Some really inspired Halloween ideas

If you haven’t heard yet, the Malacañang-MILF MOA was declared unconstitutional. In terms of merit, there should be nothing surprising about the Supreme Court’s decision. It is the only logical conclusion. In terms of political reality, however, the Supreme Court justices being appointees of the President per provisions of the Constitution, the decision surprised me because I found it hard to imagine that the Court would go against Malacañang in an issue as huge as this.

Okay, so I have little faith left in the system. So little faith that my frustration and sarcasm were practically oozing out of my skin when a letter from the subdivision office arrived on Monday (the day before the Supreme Court ruling was made public) informing residents of the upcoming Halloween events. There’s a contest for the spookiest decor and although I am loathe to engage in showy activities of that kind, I actually thought about joining because I came up with some really snazzy Halloween ideas:

First choice: Two witches standing beside a grave with a ghoul and vampire bats floating on the background. The witches, personifying “witch hunt” will wear sashes, as follows: Senate and House of Representatives. Investigations in aid of legislation have become nothing more than witch hunts, anyway. The tombstone will say “Supreme Court, RIP.” The ghoul’s name, “Ghouloria”, will be painted on its gauzy white dress.

Second choice: Three witches stirring a cauldron. The witches will wear sashes, as follows: “Oil prices”, “rice shortage” and “food prices”. Inside the cauldron will be small heads floating in a murky liquid, the heads representing the dying Filipino people. Based on the story of Hansel and Gretl, witches do eat humans, and the combination of oil prices, rice shortage and food prices are killing the people.

Because I don’t want to spend too much, I planned on using the styrofoam from the box of my iMac for the tombstone, crumpled aluminum foil or baking paper for the surface of the murky liquid in the cauldron, one of the large clay flower pots for the cauldron, etcetera, etcetera. Improvise, in short, and make use of materials that are already available.

I had it all planned. Next step was to get the rest of the family to agree on my idea.

So, I broached the idea to Speedy and he all but barfed. He said I have such a wild, wild imagination. He shook his head in a way that he seemed to be saying “You are so damn unbelievable!” but didn’t dissuade me knowing that no one can once I’ve made up my mind.

Then, I broached the idea to the girls and they went crazy. Not with excitement but more with something akin to nausea. Like I was suggesting decorating the front of the house with bile and pus. They insisted on jack-o’-lanterns (which they want us to carve), critters and all that stuff.

Okay, so I’ve been outvoted. But I thought I could still convince them. Never say die, right? And it’s not like I can actually create all the figures for my design all by myself. But I couldn’t convince them. And after the ruling on the Malacañang-MILF MOA came out, I told myself, okay, perhaps I can use a little optimism here. Maybe, the Supreme Court is not as dead as I thought it was — maybe. And that’s really a big maybe, okay? At any rate, I can execute my design in Adobe Photoshop and post it in my blog. Very ambitious — maybe I’m just dreaming.