Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Missing the US

So two things happened in the States this week that Brad and I are not able to take part of. The first is daylight savings time. The second is...duh duh duh...Halloween.

Countries can decide whether or not to participate in Daylight Savings Time. Not only that, but they choose the days of the year to move their clocks ahead or behind. India doesn't change their clocks. (Read more at Wikipedia, if you're so inclined.) This means that 1) we are now 10 1/2 hours ahead of New York and 2) we didn't get an extra hour of sleep on Saturday night. And as the rooster just outside of our hotel room in Chennai started very early, and the frog went on and on for the rest of the night and the trains like sounding their horns all hours of the day, we could have used that extra hour of sleep!

Halloween is not celebrated here, which is a bit of a bummer. However, I have gone to the store and bought candy bars. I watched my yearly viewing of The Nightmare Before Christmas. If you have not seen this movie, it is a must. The animation is amazing, the music is inspired and the story always warms my heart. Basic plot: Jack Skellington, the King of Halloween, becomes fed up with the ease of the holiday. When he discovers Christmas, he hijacks it in an attempt to broaden his horizons. Simply extraordinary. We also bought candy for Shyla and made her go to the front door, ring our bell and say "trick or treat!" I don't think she entirely understood, but hey, good times!

So we ask you today, while you're revelling in the joy of being rested from the weekend, to do a little bit of trick or treating for us. Go to that extra house. Jump out at a little child and scare the crap out of them. Egg the house of someone that you know we wouldn't like. In short, make this Halloween one to remember. Oh, and take pictures.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Just a quick note as I am trying to make up for lost blogs...Caylyn did not have to be admitted after all, the prayers to keep her safe have paid off and she was able to reschedule her Chemo treatment for next tuesday along with a lumbar puncture, perhaps that is their bonus program for getting to receive mega amounts of candy from well wishers! She appears to feel fine though her AGC levels are at an all time cancer low, onlt 66, whereas we need to be at over 500 to even be in the hospital. That being said, I dressed her like alice in wonderland and Evan went out as Tinky winky the purple teletubbie and they had a ball!! Evan's rendition of trick or treat sounds more like "tickle ginger beets" so maybe Shyla could see if that rolls off her tongue any better than the original. He has masterd the word candy and Caylyn can even sign it while she is poked full in the cheeks and asking for more! Enjoy the day and you are more than welcome to my "fall back" hour, I simply detest daylight savings time!!