Haunt

The local amusement park has a Halloween event every October called Haunt.  They set up various Halloween decorations and several haunted houses/spooky walk through areas and hire high school kids to dress up as evil clowns, undead cowboys, etc. to jump out at you.  My favorite this year was the Unsettling Cymbal Monkey, a full-grown adult human in a monkey costume who would sneak up behind unsuspecting people and crash his cymbals in an unsettling manner.

Things that happened at Haunt this weekend:

1. Jump scares aplenty.  Going through one haunted house, we had to exit the building and re-enter, but we didn’t know there was a second part.  So, passing through the exterior part, Friend 1 wondered aloud “Is this it?”  To which a jump scare vampire sprang forth and said “It is for you!”  Friend 1 screamed and we laughed at him, because laughing at your friend’s discomfort is awesome.
2. More (ineffective)  jump scares:  going through a London-themed spooky walk through area, the jump scare Londoners (because what’s scarier than a British person, I guess) kept focusing on me.  I don’t know why.  The problem was that my reaction 9 times out of 10 to the jump scares is “Okay.”  The tenth time it’s “Yeah.”  It’s not that I’m super cool and not afraid of things, it’s that I know these are actors and they’re not allowed to touch me, so it doesn’t make me jump because I expect to be startled.  Yes, Werewolves of London, I know you’re there.  Okay.  Yeah.  Okay.
3. Friend 2 was singing a song from Sweeney Todd as we started the above area.  One of the Londoners asked why he was singing, so we asked why she didn’t want him to.  She said his singing was terrible (it wasn’t), but we refrained from telling her it was way better than her accent (it was).
4. After riding the train, Friend 1 asked Friend 2 to take his picture in the fog from a nearby smoke machine.  An undead cowboy sidled up to attempt a jump scare or possible photobomb.  We all noticed him but didn’t say anything.  Friend 1 then looked at the picture and said  “I just look like a guy who’s barbecueing.”  Undead cowboy laughed and walked off.  Thinking that was it for jump scares in that area, we turned to leave, and a completely different undead cowboy jumped in my face and made a noise like “Whaa!”  I laughed and said “Yeah.”  Another failed jump scare.
5. I screamed like a small child on the super tall coaster, but somehow in the picture at the end I was smiling...that was not the expression I thought I had when we went past the camera.  I didn’t scream on the super fast wooden roller coaster, because I was too busy being mystified.  “Why are we going this way?  What the hell?  Now we’re going this other way.  What?!?”  That is a thing that happened because I roller coaster wrong.
6. Friend 2 managed to lean forward and pretend to strangle Friend 1 as they passed the camera on the super tall coaster, to the general amusement of the people looking for their own pictures after the ride.  He did this without losing his hat.  Impressive.
7. There was literally a garbage can full of powdered sugar at the funnel cake booth.  I couldn’t get a picture but I swear, it was a garbage can, and it was full of powdered sugar.
8. Crab fries.  It sounds like it might be awesome until you find out it’s just regular fries covered in Old Bay seasoning.  Then it just becomes sad.
9. On the way there I had to stop and buy gloves (it was cold) and discovered that Juicy Fruit is now available in bubble gum form.  This made me inordinately happy.
10. Finally, this video happened:

And then we went to IHOP, because 1am is waffle time.