Catching up after a klusterfuk PT. 1 October

Welcome to 2021!

Before I give my welcome to 2021 let me give a summary of the last quarter of the most glorious 2020, a year that will forever live in infamy. Starting with Halloween 2020...

#Waldo2020

The Weekend Before

Like most extroverted people I enjoy taking part in the acted murder mystery, you know the ones that tend to revolve around a dinner with minimal acting. Most people just like the idea and don't really go out of their way to participate much less host one. A few Halloweens ago my wife and I attended one that was hosted at a 1:1 replica of the Muster's Manor. The building was great to tour, the owners went out of their way to make the building perfect, you can see the depth of their passion for "The Munsters". It probably exceeds my love for Scooby-Doo and that is saying a great deal! When I dig up pictures from that trip I will share them, now is not that time. The key to this tangent it that I had no idea what was going on with the murder mystery, I missed the briefing and was unaware of what was going on, I was never given any guidelines are instructions. There was a breakdown in communication. This experience motivated me to host a murder mystery event of my own.

I began my treacherous journey into the interwebs in search of needed material to host such an event, the year before Jaclyn hosted one at our house providing me the motivation to host this style of party. After peaking through the many websites offering mystery packages I stumbled upon Host Party I signed up and browsed the many, many themes, what kind of theme do so many people enjoy pretending to be? Hmmmm...how about famous? Naaa...that can be expensive, not only would the participants need to dress up all fancy, I would need to attempt to make my home fancy. Pass...dress down. Affordable and comfortable. How about trailer park? The stereotypical trashy trailer park. Fuck yeah! People LOVE that. How many times have you heard the random non-aggressive comments about something being "trashy"? I mean one of the cooler places my wife has dragged me clothes shopping for her is a place called "Trashy Diva" in NOLA, shout out to NOLA!

I send out the invites and get bites, it's on. The planning begins...

1) Cheap alcohol.

2) Cheap food.

3) Trashy outfit.

4) Mullet.

5) Drunk Punch

6) Jello Shots

7) Trailer Trash Country/Rock

8) Candy Cigarettes (All trashy people smoke)

9) Get Ready!

Receiving pizza for the party.

My worst fear with hosting this event was managing the potential "no shows". There were two guest who called out at the last moment, thankfully Jaclyn was able to find quick replacements. The trailer trash in the "Daddy" cheerleader outfit is one of the cool last minute replacements for the evening. Funny enough, she was a last minute invite, only had a few hours notice and she was able to put together this cheerleader costume. The other guest who were noticed with only a few hours to prepare had no difficulty throwing together a costume because trailer trash parties are ones where you dress down.

In preparation I found some great ideas online from an endless amount of parties hosted with the theme of trailer parks or straight forward white trash. I learned several recipes for treats that I spread throughout the location for snacks such as using a pretzel stick with the end dipped in white honey and sprinkled with cinnamon to look like a cigarette butt and placed in a clean ashtray.

One thing that made this particular party so much fun is that one of my close friend's wife's birthday was on this same day, which I learned upon his arrival. They loved being able to celebrate at a party and not having to do anything besides enjoy themselves.

As the event progressed I was thankful that I had put each characters key actions for each round into labeled envelopes, it really did make things so much easier. I did learn a couple things that will make the next one I host go more smoothly, mainly setting a timer and remembering the correct number of rounds. Needless to say everyone had a great time and was interested in doing it again. We had planned for Christmas but with the way many things went in 2020, it was cancelled. Either way, it was awesome and it was great getting the three M's together for celebration.

The three mischievous Matthews!

October 31, 2020

For Halloween my wife voted that we go spend a few days, including Halloween, in Broken Bow, Oklahoma. My time with my wife, Jaclyn, has drastically increased the amount of time I spend in Broken Bow. I may have just passed through previously, I try to spend the minimum amount of time in Oklahoma. My experience had been limited to Tulsa and maybe Oklahoma City. I was honestly okay with that. All of that aside, Broken Bow and Oklahoma as a whole isn't a terrible place. Texans are prone to giving Oklahoma shit but in reality it isn't a terrible place which has improved drastically since the changes to not only the state's alcohol laws but the advancement in the marijuana laws/culture.

Jaclyn has taken me to Broken Bow a few times, I find it to be a more country spirited city aiming for Fredericksburg level vacation city business. It is a good time though.

Our trip to Broken Bow for Halloween was planned and friends were invited to getaway with us for the weekend or join on Halloween. Halloween is Jaclyn's favorite holiday so spending it in such a relaxed location was a different choice than usual. A mutual friend of our's flew in from Rhode Island, his previous times to Texas were mostly limited to the larger cities so I guess it was Texans taking him to experience the more stereotypical "Texan" country style vacation. Why not spend that in Oklahoma, they do seem more redneck than us Texas folk, right?

We arrive a night before the other guest to settle in and kick it. Now see one thing about my wife is that when she goes camping she goes glamping to her comfort standards and staying in a cabin to her is staying in a well furnished mini-mansion.

Jaclyn Halloween 2020, Broken Bow, Oklahoma. #whereintheworldisJaclyn

As you can see from the above photo, what Jaclyn considers "camping" doesn't match everyone's definition. The first time Jaclyn told me we were going for a camping weekend in Broken Bow I packed my duffle bag the same way I packed for a field problem. Then we arrived to the cabin/campsite and I realized that I didn't need half of the gear I packed. I didn't make that mistake this trip!

When I travel, anywhere, I try to visit a brewery and/or a distillery and/or a vineyard. In Broken Bow I found a couple different places to visit available, I picked to visit "Mountain Fork Brewery" and wasn't able to have the full experience but I was able to sample the product. I think you should go ahead and check that off your list while you are there.

The cabin had a nice firepit in the back. The firepit had nice chairs, a swinging bench and a couple outside games such as horseshoes around it. The privacy offered at this cabin location was most excellent. With the chaos in the United States during this part of 2020 it was great being able to get away from what I can only describe as politics gone high school with far graver consequences.

As you can probably guess Halloween night was spent gathered around a campfire. Some of the guests weren't able to arrive until the evening by the campfire had begun, what do you really expect with such a commute required to attend.

This moment away from your average civilization was great and needed by some. It seems that a culmination of things put people in a position that they may not have been aware they were in. Most of your cognitively capable people of 2020 will look back with jaded eyes, how they are jaded will depend on each person individually. Some people will be able to explain it by a single event, some it will be a number of things, big or small. Many people it will be a loss of work, relationship or even a life. There are those that will only connect the year with politics. No matter how or what the year was it was great being able to get away for this brief moment and knowingly live in ignorance for sometime.

When morning came around it was November First, All Hollows' Day of 2020, only one more week of political bullshit, right? Man on man, was I looking forward to the 7th so that this drama would come to some sort of conclusion. Let me tell you, hindsight is 20/20 for sure.