LET THE SPOOKFEST BEGIN!
Hej, Messmate!
Welcome to The Resilience where we’re about to embrace the darker days and longer nights of the season with enough spookalicious tales, trivia, and activities to make a night on a ghost ship seem like a pleasure cruise in comparison!
Last year, we stretched our Spookfest all the way through October, but this time, we’ve opted for a condensed version. Well, I did, and you have the Book of Faces to thank – or curse – for that.
See, what happened was, I promised Sir Bear and our Ship’s Belle that I would harness the Meta Dragon this year. I left Facebook many years ago, but, as the ahem standup pirate captain I am, I’ve spent some time over there this year, cleaning up old pages, sorting out dormant groups, and redecorating accounts. As you do.
I didn’t think anyone had noticed I was there (I wasn’t posting anything), but back in September, for reasons only the troll and the Meta Overlords are privy to, they decided to tell people in my six degrees that it was my birthday. It was not. They had the right month, but the date was way off. Still, I received a huge number of birthday messages, some so sweet Sir Bear had to wipe my tears, from people I haven’t seen or heard from in years.
At first, I panicked! I’m not very good at handling the exchange of human pleasantries normally involved in the giving and receiving of gifts and greetings. It can put me in a complete state of brain freeze for days. Or weeks. I know it’s silly.
I also know it’s something most people can do in their sleep. And to make matters worse, there was a time in my life when I could put a brave face, and my big girl’s boots, on and just get on with it too. Sure, it drained me of social juice, but at least people got what they expected from me. A normal reaction to a perfectly normal action.
Well, I’m afraid my days of pretending to be normal are over. I spent a couple days fretting over all these messages, trying to decide how to deal with them. Delete the account? Pretend I never saw them? Change my name by deed poll? Tough choice. But then I realised something. I don’t actually aspire to normalcy. I never have. So why am I still beating myself over it?
I’m at a point in my life where I can have cake for breakfast and celebrate my birthday whenever I bloody well feel like it. I can make a single post to say a thousand thanks, and invite you all to join the celebration.
Welcome to the Whatever Party! Whether you want to call it Birthmas, Yuletide, the Holidaze, Thanksgiving, or Spookfest 24, I’d love for you to board the ship and enjoy it with us.
Let’s celebrate everything that makes us happy we woke up this morning, and everything that makes us hope we’ll get to do it all over again tomorrow.
Let’s make sure we have something to hold on to as we make it through the darkest months of the year and into a new spring together.
I’ve ordered the crew to cast their nets far and wide, trawling the haunted depths of their imaginations for suitably spooky surprises. From Monday to Sunday, we’ll be sending you a daily dose of our seasonal spread. We’ve got a whole smörgåsbord waiting, and you are more than welcome to add your favourite spook specials to the mix.
I promise, there are no tricks in here, so you can relax and treasure your treats in peace, if that’s how you roll. Or you can cast off your fur and go streaking on the dancefloor with our old Sea Bear. We don’t judge or kink shame. Well, maybe a little bit – we’re pirates after all.
Right, that’s your heads-up. Keep a lookout for 🏴☠️👻🎃 in your inbox over the next seven days so you don’t miss out.
Happy haunting, me hearties!
Luvnstuff,
//Linn 🧡🔥