Til we forget

I was away for the weekend and I'm finding it hard to get back in the swing of things. A bunch of us girlfriends from high school met for a weekend in Cleveland--we stayed in a hotel and drank fancy cocktails and went out to dinner and stayed up too late looking at old pictures and talking about everything under the sun. We've been out of school for almost 14 years, but when our gang gets together it's like we haven't missed a day. It was a perfectly lovely weekend, and it was exactly what I've been needing. We all left our children and dogs and husbands and jobs behind for a few days and were just girls again, and there's nothing quite as special as that.

We had trick or treating here on Thursday night, which I will never understand. I have no idea why Meadville does it that way, as it makes no sense to me. We were in the grocery store tonight and they didn't even have Halloween candy out anymore. Seriously. I heard it was because they give the kids off the Friday then, and Saturday is the big Halloween parade. But if that's the case, just keep the parade on Saturday and give the kids November 1st off. I mean, I have my pumpkins on the porch still, and I feel like a neighborhood outcast.

But anyway, Mike took Evan out around our neighborhood, and he had a fabulous time. He got more than enough candy from that and his school party, and he was very pleased with himself and his king costume. Grady was happy to give out candy and chase the neighbor's cat around the yard. Unfortunately, we had to close up shop halfway through the trick or treating time because I had grossly underestimated the amount of candy we would need. Oops. Well, we know for next year that every kid in the greater Meadville area comes to our neighborhood. Especially the older kids with facial hair who don't even bother to dress up.

I'm really bummed about the cider mill burning down. My dad likes to tell stories of how it was when he was a kid--just the owner and a barrel with a hose in it, and you brought your own glass jug for him to fill. When I was little, we'd save a plastic gallon milk jug to take to Fuhrman's and the ladies behind the counter would fill it from a tap on the wall. Now you have to buy their jugs and the cider is pasteurized, but it was still nice to go there in the fall for some fresh cider. I hope the owners decide to rebuild, because it truly is an Erie landmark.