#uncoffeed...

So it annoys the [ expletive ] out of me when I pull one of my typical shenanigans, which of course was not a shenanigan when I did it but just a fact of nature, and someone says (inevitably): "Only you, Deb..." and laughs. ...because No. It's not only me. There are other people in the world who are willing to go outside the box, to eclipse convention, to take the risk. Dare to follow possibility. We do that; it's not only me. But then... Every year I go with my friend Liz to Markoff's Haunted Forest .  Please disavow any other scary thing you've been visiting in the DMV ; this is what you wanted all along. My favorite bits are the pirate ship, the Viking encampment, the dragon graveyard and the hardcore bus (it's like being in a Mad Max movie.)  I love the giant Krampus, which this year was wearing the LED counter telling you when it's your turn to enter the forest. I hope I'm not giving away too much here.  The sets are really ama...

Markoff's Haunted Forest will open soon. Come over. My sweet and bubbly personality is genuine, but so is my dark heart. I think dark may not mean the same thing to you that it does to me. My birthday is right before Halloween; the world was just beginning to die when I was born. Orion watched over me every night. I don't think that helps explain why I like bugs and lizards and bats. Especially bats. I can find an eye of calm in death metal. My favorite Christmas carol is God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen . Darkness is not creepy to me, but joyful.  I like to play with the dark things - tales, emotions, creations - because they are beautiful. Dark is the other side of the earth from the sun; it's where you can see the stars and the moon, where creatures of the desert find it safe to come out from hiding. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is ultimately a story of hope, even if the hope is strangled by humanity. Bones are organic matter allowing us to walk upright...