The Happiest Work Day Of The Year

Ask any kid, and they'll probably tell you that behind Christmas, Halloween is their next favorite holiday of the year. What's not to like about it? You get all the free candy you fit into your bag. Ask any adult, and they'll probably tell you that the next business day after Halloween is their favorite day of the year. Why, you ask? The next working day after Halloween is the day that working mothers and fathers bring in leftover Halloween candy and dump it in lunchrooms and break rooms in companies and businesses all over America for their co-workers to eat. What's not to like about it? You get all the free candy you can fit into your pockets or carry in your hands or cram into your mouth whenever you make a trip into the lunchroom.

Our company is no exception to the after-Halloween candy free-for-all. In fact, people started leaving candy corn pumpkins in our lunchroom a couple of weeks ago. Let me interject that I am proud of myself for not touching any of the Halloween candy; my new mantra is "Better on someone else's ass than on mine." That having been said, the community candy hasn't even been a temptation for me this Halloween. But I will admit in years past I did look forward to the day after Halloween so I could get my Nerds and Reese Cups fix. Actually, I would usually get enough to last me for a week.

There is a picking order in the mounds of leftover candy. The good chocolate candy usually goes first -- Reese Cups, Butterfingers, Milky Ways, Snickers and Three Musketeers always go first. Then you have the Skittles lovers digging through the piles. And let's not forget everyone favorites, the Smarties. You could usually find Smarties wrappers in just about every garbage can in our office. Charms Blow Pops and Tootsie Pops usually go fast, too. And speaking of wrappers - it always intrigued me to find trails of candy wrappers leading to and from our lunchroom. It was funny how grown men and women didn't want to get rid of the evidence.