Halloween Hauntings and the Magic Eraser

OH Halloween. Night of spooks and goblins, little kids and candy. Night of parties and fun, girls in lingerie, passing for costumes, and the perfect excuse for vandals to destroy private property.

OH, you mean that's not what it's all about? Well then, someone should have told the little punks who spray painted my car then.

See, things started off fairly well on Friday. Went to work, left work and went for my first workout at the new gym I just joined, was feeling pretty good about myself. Headed home to get all dressed up for a costume party my friend Firegirl had invited me to. Her husband is a firefighter, and we were going to the annual firefighter's costume party. I was excited to be heading out, I love costume parties and rarely get to go to them.

All was well until I went to leave with them, and my friend pointed out to me that someone had spray painted something obscene on the side of my car. At first I actually thought she was joking, but then...yep, sure enough. Needless to say, I was pretty upset, but after some coaxing from my friend and her husband, I decided that I was going to go out and enjoy myself anyway, and deal with the drama in the morning.

The costume party was a great time, and I was out way past my bedtime. 3:30 AM I finally tucked into bed, and had a long night of tossing and turning, unable to to sleep worrying about all I would have to deal with in the morning. Calling the police to report the vandalism. Calling my insurance company. Finding someone to come pick me up first thing to go and get Lil'K and drop her off at the church, where we were supposed to be at 9AM to help cook for our monthly "Food for the Poor" gig. Calling my condo management company to report the vandalism. Figuring out if there was any way at all that I could get the paint off my car, and then, after failing miserably (which I was sure would happen), figuring out how to cover the obscenity in order to drive my car to some auto shop and paying for a paint job on a car I don't even want to keep for very much longer. I really didn't get much sleep at all.

When the alarm went off at 8:45, I was so not ready to face the day. My parents, (oh how I love them), helped to get Lil'K off to the church, and then we headed back to my place to make the calls. Called the police and sat around waiting for them to show up. Once they finally did, made my report, and then headed out to try our luck with removing the spray paint.

First, dad attempted some car polish/paint remover stuff. No luck. Then I remembered that I had just recently fallen in love with those "Magic Eraser" sponge thingies. Having picked one up at a dollar store, I cleaned all the mildew off my tub with very little effort, and ran out to buy a bunch more of the things, planning to clean every square inch of my house with them. I figured you know what? It's worth a shot, right?

Dad was looking at me like I was insane. "Not going to work" he said. Mom, ever the optimist, said "let's try it". Wouldn't you know it, the darn things really are magic. The paint came off quickly, almost effortlessly, and without any permanent damage to my car.

Good as new! Take that little punk vandals!

How was your Halloween?