Jeri Smith-Ready

Blogtoberfest Day 15 - Sydney Salter

The winner of Amanda Ashby's Zombie Queen of Newbury High is...Cara King! Cara, please send your mailing address to jeri AT jerismithready DOT com in the next week.

Today's Blogtoberguest is Sydney Salter, author of My Big Nose and Other Natural Disasters as well as two more books to come in the next year.

Sydney and I have something very important in common. According to her website, she refused to wear her glasses in school and therefore couldn't see the board. I'm glad to know I wasn't the only one!

Sydney's not only giving away a copy of My Big Nose and Other Disasters (the cover of which I adore), she's also sharing with us a Halloween memory guaranteed to make you go, "Awwwwww."



The week before Halloween, a group of girls from my freshman dorm went to see a hilarious unknown comedian named Jerry Seinfeld. After the show, we walked across campus with a group of Sigma Chi guys who invited us to stop by their house later (one of them was Mike--the cute guy in my biology class!).

A bunch of girls crowded the dance floor, but an hour later it was just me and Mike. Right as I was about to leave—it was three in the morning—he asked me to the Sigma Chi Pledge Dance the following Saturday. So many girls liked him—but he asked me!

And then he let his friend walk me home.

Events the following week only added to my doubts about him possibly liking me. On Sunday he watched me play sorority flag football and witnessed three Kappas crunching me to the ground. He didn’t say anything about the dance so I convinced myself that he’d forgotten that he’d invited me.

On Monday night, Mike came to my dorm to talk about the dance. But I was wearing my LL Bean “Laura Ingalls” nightgown (my dorm mates teased me a lot about this flannel atrocity, but, hey, it was comfy!).* I wanted to die! I convinced myself that he only asked me out because he was such a nice guy—and pitied me.

He wasn’t in biology on Tuesday, but he called me later. Turns out we were supposed to wear pajamas to the dance. I needed better pajamas ASAP!

On Wednesday, Mike came into the library while I was studying and I experienced that getting weak in the knees feeling for the first time in my life. Scared me to death! I’d never liked someone that much—and I started freaking out about our first date.

Thursday, my Halloween costume finally arrived! My mom shipped me her sexy Dracula’s Bride outfit just in the nick of time. Phew!

My sorority trick-or-treated for local charities on Halloween, giving me the excuse to collect free chocolate into my twenties. Our first stop: The Sigma Chi house. Mike joined us—dressed as Dracula!

By this point, I’d made more than one phone call to my mom freaking out about not being ready for a serious relationship. “It’s only a date,” she’d say. But here we were, married via Halloween costume.

We trick-or-treated all over the neighborhood, prompting more than one person to say, “My! You’re getting bigger every year!” ** Afterwards we went dancing, until Mike left to go win the costume contest (I was too shy, too freaked out about being bride to his Dracula to join him). If I could, I’d go back and revise that part of the story.

We had a great time at the Pledge Dance the next night. And pretty much every night since then. So while we both count November 1st as our first date anniversary and we always celebrate our June wedding, Halloween will always hold an extra special place in my heart. I honor it with lots of chocolate!

*His fondness for The Little House On The Prairie did not manifest itself until much later in our relationship.

**Note to teenage or older trick-or-treaters: come to my house. I will give you extra candy!


To enter to win a signed copy of My Big Nose and Other Natural Disasters, leave a comment below. And remember, each comment automatically enters you in the drawing for the grand prize package: all 25 books!

For complete rules, read the introductory post.

Deadline for entry: Tuesday, October 27, 11:59pm Eastern. NOTE: THIS CONTEST IS CLOSED TO ENTRIES. The winner is Sheila Deeth!

Shana Norris and Troy High
Linda Joy Singleton and Dead Girl in Love
Linda Gerber and Death by Denim
Alexandra Diaz and an ARC of Of All the Stupid Things
Melissa Walker and Lovestruck Summer

Thanks again to Sydney for sharing her favorite Halloween memory! (I assume it's the favorite--if not, I'd really like to hear the favorite, hee-hee.)

Labels: Blogtoberfest, Contests, guests

• posted by Jeri @ 10:00 AM
• 23 comments