Of the Desert, and the start of Persona Week at Casa De Strublay

Theme Music for this post: The Nightmare on Elm Street Theme

I think everyone imagines Halloween in the Eastern US, with creepy wooded areas, but I grew up with a desert Halloween. I lived on a house on N. Elm Drive, so during Halloween my mom and I would joke that it was the Nightmare on N. Elm Dr. Thus the music. I'm telling you that place was Haunted.

Found on Flickr, Image by Antydiluvian

The desert is creepy in its own way, with sandstone making odd formations and twilight playing on the scant few trees and twiggy bushes. 

Bats flew everywhere at twilight, and once when I was little, a bat swooped down and picked off a bug mere inches from my face, I felt the wind of the wings as they flapped past me. My Mom FREAKED, I was laughing and ducking. I didn't want to hit the bat and hurt it. 

Found on Flickr, Image by Sandman

Storms in the desert are a different kind of animal. Torrential downpours, flooding, lightning and a LOT of wind. Once a storm came rolling over my house, and lightning struck the ground about 10 feet from my house. The sound was deafening, I felt the heat through the walls and windows, I watched the bolt hit the ground, the beating of voltage varying the light by tiny tiny amounts, and then it was gone. Being so close to such power is frightening and awesome (in the dictionary definition). 

The smell of Desert Rain, if bottled, I would wear all the time, or if it came in incense/candle/fragrance oil form would be used during my haunt this year.  

Found on Flickr, Image by missbeanie

This image is actually something I looked for very specifically. When I was in 3rd and 4th grade, our classes made hiking trips to the Grand Canyon, to prepare we used to hike at a component of Montezuma's Castle National Monument, Montezuma's Well. At these sites there are pronounced cliff dwellings that were built by the Sinagua People over 1000 years ago. It was one of the first four National Monuments dedicated by Teddy Rosevelt in 1906.

They look creepy in the morning, the darkness of the cliffs overtake the dwellings, and you can only see the outlines of the buildings. The windows are dark and murky, so you can never see whats inside the buildings.

I always liked to suppose they were haunted.

When I think about Theory and Practice my main principle is don't be something you're not. A one bedroom condo can't be a castle. So this year I'm embracing that principle whole heartedly. 

This week is Persona Week at Casa De Strublay, thus I'm focusing on my character this week, creating the costume, writing her back-story, figuring out her methodology and answering questions such as: "What would she burn in her incense censers?" 

This'll be a fun week.