I was a very sickly kid. Explains a lot in my adulthood, I guess.

One thing that my friends had on me other than great health was that they could go trick-or-treating every year. Me? I was stuck at home dressed up in my mother's latest fantastical costume she concocted and passed out candy to all the other neighborhood kids because I was always my sickest at Halloween. There were occasional times I got to do something fun with school or local parties or something. But for the most part, Halloween meant TV and eating candy at home, dressed up for dad's camera for the snapshots you see above.

One year I dressed as Oscar the Grouch, which was store-bought. I don't remember how old I was or what I did that day. I remember wearing that thing though. It was kind of hot underneath. Another year mom made me some kind of space alien diva or something. My cousin was something simple like Wonder Woman.

The outfits were always so elaborate for me back then -- even when I just wore face makeup and a white sheet. My mother painted some kind of craziness on my face and topped it off with an old hat from the 60s era. That was also the first year I got to trick or treat. Well, kind of. Dad only escorted me down our street. I was too sick for the whole block.

My father said casually over a discussion this afternoon about voting.

"This might be the last time I will ever get to do that," my father continued. He's 55 and he could possibly be right. After all, it took over half a century for him to see the day. 

So today, as a family, we trotted over to the nearest polling station. Being that this is early voting time, I had to endure the electronic voting process. It was strange. I mean wielding that wheel of power and pushing the red button got to my head a little, even though I was hesitant at first. I'm used to the old black marker and sheets of paper to cast my vote.

I was sure I was going to goof up. On the way there, my father said that my mom has been early voting for years and still can't figure that machine out. And he made sure to say, "If someone hands you anything, put it in your pocket. You don't want to go in showing it off..." Luckily no one was at the polling station selling their agendas because that kind of made me nervous. Man, voting sure got complicated...

The weather is changing.

You can just feel fall bursting through the trees and changing the inside of every store on the block. It’s always a strange dichotomy every year around this time when stores battle between Halloween fair and Christmas goodies. Just check out our calendar on page 4 of this Friday's Mesquite neighborsgo edition and see a slew of fall festivals, haunted houses, trunk or treats and yes, even a Christmas-themed event. I’m really excited about all of the photo opportunities in store for the next few months. And while I’m out shooting, don’t forget to do the same and post your pics on neighborsgo.com. I hope to see many of your kiddos (and even you kids at heart) dressed up in goofy costumes so I can run them in an upcoming print edition.

Speaking of which, make sure to check out page 15 for coverage of Mesquite’s favorite fall festival kickoff event, PumpkinFest. Neighborsgo was a sponsor yet again this year and I appreciate everyone who came by our booth and said hello.

It was bound to happen.

Last weekend I forgot to set my trash bin out the night before pickup and decided, stupidly, to leave it out the rest of the weekend as to not forget for today's run. Not a habit I plan to develop because I think it is very tacky to keep that thing out. It makes the neighborhood look bad.

Anywho, I still had a few bags left this morning and trotted out in my nightgown (also tacky) and got ready to dump the rest of my stuff when behold! There were several black bags of trash (filled to the brim, mind you) that I knew darn well were not mine. On top of that, they were filled with yard waste which you all know is a no-no. It isn't even bulk week! I was reminded of that King of the Hill episode...the same thing happend to Hank, though I was only a tad tempted to dig through the bags of trash to ID my bin-stuffer.

"Breast of fresh air..."

It shot out like a bullet.

I know it was a slip up, but if you are a presidential candidate and you are asked why you picked your vice-president running mate who happens to be a woman, stating she was a "breast of fresh air" by mistake is really hard to come back from. I'm just staying.

For the record, this isn't a statement of who I'm voting for...is there a place for fence-sitter on the ballot?

Mine would say "slow down."

It's no secret here, mainly because I am a huge investor of TMI (too much information, mom, since you asked me what that stood for last week), that I am not exactly in the best of health. Apparently a "haggard" stint in my 20s combined with my need to do too many things at once has led me to gastritis which has siphoned into a bad case of esophagitis. In English that just translates as tummy trouble and reflux.

Seems somewhat minor-sounding when you dissect it like that but the symptoms have ravaged my health. Luckily a new love of organics have helped and the fact that 30 is NO LONGER 20 so what was good then sure isn't now. 

Last week I had to have something called a Barium Swallow or esophagram, which is really a crazy experience. You stand in front of this long table (the normal X-ray one but tilted upwards) and then they make you swallow that milky, chalky barium so they can see how you swallow, what your esophagus looks like and if you are functioning OK. I turned my head for a second and caught a glimpse of my skull, downing that yucky "berry" flavored concoction.

I turned to the doctor and X-ray tech and said in my best 4-year-old boy voice, "Cool! Can I take a picture of that home?!" 

So here it is. Not EXACTLY the same image I got. I mean I got to see my whole head and my mouth as I talked and drank that stuff. But you get the idea. My dad scanned it so you don't quite get the same effect....

Well, everything came out OK. Well...OK as in nothing has gone from bad to worse! If you are checking out the photos, the white stuff is that barium. I have to admit, when you have to fast the night and morning before, that stuff can actually mimic a milk shake if you squint, hold your breath, dream about something else and gulp it down.