Halloween + new friends

Since Clint was far, far away in the land of Yankee Stadium, New York City, Friday night, I was here to fend for myself, and spend some always needed time with my girl Neda.

Neda already had a group of people going to the Ashland Berry Farms Halloween Haunt and so I happily tagged along! We also met up up with Clint's sister Crystal and her boyfriend Jordan too.

My very dear friend Marianne happens to be Jordan's sister. Yes we are all connected in the circle of life...ha)

There were thousands (I'm not sure if I'm exaggerating...) of people there. TONS and TONS! We waited in 2 lines for 2 1/2 hours to get in.  These are some action shots of us--in line.

Crystal and me


It was really a good time just standing in line catching up with my friends and getting to know Neda's friends better.  It was a good dynamic everybody was just talking each other's ears off, laughing, and joking, I loved it!

Scott and Juliette on the hay ride

Scott and Juliette are a ton of fun, and my new favorite people. (Their dog appeared in a prior post) which was the first time I met them. Scott works at West Elm, while being in grad school.  He and Jules both have a great eye for interior design. I totally picked his brain about ideas for my current projects. Juliette is so sweet and I feel I could talk to her for hours.

Neda's sister Mona and her boyfriend Stalone (he has a brother named Eastwood, [no joke!]) came too, and I got to know them a lot better too! Stalone is a huge Yankees fan! Mona, like me, is learning about it and finding that she enjoys it too. They're adorable, I can't wait to hang out with them again.

Of course, as always, I was excited to see Hassan and Hasham too. They're such sweet boys.

And so...
When we finally got in, we went through 3 separate haunts. The first one was an outside path that lead us through twists and turns and crawl spaces and paths. The other 2 were through "houses" with all kinds of big and very small passageways where you almost have to crawl through. There were dead ends and many doors to open and go through. It was dark with scary noises, and music and scary monsters that jumped out at you. I thought it was brilliant. At first when people started jumping out and trying to spook us, I was laughing. It was funny, but not scary. After, being in the spooky atmosphere long enough I did get frightened a few times, and screamed out (totally unlike me).
It was so much fun. It was totally action packed. You go through unsure of your footing (it goes way up and way down a lot) and where to turn. You have to feel your way through most of it with little to no light. Plus, it vacillates between being scary loud and eerily quiet. Everything is unexpected. You feel like you're trying to save your life by making your way through an evil enchanted place. Awesome.

After the first haunt I felt I got my money's worth, and was ready to go! It was a bonus that we still had two more to go through! It was all very well done.

This is Mona totally eating it as she was exiting while simultaneously being attacked by the chain saw dude...

It was perfect weather too. It was cool, and foggy, misting rain the whole time (which added to the effect.) (i.e. the dots in all my pics)
LOVED IT.

The girls: Me, Neda, Crystal, Juliette, Tanisha, Crystal, Mona

The boys: Stalone, Hasham, Scott, Hassan, Jordan

It was a perfect night with friends. I can't remember the last time I had more fun, I only wish Clint could have been there too!

Cute lil puff of life