October 27, 2017 — There were two things I planned for as a girl. Christmas. That’s its own story, one I have told a long time ago, full of preparations and rehearsals to catch Santa Claus. And Halloween. I like costumes, still, and if you get some crazy mental picture on that one, well….  Okay, I’ll explain about the costumes. I think the costumes were half of the fun of the things I always liked, skating, dance, twirling, all of that has a costume, many costumes actually. They had letter jackets, special shoes, sparkly things. Even now, there is a side of me that likes my occasional sparkle. I mean how many of us actually own a legit crown? Okay, except half of the brides from Say Yes to the Dress, but I’m not counting them.

If I could, and I can’t, this Halloween, I’d be Nikki Bella. For that matter, I’d just be Nikki Bella. It looks like serious fun flipping into a ring and doing whatever one calls that performance.  And I love her hair!

Perhaps that’s just me in this moment my life is in right now. It’s stressful. It’s scary. Every day I wake up not knowing if I can… well… keep going. And I know I’m not alone. I have a young contemporary who sent a series of texts discussing with me her desire to start over, to leave our world and do something else. And she’s just overworked, not challenged like me. So Nikki Bella looks like the thing to me right now, a costume, a really cool gig, an amazing flip into the ring, and great … hair! Plus, there’s this silly-old memory of these people who I once worked with in the years between my college stints who thought I should do that. I know it’s completely unacceptable in my reality, but I honestly do identify with Nikki Bella. Nevertheless, in reality, a reality that’s getting to me, I’m feeling much more of the ghost vibe, hence the cover picture. But hey, perhaps in virtual land, my costume is Nikki Bella … underneath?

Halloween. It’s the costumes, I tell you; the costumes make it fun. I heard one of those comedy breaks on the radio yesterday. Whoever-comedian said, and forgive me, my delivery will not exactly work in this format, but … Halloween is the one holiday you don’t have to spend with family. You don’t say “hey I’m going back East to spend Halloween with my folks; they got divorced, so I’ll have to have two costumes, one to go treat or treating with my mom, one to go with my dad.” Perhaps it’s my life history that made that so funny. Perhaps it’s just the fact that on Halloween, no matter our age, it’s perfectly acceptable to don a costume and pretend we are whatever we want to be – a royal with a crown, which honestly I believe is acceptable every day, a superhero villain (that was last year), or … Nikki Bella.

Once a year though? It’s just not enough! I can’t make it Halloween every day, but I can make it Halloween-week. So Happy Halloween-week all! And while I’m not one to get nostalgic, I think I will…

W, dancing with you all to some killer ’80s Halloween groove, doing her full Nikki Bella vibe.