This week, a new solution to the Halloween problem may have been found, and it surprisingly doesn't involve putting landmines on the I-90 to keep rowdy visitors away.
Tuesday night, my friends and I threw a surprise birthday gathering for my roommate Joe. They waited at The Plaza with drinks, darts and a couple of presents, while I coaxed Joe into coming out. When we walked into the bar, 10 friends were there wearing cone-shaped party hats and big smiles. As Joe saw them, and they began to sing \Happy Birthday,"" he looked pretty surprised. And for good reason.
It was a month after his birthday.
Basically, we all dropped the ball in January. Since Joe's birthday was so soon after New Year's, no one was around to celebrate it and the whole thing got lost in the shuffle. This was unfair, considering our circle of friends has celebrated other recent birthdays with trips to the Karaoke Kid and a visit to the local strip club for the birthday of a friend who shall remain nameless.
Ahem.
So with our track record of fun and debauched birthdays, it was clearly wrong for there to not even be a peep for Joe. After all, bad schedules don't make us love Joe any less. So we declared a legislative birthday. We would get it right the second time, even if it meant a bit of calendar make-believe.
And on Tuesday night, when we sat there drinking whiskey, sharing stories and drunkenly dancing to '80s reggae covers, it seemed there might be some greater lesson to be gleaned from the night. Perhaps there is wisdom in spontaneously calling ""Do-over"" when we screw up special events.
Maybe I only say this as someone who can never remember what the date is, but it seems like we could probably fix a lot of our regrets and mistakes by simply rearranging our calendars. And Halloween is exactly the right thing to fix.
This year, the city of Madison screwed up Halloween with another year of riots, misbehaving visitors and bonfires. Well, why not just randomly pick another day to dress up and have fun? We could have all the fun and costumes, and the Iowa and Minnesota kids wouldn't have time to come in and start trouble.
The best part would be the spontaneity. Many of us will be single this Valentine's Day, but wouldn't we feel better if we forgot missed possibilities of romance and instead replaced it with Halloween cheer? Why sit alone watching happy couples, when instead you can dress up as a sexy devil or your favorite Muppet, and have the happy couples watch you?
It works both ways, too. If the pressure of Valentine's Day is too much, then why not pull a surprise redo in May? Watch the surprised smile on your lover's face when you arrive at her door with roses and chocolate on Memorial Day.
Holidays should be a spice of life. This would work better if they had spontaneity and we had time to get them right. My friends and I felt bad about missing Joe's birthday, but ultimately did it well. So well, in fact, that we're trying to find a gal with whom to throw him a surprise wedding. But for everyone else, maybe jimmying schedules is worth a try. It can save birthdays, romantic days and Madison's most treasured masquerade holiday.
Even without blowing up Iowans.
AmosAP@hotmail.com.
