Hallo-wrapup.

I am 99% sure that even if Widget wants to go trick or treating next year, I will not be going. Most years there is a smidge of magic to be found for me but this year? Nothing. I was trailing three kids, only one of whom I knew, in an unfamiliar neighborhood and we stumbled onto this pair of streets that really was something out of a Hollywood production. Just about every house was either lit up or had some neighbor out with a bowl of candy, and there was a sidewalk and... it was weird. Charleston isn't known for sidewalks, k? So that alone kind of set me back. The houses were all pretty new (I think) and it just looked very "this is what a neighborhood is supposed to look like" planned. Some other parent/guardian muttered to their adult cohort that when they were a kid you had to ring the bell or knock on the door but everyone on this street was either out at the street already with a bowl of candy, or out on their porch. I think once we left the townhouses the kids knocked on the door maybe three times and only one of those was on this street of doom.

There were two bonfires, one of which was a "roast marshmallows!" type. I still do not know what this other fire was for. Looks like there was a bit of a block party or something that we either missed or were too early for? I dunno. It was all very weird and very, very crowded.

One of the girls I took out with Widget would stop and pet every dog we came across, which sounds adorable, but when you've got another little girl practically sprinting to the next house and a boy halfway after the sprinter, you really want to ask her to pick up the pace just a tad. Which is funny because when we first started out, she and the other girl would leave Widget in the dust, with Sprinter telling the other to wait for Widget.

Non!Sprinter's mother is odd and I'm not really sure I can identify the reason why I think this. Something about her is off and not in an "I like your oddity!" way.

I'm not sure if I kept the kids out too long (Widget and I made it home at 8:04) but I did make sure Sprinter made it to her door and Widget made sure N!S made it home. After the count was done, Widget had 203 pieces of candy. I'm pretty sure N!S and Sprinter had more because they hit a couple of houses I'm sure Widget didn't AND N!S didn't seem to understand that when there was a bowl, you didn't raid it completely.

My little trio was a peacock, a witch, and a basketball player. They were dying of thirst by the end because this is the only time in history we didn't run into anyone handing out drinks. Weird. Bonfires but no drinks. o_O


There was also this weird guy wandering around, in red and white robes, without a kid and offering to bless houses. I couldn't figure out if he was serious or if I just didn't get the joke or what. Apparently he didn't make it down to our house though.


Also: I think that our house was the only one to truly go all out for Halloween. Pictures when I'm not falling asleep. Which reminds me, I need to go finish the AG story.

I hope your Halloween was/is happy and that you got a treat you love. :) I wound up with a Heath bar (no sugar babies! D: ) and an additional glowstick in necklace form.

Oh, and I saw a girl trick or treating as Abbey Bominable.

Sleepy, all errors will be corrected later

The tale of AG Went On Down to GA begins Tuesday evening around 6:15. Cass and Matt arrive and we drive off down the highway to the lovely sounds of Matt explaining to whomever was on the other end of the phone that he would not only be working the following day (AG day) but he would also be working the weekend he was previously supposed to be off because... he was giving all three days to the same co-worker. Aside from wanting the money, I never did understand the logic of this, but I assumed it was mostly "don't wanna go to girlie town and want money."
Cass immediately begins to flip her shit because "Do they know it's your anniversary?!"
Cass ain't thrilled because it's a five hour drive to Alpharetta which is where the mall with the AG store attached and she doesn't wanna drive the whole way. (Spoiler: she doesn't.) Wake up time is set to be 6:15AM so we can get to Matt's job for him to check the tires before we head off.
Sadly, by the time we do get out on the road and take Matt in, 5-26 is backed up for a mile or so... and thus we end up at the Target for sunglasses. Instead Cass walks out with the new Skylanders game and the Halloween figure.
And back to the road we go! I'll spare you the play by play, but we did have a near banjo moment in Orangeburg where we turned off on an exit looking for... something? Gas station, probably, and instead found buzzards and dogs criss-crossing the road. Meep!
Breakfast at Bojangles where I swear the couple across the restaraunt from me couldn't have been more than 16 (and that was pushing it) but they were driving so... and she, of course, was the one driving the huge ass pickup. For the sake of the story, I will say that he put something that looked an awful lot like a gun case in the back of her truck... and away the lovebirds went.
On the road again... We introduced z to the wonders of Cheerwine and Faygo sodas and I finally got my Barq's Rootbeer.

Back on the road...til we hit the rest stop that Cass decided would be the perfect place to give z a crash course in stick shift driving. As that is really her story to tell, I will say nothing more than this: If Cass offers you the same thing, make sure she puts the car in reverse, okay? Otherwise z drove very well and never once did I have to employ the "Oh Jesus!" handles. The same was not said for Cass when turning onto or off of exits. *cough*

The Original Plan was to hit the store mid-week and before school let out to avoid the school children, because I'm gonna let you in on a secret: little girls who can afford AG dolls as kids? They're brats. :P But naturally we didn't roll into town until 3 in the afternoon and... children. Not swarming or anything, but children. Also, the traffic was already impossible. Remember that bit about the traffic, k?

Cass wanted to see about getting Destiny's hair styled. Destiny is #11 and has pretty straight hair. Originally she'd planned on getting Kanani's hair fixed but I did that free of charge. (And I think I did a fairly good job, considering the kitten was helping.) I also warned her that the doll hair salon thing is like, eleven jillion dollars. I wanna say that a plain ponytail is $10? It's ridiculous no matter what it actually is.
She also wanted the dolly weave for her dolls. She has Sonali, Destiny, and Kanani. Sonali and D both have black hair. You'll notice black is not an option. Which I also warned her about, though I did admit that it was possible "dark brown" would be close enough since the only doll with black hair I saw it near was Addy and her hair is an entirely different thing sooooo...

( Bathroom! )

And then we entered the store proper like. And ran into Saige's balloon, which z ultimately decided the cats did not need. I can't really say much about the store and the layout other than Molly was only in smaller displays because she's on the way out. Why cannot I say much?

Because about four minutes into me trying to decide whether Saige's awesome eyes and freckles, plus possibly the wig (all that pink really does create a horrible orange lighting problem!) were enough to overcome the part where she looked "soulless" in person, Cass comes storming over, fuming that a) the hair salon is expensive as hell and that they don't have dolly weave in black.

I'm gonna redirect you to the part where I Told You So. I tried not to say it in so many words but what part of "expensive as hell and the doll weave doesn't come in black" was not clear? So... I try and soothe her because all is not lost! They only had four colors on display and look, the lady at the salon told you exactly how to recreate your favorite hair style, free of charge! There is bound to be something in this vast expanse of pink and stars that was worth a five hour drive, mmkay? So let us find that, all right?

Yeaaaaah, other than agreeing that Saige was somehow not as good in execution as she was in theory, things went further south. I split my time between keeping an eye on Cass who seemed to very much want to Leave Now and z who was incredibly good at disappearing despite having very stand out hair.

I started to panic a bit because I'd actually come in to pick out Saige for a couple of reasons.
1) Twinses with z! Only... z no want Saige and I figured her eyes weren't a good enough reason to buy her.
2) I thought maybe picking out a classic mold doll would make me love her more than "surprise, your least favorite mold is here!" delivery.

With Saige off the table, I... didn't know who to get. Despite wanting Molly and knowing she was my backup. I think I kept forgetting about Molly because her displays were really, really small and unlike some of the other smaller displays, they weren't super dynamic either.

( Unlike Ivy's display which was pretty sweet. )

Afterwards I found out that z was also in panic mode only she was at least productive while I floated from one end of the store to the other, sorta, observing things like a little girl with her mother in front of the Julie display:
"Look, I had that exact same outfit when I was your age."
"Wait, you guys seriously wore stuff like this? "
"Seriously."

And the family who came specifically to see Caroline's holiday outfit (which is why I don't think I have a picture of it. I meant to come back once they were done but then Cass kept her "We need to hurry up now!" thing and I couldn't remember what I'd photographed already.

And then there was the woman who bitched about how expensive everything was and the poor salesgirl (this was the only part I got to hear) had to roll out the "we stand by our quality products, ma'am" speech. Yes, this stuff is overpriced but you know who can't do anything about it? Store associates, that's who.


So... it was a little rushed (so we could go and just sit in the mall. WTF) but I learned a few things. One, Ivy is cute as hell. Wait, I knew that. Well, there's the incredibly weird Caroline conundrum. On the one hand, she's pale as pale can be and the white blond hair isn't doing her any favors... and yet I liked a few of them. I also thought a few of them would tear out my heart and feast on it so... she's definitely a hit or miss. When she's good, she's very, very good, and when she's bad, she's the stuff of nightmares.

Picture time!
( Picture Heavy. Seriously. )