Alexine Cornelio: Hello, Chantilly. I am Alexine Cornelio, the Online Managing Editor and today we have two interviewees, and we will be talking about our favorite Halloween activities. Can you please introduce yourselves to the audience? 

Lyla Donnelly: Hi, I’m Lyla Donnelly. 

Natalie Selchert: My name is Natalie Selchert, and I am a junior. 

Alexine Cornelio: Yeah and Lyla, what’s your grade? 

Lyla Donnelly: I’m a sophomore. 

Alexine Cornelio: Yes and we are starting the first episode of The Wave. Are you guys excited? 

Natalie Selchert: I’m so excited. I feel so special right now.

Lyla Donnelly: I’m so pumped up.

Natalie Selchert: So hype. 

Alexine Cornelio: Are you guys excited for Halloween this year? 

Lyla Donnelly: Oh yeah, I’m already planning. 

Natalie Selchert: I’m kind of excited because me and this guy are thinking about doing a Duo’s costume. It’s very exciting, but I don’t know what we’re gonna do.

Alexine Cornelio: Wow. That sounds so cute. 

Natalie Selchert: So we’ll find out.

Alexine Cornelio: Yeah so, I wanted to talk about our favorite Halloween activities because usually on Halloween, we would think about trick or treating and stuff like that but what are other things that we can do during Halloween? 

Natalie Selchert: I mean, around here, the first thing that I’m thinking of is Cox farms. 

Lyla Donnelly: Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking of, too. I went there a few years ago and it was so fun. 

Natalie Selchert: I went to middle school with Coxley Out Kids, sweetest, sweetest kids ever, but they go to Westfield but it’s still nice to see them when we go to Cox farms. I go maybe once a year, just for Halloween. 

Alexine Cornelio: So Cox Farms is one thing that we can do during Halloween. They sell a lot of Halloween stuff. This is what I noticed here in the US, is that they sell stuff so early for different traditions- 

Natalie Selchert: Yeah.

Alexine Cornelio: They used to celebrate, so I was really excited for that, where they sell so early. 

Natalie Selchert: It’s convenient, especially for Homecoming, because otherwise it’s really hard to find bulk bags of candy, the parade. 

Alexine Cornelio: Okay, so I wanted to ask you guys, what activities do you like to do during Halloween? 

Natalie Selchert: Yeah, Lyla. 

Lyla Donnelly: I like to prepare my costume and makeup. I always do extravagant makeup. I didn’t do Halloween last year, so I’m planning to make up for that. 

Natalie Selchert: Why didn’t you do Halloween?

Lyla Donnelly: I was on a trip in Asia. 

Natalie Selchert: You can’t do Halloween on your trip in Asia?

Lyla Donnelly: No, because they celebrate differently. Yes, and no costumes there so-

Natalie Selchert: That’s really sad.

Lyla Donnelly: I know. 

Alexine Cornelio: What costume are you thinking of? 

Lyla Donnelly: Oh, a vampire with a lot of bloody makeup. 

Alexine Cornelio: Bloody makeup. Okay. 

Natalie Selchert: Cute. Are you gonna do your nails to match or something? Are you gonna go all out?

Lyla Donnelly: I’m trying. I just need to find out how to do my bloody makeup first. 

Natalie Selchert: That’s going to be so cool. Actually, that’s going to be sick. 

Alexine Cornelio: You need super sharp nails. 

Lyla Donnelly: I need my fangs too.

Alexine Cornelio: How about you? Natalie?

Natalie Selchert: Last year, I didn’t really do anything. I sat and I did the candy bucket and handed candy to kids. I’ve noticed kids recently have not been saying, “Trick or Treat.” They just come up and they shove a bag at you and it’s really, really funny, but they’re always so cute in the little princess costumes and they’ll just hand you their bag and it’s like, “Oh, I wonder if you know how to say trick or treat.” Because they’re three-years-old in my neighborhood and I wore, from Aelfric Eden. I got a really nice cow jacket, humongous cow jacket. I love that jacket and I wear just a white dress underneath and I’m a cow. It’s so easy, but I don’t think I’m gonna do that this year. We’re gonna see. I’m hoping this guy gets it together and we do get a couples costume. That’d be really cute. 

Lyla Donnelly: Aww.

Alexine Cornelio: I think you guys should do that. Oh my gosh.

Natalie Selchert: I’m just saying I think it’d be cute because I didn’t do anything for Halloween for the past few years, other than the candy bucket and a cow costume.  

Alexine Cornelio: I’m hoping he does it with you. 

Natalie Selchert: You and me both.

Alexine Cornelio: Okay, so what are your favorite things to do with your friends and family during Halloween? 

Lyla Donnelly: Cox Farms.

Alexine Cornelio: Cox farms is the best one to go to, the go to one.

Lyla Donnelly: Especially at night. Oh my gosh. 

Natalie Selchert: I can’t go to the Fields of Fear because on the hayride, I can’t sit on the edge because they’ll tickle your back, and I can’t do it, I can’t and the corn maze, also, I’m too big of a baby to be doing all that. 

Lyla Donnelly: I never did the corn maze at night.

Natalie Selchert: Don’t. 

Lyla Donnelly: Don’t?

Alexine Cornelio: At night?

Natalie Selchert: Don’t, no, there’s a baby’s exit and I almost didn’t make it to that one. I was like, “Yeah, no, I think I’m good at that. Thank you.” And it’s right next to the pig farm, so you can hear it oinking. You can also hear chainsaw noises. 

Alexine Cornelio: Chainsaw noise?

Natalie Selchert: Yes, because, remember, there’s a chainsaw portion. I think it is the hayride where they have loud chainsaws. It freaks me out. I can’t do it. It smells like gasoline sometimes. The scare actors do too good of a job for me to be going there. 

Alexine Cornelio: Well, that’s really good if they’re scaring you pretty well.

Natalie Selchert: Yeah, they’re doing their job description. They are scaring me. 

Alexine Cornelio: Honestly, would you try to scare someone? Be a scare actor? 

Natalie Selchert: No, I’m not scary. 

Lyla Donnelly: Yes.

Alexine Cornelio: Yes, Lyla?

Lyla Donnelly: Yes.

Natalie Selchert: Are you going to apply to Cox Farms? 

Lyla Donnelly: Maybe.

Natalie Selchert: Potentially.

Lyla Donnelly: I think potentially.

Alexine Cornelio: You should be a scare actor. 

Natalie Selchert: You should be.

Alexine Cornelio: You said, yes. Well, do you try to do something different every Halloween? 

Natalie Selchert: I try to, but I feel like I always do the same stuff. Goes to Cox farms and then candy bowl and then October’s over. Well, usually Homecomings in October too so that takes up a good portion of my time but-

Alexine Cornelio: Well, what do you think about movie marathons or baking? 

Natalie Selchert: I like horror movies. I don’t like thriller movies. I feel like that’s the big distinction. If you want to watch something actually scary, you watch a thriller movie, but horror movies are just the right amount of “bad enough for me to watch, but entertaining enough to finish.”

Lyla Donnelly: We’re both the opposite. I like thrillers and horrors are scary. 

Natalie Selchert: For horrors, I get it. It’s the more boring option but, it’s the classics.

Lyle Donnelly: It’s not boring. It’s just, I get scared really easily. 

Natalie Selchert: You don’t get scared of thriller movies, but you get scared of horror- that’s crazy. 

Lyla Donnelly: Yeah.

Natalie Selchert: Lyla, you’re not real.

Alexine Cornelio: So you’re scared of horror movies but you want to scare people. 

Lyla Donnelly: Yeah.

Natalie Selchert: She wants to do the scaring. She doesn’t like being scared. A big difference. 

Alexine Cornelio: I feel like I’m in my horror era this year.

Natalie Selchert: You’re in your horror era? 

Alexine Cornelio: Yeah, because I started watching “The Conjuring” with my friends and then we finished the three Conjuring movies and then we were trying to watch “Annabelle,” “The Nun” and I was like, “Okay, we can do that. I love horror now.”

Natalie Selchert: Have you watched, what is? I don’t remember what it’s called. It’s “The Blair Witch Project.” Have you watched that? 

Alexine Cornelio: No.

Natalie Selchert: It’s so good. I watched it with my friend, literally just on a random Thursday. It was so good.

Alexine Cornelio: I should try that. 

Natalie Selchert: You should. It’s not recorded like a traditional horror movie. It’s kind of found footage they’re trying to do but that also means the camera moves a lot so if you get motion sickness it’s probably not great to watch but I thought it was really interesting. And I think there’s games based off of it but I could be wrong. I think there’s video games that are based off of it. 

Alexine Cornelio: Well, that’s a new recommendation for me. I’ll put it on my list. 

Natalie Selchert: She’s got to put it on her list. 

Alexine Cornelio: Yeah. Okay. So what is one activity you would do every year during Halloween?

Lyla Donnelly: Trick or Treating, obviously. 

Natalie Selchert: You still do that?

Lyla Donnelly: I still do. Yes, it’s free candy. 

Alexine Cornelio: You’re like, “I want free candy.”

Natalie Selchert: I don’t know, I haven’t gone trick or treating in a million years, I feel like. Since, like, pre-Covid, I don’t think I’ve gone. 

Lyla Donnelly: You should go with me, but there’s a lot of little kids running around. 

Alexine Cornelio: “There’s a lot of little kids.”  

Lyla Donnelly: There is.

Alexine Cornelio: She noticed the little kids. 

Lyla Donnelly: No, they’re going to make fun of me. 

Natalie Selchert: They’re not going to make fun of you. They’re like, five.

Lyla Donnelly: Yeah, but I got made fun of because of my “Squid Game” costume. 

Natalie Selchert: Well, yeah, it’s a “Squid Game” costume that got turned into such a brain rot thing so quickly. 

Alexine Cornelio: I mean, they shouldn’t know what “Squid Game” is. Honestly, it’s kind of gory.

Natalie Selchert: Yeah, it’s not a five-year-old type show, even I haven’t watched it but I did watch the Netflix special where there were a million and a half people that actually did the Netflix version of it. I thought that was pretty interesting. It was really, really, really sad that the girl that I wanted to win did not win but that’s okay. The girl that did win was from this area. I feel like-

Lyla Donnelly: Yeah, she is.

Natalie Selchert: I remember that. That was geeked. I found that out before I started watching, so I knew who was gonna win the entire time but I didn’t want the woman that was going to win to win because she didn’t do anything until the very end of the show but I guess that’s how you win. She laid low.

Alexine Cornelio: Okay, let’s see here, what activities are entertaining and time consuming? 

Natalie Selchert: Does it have to be both or one or the other? 

Alexine Cornelio: Any.

Natalie Selchert: Okay-

Lyla Donnelly: Wait, Halloween activities that are time consuming? 

Alexine Cornelio: Yes.

Natalie Selchert: Making a costume. I made a costume one year and I was a mushroom. And it was a lot that went into that and it was a little distressing so that was time consuming. I don’t know if it was entertaining. It was certainly time consuming. 

Alexine Cornelio: Yeah, I see a lot of people do their costumes and I’m like, “I can’t do that.”

Natalie Selchert: No.

Alexine Cornelio: I really can’t. 

Natalie Selchert: I did it once, I’ll never do it again.

Alexine Cornelio: So what about the mushroom costume? Did you finish it? 

Natalie Selchert: No, I did. It was disappointing. It wasn’t how I wanted it to be so I had a white dress that I wore, and I put spots on my face and did really heavy blush and it didn’t look bad. I’m not saying it was the best look I’ve ever had and I wanted to make- this was, I think, in 2020 or 2021… I want to say and you know how mushroom hats were huge on TikTok and I was making them out of cardboard and fabric. I was like, “Oh, I want to do that.” But I was so out of time. I didn’t have time to so my candy basket was a picnic basket. I hot glued moss onto it. I was like, “This is good enough. This is good enough.” And it really, it was such the bare minimum of a costume you could make, because I bought the dress off Amazon. It was 15 bucks. It’s the worst quality dress you’ve ever seen in your life but I still have it, because if I ever need a cheap, low quality dress to wear, I suppose I have one. 

Alexine Cornelio: Oh yeah, that’s the go to.

Natalie Selchert: Yeah, the cheap, low quality Amazon dress.

Alexine Cornelio: Okay, so what activities have we mentioned? We mentioned Cox Farms, trick or treating and costume making, maybe.

Natalie Selchert: Movie marathons, kind of. 

Alexine Cornelio: Yeah, kind of movie marathons so out of those four, what would you say would be the one Halloween activity that you would recommend, maybe? 

Natalie Selchert: I know what Lyla is going to say. Just say it.

Lyla Donnelly: Yeah, should I? Okay. Cox Farms. 

Natalie Selchert: Wow. I had no idea. Guys, woah.

Alexine Cornelio: You should really work at Cox Farms actually.

Natalie Selchert: Came out a left field.

Lyla Donnelly: It’s the only two activities I know, it’s trick or treating or Cox Farms. 

Natalie Selchert: I feel like Cox Farms very much is a local kind of thing. 

Lyla Donnelly: It is a local thing.

Natalie Selchert: There’s no, I feel like there’s- I lived a couple places, and I don’t remember there being anything as big for Halloween as Cox Farms. That’s just very much a-

Lyla Donnelly: That’s a really nice local thing.

Natalie Selchert: It is. It’s nice that it’s not far away. I feel like if we lived farther away and had to go to Cox Farms, it would not be as big of a thing as it is. Westfield, Centerville, Chantilly, obviously we all go. I see kids that I went to middle school with there all the time.

Alexine Cornelio: What didn’t you think of doing other things? Let’s see pumpkin carving. 

Natalie Selchert: I’ve carved a pumpkin once and it was so ugly. I was so mad. I was like, “I can’t put this outside. This is not a representation of me as an artist.” 

Lyla Donnelly: It’s also so messy. 

Natalie Selchert: It is messy but I feel like the mess is kind of worth it, if you’re good at it, but if you’re bad at it, like I am, it’s not worth it. Oh, I also bake lowkey. I’d be baking.

Lyla Donnelly: Baking is amazing actually. 

Natalie Selchert: Baking is so, I love baking. My mom’s coworker gave us a recipe for Apple Chai cinnamon rolls. 

Alexine Cornelio: Wow. 

Natalie Selchert: And they looked good and I’d be making bread, pumpkin bread, pumpkin muffins. I still use the pumpkin muffin recipe from facts in seventh grade, so real. It’s one of the best pumpkin muffin recipes I’ve ever had my entire life. And I’d be making pumpkin and apple stuff. It’s so good. Apples are underrated. People don’t talk about that enough. Apples are an underrated fruit. I get it’s like, “Name a fruit” and you go apple but, you’re not appreciating the apples. Apples are so good. 

Alexine Cornelio: Or “What letter starts with A?” Apple. 

Natalie Selchert: Yeah, that’s true.

Alexine Cornelio: They would go like that. 

Natalie Selchert: What’s your favorite kind of Apple? Do you have a favorite kind of Apple? Not just color. 

Lyla Donnelly: I like sweet apples. I don’t know my type of apples.

Alexine Cornelio: The only one I know so well is granny smith.

Natalie Selchert: I do not like- hot take: I do not like granny smith apples. 

Alexine Cornelio: I don’t think I’ve ever had them, but it’s the only thing I know.

Natalie Selchert: How? It’s the green apple… everyone’s had a green apple. 

Lyla Donnelly: No.

Alexine Cornelio: No.

Natalie Selchert: I just did not enjoy it. I will die on the hill that Pink Lady apples are so good. So, so, so, so, so good. 

Lyla Donnelly: I have no idea what you’re talking about. Pink Lady? 

Natalie Selchert: Yes, I make apple pie with them. Everything is a Pink Lady apple to me, that’s all. The Pink Lady Apple supremacy is Pink Lady apple. 

Alexine Cornelio: Well, now we know what apple to go for when we’re making something with apples. 

Natalie Selchert: Yeah, it’s Pink Lady. You get Pink Lady apples. 

Alexine Cornelio: The only apple you should ever get. 

Natalie Selchert: Yeah, I’m saying.

Lyla Donnelly: Alright. 

Alexine Cornelio: Well, Natalie, what is your favorite Halloween activity? 

Natalie Selchert: Favorite Halloween- all encompassing Halloween activity? 

Lyla Donnelly: Baking.

Natalie Selchert: Is it-

Lyla Donnelly: It’s baking. Bet.

Natalie Selchert: I don’t know about baking. I like doing it as a hobby, but I also stress bake. So, you know, I don’t know. I’m not gonna say movies, but I do watch a lot of movies with my mom over the course of the Halloween season. I like decorations. I like decorating, but I like looking at the decorations. Because my house doesn’t have any exterior outlets, so I can’t decorate with any of the cool stuff but my neighborhood has a lot of cool decorations, so I like looking at those. Does that count as an activity? 

Alexine Cornelio: Yeah, oh yeah. I was actually going to mention decorating, but I didn’t mention it. So oops.

Natalie Selchert: It’s okay guys, it’s okay guys. I got you. I got you.

Alexine Cornelio: Yeah, but I would honestly go for movie marathons because I’m not a big trick or treater. I don’t really like giving out candy as an introvert. I just feel like, “Yeah, just get your candy. Thank you.” 

Natalie Selchert: Take your candy and get off of my porch please. 

Alexine Cornelio: Yeah, so I guess our top Halloween activities are decorating, movie marathons and Cox Farms. 

Lyla Donnelly: Oh, yeah.

Alexine Cornelio: You should advertise and work at Cox Farms. I think they’ll love you. 

Natalie Selchert: I think-

Lyla Donnelly: They will?

Natalie Selchert: All the free advertising you’re doing for them right now. I think they’d love that. 

Alexine Cornelio: I think they’d appreciate it so much.

Lyla Donnelly: Yeah.

Natalie Selchert: Oh, yes. 

Alexine Cornelio: Yes, so you should definitely go to Cox Farms. Give us a discount, maybe.

Lyla Donnelly: A discount?

Natalie Selchert: Oh, yeah. The friends and family discount. 

Lyla Donnelly: Maybe free parking too.

Natalie Selchert: Oh free parking, yes, free parking.

Lyla Donnelly: The parking lot is always so full at Cox Farms. 

Natalie Selchert: Yeah, because every friend group drives themselves instead of carpooling. Carpooling is the way to go because there’s no parking there at all. I would imagine there would be more parking because of how popular it is.

Lyla Donnelly: It would be nice. 

Natalie Selchert: Cox Farms “Get more parking” challenge. Get more parking please. 

Alexine Cornelio: Well, I think that is actually all that we have to talk about. 

Natalie Selchert: That’s sick. 

Alexine Cornelio: Yeah. It’s sad, guys. So our top Halloween activities would be Cox Farms, decorating and movie marathons. So that is another alternative instead of doing trick or treating 

Natalie Selchert: Hot take. I have a couple hot takes on this show, apparently.

Lyla Donnelly: Okay. Okay, go. 

Natalie Selchert: But my hot take, for right now, is that Greenbriar is the most mid place to do trick or treating in the entire world.

Lyla Donnelly: Really?

Alexine Cornelio: Really?

Natalie Selchert: It’s so mid. I feel like there’s got to be a better place to be trick or treating because the only good thing is, there’s this one house that’s on the walking path to GBW, where they do kind of like a haunted house, but it’s just up their driveway. And I guess that’s really popular but I only did it once and it was really mid, in my opinion, because you walk through, there’s some lights and there’s some fabric and that was it. Not to hate on them, not to hate on them at all. That’s the only good thing about Greenbriar, because there’s so many realtors that just give you calendars and free advertising.

Lyla Donnelly: Wait, can I say something? 

Natalie Selchert: Oh yeah, absolutely.

Lyla Donnelly: Okay, wait- Are they gonna do the haunted house this year? 

Natalie Selchert: Oh yeah, they are. 

Lyla Donnelly: Have you been? because I have never been.

Natalie Selchert: I have. I worked it last year. I did the concessions. It was a lot of fun, kids were screaming. I don’t know why parents are taking their little kids to the more scary versions instead of earlier in the day, the less scary version. I feel like that was not the most intelligent decision I’ve ever seen. It’s from 1 to 10 p.m. I think it is. Very exciting, I will probably be there. 

Lyla Donnelly: Wait, how big is the haunted house? 

Natalie Selchert: It goes through the entire cafeteria from one door to the other. It’s the length of the cafeteria. You should go. Lyla, you got to go. 

Lyla Donnelly: I think I am going to go. I’m going to go. 

Natalie Selchert: No, you are.

Alexine Cornelio: Okay, you guys, I guess that is all. 

Natalie Selchert: Oh, yeah. Yeah, Lyla. 

Lyla Donnelly: Oh, yeah.

Alexine Cornelio: Thank you so much for being part of this podcast with me and talking about our favorite Halloween activities.

Natalie Selchert: Oh, yeah. Oh, absolutely. I would, I would do it again 100%.

Lyla Donnelly: Yeah. Me too, me too. Me too. 

Alexine Cornelio: Thank you so much everyone for listening to this podcast. We hope you have a great day, and we’ll see you next time. 

Lyla Donnelly: Alright.

Alexine Cornelio, Lyla Donnelly and Natalie Selchert: Bye. 

Transcribed by https://otter.ai