Would You Like to Know Your Fortune, Little Girl?

I have been saving this post for a time when I could get ahold of the pictures that go with it, so enjoy this Halloween throwback: 

           I am petrified of Haunted Houses.  I am a Social Mentor, and one of our events is taking the freshmen to a Haunted House.  Every year I stand at the very back of the line for the bus in the hopes that there won’t be enough room for me to go (I love Social Mentors, but I cannot handle Haunted Houses), and it finally worked this year!  In past years I have had to go through the entire event with my face buried in someone’s back, which is just asking for your legs to be fake chain sawed.  But since I did not have to go to the event, I thought that I had dodged my haunted house bullet for this year.  Not the case.    

Our community center always hosts a Safe Trick-or-Treat event for families in the neighborhood, and the event includes booths with games and prizes as well as a haunted house populated with student volunteers.  Without asking me first and only three days before the event, my roommate Samantha signed up our RAKERS club to host a room in the Haunted House this year, foiling me in my attempt to avoid haunted houses.  But I figured I’d give it a try.  After debating possible themes for our room, we decided on a mishmash of literary characters, house of wax statues, and a creepy fortune teller/voodoo woman who would do most of the talking.  I, who hate haunted houses, was to be the fortune teller.  Let’s remember that I am also short and not at all scary-looking, so I had no idea how I was going to frighten anybody. 

            But frighten people I did.  After a few rounds of being unable to contain my giggles at the thought of me being scary and the sight of my friend Isy (dressed as Poe) carrying a raven and asking people in a creepy voice if they wanted to pet his bird, I finally hit my stride.  I was waving my arms around in the strobe lights and telling dark fortunes right and left.  By the end of the night I was even able to join Samantha in shrieking “STAY, STAY WITH US!!” at frightened kids (terrible, I know) without worrying that my voice was too Minnie Mouseish to be scary.  Who knew I had it in me?  But we made one heck of a room, and even though I hate haunted houses I love Halloween, so getting into the spirit by embracing my inner fortune teller/voodoo woman made this my favorite Halloween experience at Rockhurst.