Angela Tung Oversharing on the internet since 2005.

Halloween is my favorite holiday so when my friend Aki suggested meeting up in Lambertville to check out the decked out houses, I was more than on board.

Homestead Farm Market

Our first stop of course was lunch. I really liked this place, but the staff seemed a bit overwhelmed with the Saturday crowd. Also my Guinness beef pie took forever to heat up (which I wouldn’t have minded if I had been given the heads up), and parts of the inside were still cold. Regardless it was tasty. On our way out, I couldn’t resist a huge double chocolate cookie to save for later.

Unionville Vineyards

A day out with Aki wouldn’t be complete without a visit to a winery. I loved this place. It was very low-key and a lot of fun.

Because Aki’s a member, we were able to have a free tasting of seven wines each. We decided we liked the rose best and got a bottle to share. We sat at a table outside drinking, eating, and chatting.

Antiques Center at the People’s Store

Before checking out the decorated houses, we stopped at this antique shop. Aki had heard they had an exhibition of “vampire hunting kits” and thought I’d be interested. HELL YES. My friend knows me well.

Admittedly, I had no idea there were real-life vampire hunters. I thought it was all fiction. Of course whether or not the vampires they were hunting were real is another story.

We talked with the owner of the collection quite a bit. Besides all the vampire hunting stuff, he told us a creepy story of a kind of “devil’s bust” he used to own. He sold it to two people who promptly gave it back. One didn’t even want a refund. Apparently with the first buyer, they heard disembodied voices and noises. With the other, they saw actual apparitions. He showed us a picture, and I’m sorry to say it looked fake. Or it could have been a person or not. Of course if I had seen it in real life, I would have plotzed.

We also talked about ouija boards. While he has a vast collection of them, he’s also scared of them. I started telling him about that Spanish horror movie, Veronica, and he was like, “I don’t want to hear about it!” The reason we got on the topic is because he had out a gorgeous oujia board which was painted by Aleister Crowley. I had taken a bunch of pictures, but after my conversation with the guy, I was suddenly creeped out by the idea that I had these on my phone. I said, “Maybe I should delete those photos from my phone.” He agreed.

His reasoning is that while the vampire killing stuff have an intention for good (even if possibly innocent people have been killed) and use the power of God, ouija boards are a gateway to demons and stuff. ‘Nuff said.

Halloween houses

Next were all the decorated houses. I took a zillion pictures. Here are some of the highlights. We also randomly got a tour of the INSIDE of someone’s house. The outside was decorated really cool —

— which we commented on to the guys hanging out outside. The next thing we knew, he was inviting us in. They were getting ready for a party, and the guests weren’t do yet so we had a few minutes to see it all gussied up.

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Oh you know, just going into some random person’s house on Halloween.

Art gallery and pho

Something Aki and I both like to do is crash art exhibition openings and partake of free booze and snacks. She knew of one in Princeton and so we headed there as one of our last stops.

The art was somewhat interesting, but I didn’t have any wine. I think the combo of the wine with the sugar of the cookie was a bad idea. I had a terrible headache and also got carsick. At the reception I had a bunch of pretzels and crackers, hoping salty carbs would save the day.

In the end they did, in the form of pho.

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Aki assured me it would hit the spot, and it really did. I ate the whole thing. The broth was really tasty. The whole thing was tasty. When we got back in the car to walk around downtown before my train, I felt a billion times better. My headache was gone, and I was no longer feeling like I was going to throw up.

As we started to walk around, we both saw across the street a bus going to the city. I still had a half an hour wait for my train, and we both thought, How about that bus? We went up and it turned out 1) it was leaving right that minute, and 2) I could buy a ticket on the bus without a fee. Score! The bus line was the same as the one that goes to my mom’s, which means comfy and roomy seats. Plus, unlike the train, it was dark and quiet. The train on a weekend night is always rowdy and also very bright.

A comfy end to a superfun day.

This Sunday I took the train all the way down to Long Branch to hang out with my friend Aki and her fiance. It was totally worth it.

An unexpectedly dangerous lighthouse

After picking up some pizza slices, we headed over to this lighthouse, where we sat on a bench and had a sort of picnic. It was hot and there were bugs, but there was also wine, courtesy of Aki, so I didn’t care too much.

Next we looked at some cool lighthouse stuff, then climbed to the top of one of the towers. Aki and I went all the way to the top. There was a little window that was open and what looked like an area you could stand on. Aki went right out, and suddenly I noticed the area had no grate, just wide open railing a body could easily fall through.

I said, “Should you be out there?” Then it started to hit me as to what a dangerous situation that was (luckily she came right back in), and even more so when I went down one level and could see how wide open it was from below. There were also two kids up there with us, and I told them a couple of times, “Please don’t go out there, I beg you.” Their dad was one level below, but not close enough to me. (They were fine and didn’t go out there.)

I told the girl at the desk downstairs, and at first she didn’t really understand what I was saying. She went up to check, and when we were in the tiny museum slash shop, she came in and made a beeline toward the older women behind the desk and told them what happened in a kind of panicked voice. I made eye contact and she said, “They told us about it,” and thanked us (although it was really just me). I knew it didn’t seem right! Aki’s fiance and I kept teasing her afterward about how she immediately did the most dangerous thing.

A park and a hike

After that we headed out to this park. They had what was a bunker for housing weapons, including what was essentially a really huge gun, during World War II. We walked through it, which was pretty creepy. It’s just this long, dark, empty hallway. There was water everywhere — dripping off the ceiling, in puddles on the floor, and I thought, Did they hose this place down? We asked the guy sitting outside and turns out it was all condensation from the humidity.

After that we went on a hike. At first Aki’s fiance and I were against the “black diamond trail” and we just did something easy. However, that was uncovered, i.e., in the sun, and not near the water. We took a shortcut to see some view (there wasn’t much of one), and Aki said that was the black diamond level. It turned out not to be hard at all, vigorous but not difficult. By the end we were all very sweaty. 

A beach and a brewery

After that we tried to find a beach. The first one was small and rocky. It wasn’t that great so we left and went to a much better one. It was free since it was after 4:30 and it wasn’t too crowded. It was nice sitting there drinking wine, snacking, and chatting.

It was pretty cool and breezy, but it was also very, very sticky. I actually felt fine, but after a while her fiance was like, “It’s so sticky.” We had been there long enough anyway and headed to our next destination.

That was a brewery. By then I had had basically one and a half glasses of wine so I just had a three-ounce serving of their stout. It was pretty good. Her fiance got the summer ale (full serving) and a giant bowl of poutine with roast beef. Oh my God so good. I had several bites, which were more than enough for dinner.

I’ve had a somewhat lazy and somewhat productive weekend.

On the productive side, I’ve been working like crazy on a piece I want to submit to a magazine.  Somehow I can’t get it to stop sucking.  I’m not sure if it’s what I’m writing about (too broad? not original enough?) or how I’m writing it (trying to cover too much?).  I just keep trying.

On the lazy side, I haven’t worked out since Thursday.  I could go today, but I’d prefer to keep working on this essay.  And I may do yoga later.

Yesterday we walked to Union Square and enjoyed the sun.  MB played guitar and I edited my memoir.  There didn’t seem to be too many weirdos around.  The one interesting thing was a young woman and an older woman arguing.  I kept wondering what their relationship was.  The older woman wasn’t the mother – maybe an aunt or stepmother?  The younger woman said, “Christine warned me about you.”  They were arguing, but it was as though they had gone out of their way to sit on the grass and hash it out.

When it got too cold, we came back to our apartment, grabbed our computers, and headed over to Japantown and New People Cafe.  Here’s what I love best about New People Cafe:

• Heated toilet seats
• They carry rooibus tea
• Their delectable vegan baked goods

And in that order.

Today, more writing, like I said.  And the yoga thing.

Time for a weekend update (with your host, the Bad Luck Girl).

We didn’t have a chance to see Clash of the Titans, but we did go to WonderCon.  It wasn’t as fun as I expected since it was so incredibly crowded.  Getting through the aisles was almost impossible sometimes, especially near the “celeb” booths, like Brent Spiner (Data) and John de Lancie (Q) whom I now associate with Breaking Bad.

We also saw Adam Baldwin from Firefly.  He had this embarrassed smile as he sat there in his booth while people went nuts taking pictures.  I heard one middle-aged woman say, “Oh my God, he’s so gorgeous!”

Another highlight was this booth selling a magazine called Girls and Corpses.  Either it’s some fetish or a joke.  Either way, disturbing!  (Now I’m sure I’ll get hate mail from Girls and Corpses lovers.)

There were tons of photo ops but I only managed to get one:

That’s not me by the way, just some random lady having her pic taken with the alien.

In other news, I heard back from the Graywolf Press contest, and while I didn’t win, my memoir was one of the 15 finalists.  Yay, I don’t totally suck!  I’m also busy this week with a few deadlines.  I love deadlines!

As for my reading, I read the first Harry Potter, which was awesome, and now am reading Memoir of a Geisha for the first time.  It’s good in a trashy way.