Happy Thoughts with Kaylee

Halloween Weekend

It was that kind of day, where the sky was overcast, but not quite cold enough for a jacket. All walks of life come out to enjoy the fall weather San Jose provided to its people, including San Jose Sharks games with the teal mass making its way to the Shark Tank. It’s a lesson learned visiting downtown, check your calendar for sports events that might affect your parking opportunities.

$10 flat rate parking later, I got onto the sidewalk of North San Pedro Street, SJ Made was having their Saturday Sidewalk Shops, maybe the last one for the season. There you can support small businesses selling their products, such as prints, pins, specialized dog treats, and skincare. 

My visit was  for skincare products. Terra&Self, a skincare business owned by Kenne Johnson-Scianna, creates simple, vegan, cruelty-free, and organic skincare products. I checked, I can pronounce the ingredients and the list was short. Her products range from face masks, lip scrubs, facial teas. I treated myself to the Blueberry Muffin Softie Lip Scrub, and purchased a clay mask as a Christmas present ssshhh! 

Of course, I had to try the lip scrub when I got home. Personally plagued with chapped lips, I couldn’t wait to try it. Sure enough, when Kenne told me it was safe to consume, that I could eat the lip scrub if I wanted to, I gave it a taste test, aced with flying colors, yum! The holidays are just around the corner, if you want to have your presents ready in time, shop local, there are always markets on the weekend in the Bay Area. 

Halloween was the next day. For this haunted holiday, I spent the day walking around Los Gatos with my boyfriend Tyler, strolling through North Santa Cruz Ave, watching the strollers and wagons filled with trick-or-treaters and the many furry companions that visit the dog friendly town. 

We got our breakfast bagels from Posh Bagels and our coffee (tea for me) from Great Bear Coffee and sat ourselves on a bench that looked out onto the street at a parked 1965 Mustang. It truly felt like a crisp, fall day in the South Bay, with the leaves finally turning colors, crunching under our feet, just cold enough for a sweater and you’re not sweating by 1:00 pm. 

That evening, we walked around the local neighborhood, kids were passing by on the other side of the street on the hunt for candy, Tyler and I admired the decorations and atmosphere of the cool weather. For the first time in a long time, we turned down a street, and noticed how quiet it was, and we just stood there listening to the stillness, whispering to each other as if we were going to break that peace we found. 

The evening ended with a bag of candy and a crime show found on Netflix, while wearing my “scary” skeleton pajamas with matching skeleton socks, an end to a relaxed Halloween I would want to repeat.