Sunday Morning: Hallowe'en

I work in a high rise (about as tall as it gets in downtown Halifax) building on the 16 th floor. In the past, various groups with in our organization have competed for Hallowe'en honours by carving pumpkins and having the best costume.

As the pumpkin craving always seemed to be won by a very industrious group that used wheels, fireworks and electronic animation, (don't get me wrong, they were really cool pumpkins) the committee decided to change it up a bit. This year each floor would decide to decorate a room and the the theme was 'haunted house'. In the spirit of being part of a work group, one of the newest folks there, and not wanting others to have to do all the work, naturally I joined in.

During the week, spider webs and various creatures were displayed on our cubicles, rubber rats and spiders appeared from no where, and people brought in those props and placed them in corners. Unsuspecting visitors to our floors for meetings would be surprised when they got too close and it triggered a scream or flashing eyes.

The rules said that the actual room could not be decorated before 30 Oct and you were only allowed 2 hours to do it. I had no idea really what was going on except I had to wear scrubs. Our theme was a 'on compliant lab'. Kind of tongue in cheek because in our day jobs, we inspect drug manufacturers and importers, medical device manufacturers and importers, blood banks, clinical trials and the like.

I didn't have anything to wear on my feet so I brought rubber boots and decided to wear dish washing gloves on my hands, and a shower cap on my head. How non compliant is that??

Folks showed up and the decorating began, there were petri dishes with 'stuff' growing, potions of all sorts, specimen jars with various body parts, blood magically appeared over the walls and on the floors, there were bloody footprints on the fridge, smeared hand prints everywhere. Someone even brought in a fog machine. It was really surreal. We covered the lights with red crepe paper and let the show begin! One colleague would be lying on the table surrounded by three 'surgeons' appropriately dressed (well for the scene). She was delivering a horrid looking alien, having her intestines removed (real (homemade) intestines) and having eye surgery on her one remaining 'good' eye.

The showing started at 10 and people in costume starting arriving for the tour. Screams came from the room (all in good fun!). People really liked our room!

Then the fire alarm went off. We're all looking at each other - the bloody fog machine set off the fire alarm. Quickly we called the building managers to tell them it was us but it was too late, some had started evacuating the building and the fire trucks were on their way. Damn it.

A short time later, these three massive guys showed up in complete costume carrying hoses and axes and complete gear. They were here to ensure there was no real fire...ummm. no we turned the fog machine off says I.

They were great sports about it, even posing for pics!