Last Halloween was my first in my own house.

I had moved in about two weeks before, and I was looking forward to greeting my first group of trick-or-treaters.

I went out and bought a lot of the really good candy so kids would not egg my house.

I got a special Halloween bowl to hold said candy.

And I worked as quickly as I could that day to ensure that I would be home for the first princess/devil/firefighter/Spiderman to come to my door.

Yet in all of my planning, I forgot one crucial step: To find out what time trick-or-treating ends. In my mind, trick-or-treating is from dusk-ish to 7-ish, after all it’s a school night, right?

No, not right.

So I was all ready when the first kids came up to my door a little before 6:00, and then there was nothing.

There were no zombies, no Anakin Skywalkers, not even a kid with a sheet over his head trying to be a ghost.

At 6:30, another couple of kids came to the door, and then nothing.

I was a little disappointed – after all, I live in Lakeside, which is practically a kid factory, and still the turnout was slim to none. Since I had expected to be inundated with children right from the beginning, I looked at my candy bowl, worried that I might have overbought.

So when a handful of kids came out at 7, I looked down at my huge Halloween bowl – looked at their quasi-empty bags, and just starting dumping candy into their bags.

Oh, I was the coolest lady to that group of 8-year-olds.

About 15 minutes later, a few more kids came up, and I — assuming trick-or-treating had come to a close – pretty much depleted my candy supply on this group.

Then I realized my mistake.

Around 7:30, I started packing up my front porch and was about to head inside, when it happened: The masses of children I assumed I would be seeing all night were marching down the street, headed for my house.

I looked down and freaked out; I had pretty much nothing left.

Thankfully, I had enough for the first group in the wave, but then I quickly ran inside, turned my light off and … called my mom.

“Mom! What time does trick-or-treating end?”

“Oh, officially in about a half an hour, but you’ll probably still get kids for the next hour or so.”

“WHAT?!”

Anyway, I ended up feeling like the lame neighbor for a couple of weeks, but I am resolved this year to make a comeback. I’m prepping early, and I will camp out in my own front yard until I get the last trick-or-treater.