Jack O'Lantern

Well, it’s that time of year again, and on Friday we had our annual Jack O’Lantern contest. As a member of the social committee, (hmmm. Brownbag committee, check; Sustainability Club, check; Social committee, check; Office Art committee, check – I seriously need to cut back on contributing) I felt obligated to participate.

And it’s not like the idea of carving a pumpkin is unappealing.

However, this year I was way busy at work, working long days and fighting off a migraine almost everyday this past week (unfortunately triggered partially by sleep disruption), my energy levels just were not where they should have been.

In fact, I should have given up on the idea of competing. But I’d already bought the pumpkin, so I stayed up late (see earlier note re; migraine triggers = STUPID) to do my part.

I’d also forgotten how long it takes just to gut the damn thing (and it was a big pumpkin), especially as I love to make pumpkin seeds later. So this year’s effort took about 1 ½ hours – 1 hour of which was spent gutting the monster and the last half hour was spent wishing it was done.

Not a magic formula for success and I won the booby prize for next-to-last.

Sigh. Next year I’ll try to remember to a) buy a pumpkin carving kit, and b) spread the job over two days.