Within seconds of us gazing into each others eyes there was an immediate laughter coming from half of the circle. I myself tried not to laugh, but was unsuccessful. Our leader told us to close our eyes. We did. "Reopen" she said.
     Again- instant laughter. Close your eyes. Open. Laugh. It took many times for us to do it right- and even then it could only last a minute or two. During those minutes, i found it to be very awkward. I was looking up at Blake, his eyes staring down at me. The corners of our mouths were pulled up into tight smiles, hiding the imminent giggles behind them. I would glance at the floor for a second, look up. He would look behind me a couple times, then meet my stare. We were told to switch partners. Again and again we did this with different people. Our eyes closed and reopened too many times to count. And with everybody it was the same- awkward. So awkward.
     Why is it uncomfortable to stare into someone's eyes? We do it everyday when we hold conversations. We can look into the eyes of our loved ones, best friends, companions. Don't i look people in the eyes when i talk to them? Yes... briefly. More often than not I am aren't completely focused on that person for more than a couple seconds...minutes even. Staring into someone's eyes is so intimate and the activity made us uncomfortable. But why? Do we not take enough time to look at people when we talk to them?
     When these people were looking into my own eyes, i felt exposed. I was left with no guard, almost like they were staring freely into my soul. I know that is over dramatic- but that is what it felt like. It felt like they were sharing a part of them to me without even saying a word, and i to them. It was belittling and that's why i looked down at the floor. So is that why we have trouble keeping our cool? Is it awkward for us to share ourselves with others like that? Is it that we don't want to? Is it because we don't want these people to know what's inside of us? Why can't we simply stare into each others eyes for minutes, with no awkwardness?
  

"let that be a lesson to you kids out there: Aim lower!"

I love Ellen Dejeneres.
"let that be a lesson to you kids out there: aim lower!"
"unless you're british, then you know you have a pretty great shot."
"People love it when you come from the Bronx."
All of these are hilarious because she does what comedians do, she points out things that are true and states it in an ironic, sarcastic way. Sarcasm is the key to her speech.
The ending is the best. "I don't have a joke i just thought the ladies would want to look at him for a second." It's funny because he is a heartthrob and she acknowledges that by saying it flat out.

discontent and desperation

The uniform she wears suggests she has power. Dressing in a crisp white-collared t-shirt and black suede pants, finished with a walkie-talkie connected to her hip and a golden badge on her left breast, she could very well have the appearance of supremacy and triumph. But it's contradicted with her slouching stance, the dark circles under her eyes focused on the floor, and her hair that looks like it was once died chestnut brown but has since been faded to grey, forgotten. Her pink round cheeks match her round stomach- it sinks over her belt unattractively. She leans against the window of the Apple store and stares straight ahead into the distance, as though she is pondering a troubling thought but not looking at anything specifically. She is bored. Her foot taps the floor and I wonder to myself if this was the job she signed up for. Her eyes dart to a sharp distant noise in the atrium of Ridgedale, but it is just two kids playing, one running after the other. She turns her eyes back to the floor and her foot picks up it's rhythm once again.