Despite being an October baby, Halloween and I have a love-hate relationship.

I absolutely love the idea of Halloween. I love pumpkins: carving them, eating them, looking at them, pretty much everything about them! I love the fall times, with all the different leaf colors and crisp autumn air. I LOVE candy! I even occasionally enjoy a pumpkin spice latte. But I don’t think Halloween likes me.

Every year like clockwork, for most of my childhood, I fell ill the week of Halloween. I dressed up as a “sick child” for literally 10 years. I was occasionally allowed to answer the door for trick-or-treaters, but it always made me sad to see all of my friends and the neighborhood kids having a great time. So eventually I just gave up on Halloween.

I was 12 years old the first time I got to go trick-or-treating.

I remember that day well. I dressed up as a “Spider Witch,” and my mom and I set out around the block. I was in charge of the flashlight to make sure we didn’t walk through any spider webs. After traversing the hills of our neighborhood for about 45 minutes, my mom grew tired and we returned home with our spoils. I was so excited to gorge myself on candy when I got home that I nearly ran back to the house. When we got back to the house, I dumped my candy on the kitchen table and settled down to eat my weight in sugar to the dulcet sounds of Casper Meets Wendy.

Except I wasn’t allowed to eat my candy.

My mom was wary of anthrax. Apparently, anthrax was snuck into Halloween sometime in the nineties and she never forgot about it. There was one year when she demonstrated the process of poisoning candy with a medical grade syringe and a poor defenseless 3 Musketeers bar—I’m still scarred for life. She promptly threw away all my hard earned candy and supplied me with the bowl we had been offering to our own trick-or-treaters.

My idea of a Halloween well spent, even now, would be volunteering to run a booth at my elementary school Halloween Carnival.

The Carnival is usually the week before Halloween so I was never sick, and I attended it almost every year. I still get to dress up, the candy is free and there isn’t too much fuss.

Unfortunately, the older I get, the less acceptable it is to volunteer at a school that I no longer have a link to.

With that void left in my life, it has become abundantly clear that I need to come up with a new tradition. Now as a real live adult, I would be happy to sit at home and watch my favorite spooky movies with candy purchased by me to ensure it's safety.

But this year, as a newly legal drinker, I feel like I just might need to exercise my right to party.

So as I compile my scandalous costume (Slutty Mummy and Sexy Pirate for two separate events) I compel all of you to party cautiously this Halloween.

Be aware of your surroundings, and beware of clowns.

(˼●̙̂ ̟ ̟̎ ̟ ̘●̂˻)

Here is a list of My favorite Halloween Movies that you can watch while you get ready for a night of tricks and treats!

1. Hocus Pocus

2. Casper Meets Wendy

Alternatively: Casper (the one with Christina Ricci)

3. Sleepy Hallow*

4. The Corpse Bride (The superior Tim Burton Classic, fight me!)*

5. THE ADAMS FAMILY*

6. The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown

7. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (A holiday staple)

8. Scary Godmother (This one is a Cartoon Network Original, but is honestly one of my favorite movies)

9. Sweeney Todd*

10. Halloween Town (A Classic)

11. Tower of Terror ( Also good to mourn the loss of a great Disneyland Attraction)

12. Interview with the Vampire

13. The Halloween episode of That's So Raven (It haunts me even to this day)

* Available on Netflix!