Highs and Lows
Oh hi! For day 2 of NaBloPoMo I have a few highs and lows of the week. Let’s start with a couple (minor) lows so I can end on a high note. LOW #1: I had a terrible week of sleep. Part of it was anxiety about the… er… “E” word, part was anxiety about another issue (coming up below) and part of it was due to a bizarre sleeping “injury”, which I’ll describe in greater detail in tomorrow’s Weekly Rundown. Not sleeping well is NOT fun. LOW #2: Well, Halloween was a little bit of a bummer. We hardly got any trick-or-treaters! Every year we have less and less. It makes me a little sad, and we have WAY too much candy left over. Sigh. Okay, but let’s talk about the highs, because those outweigh the lows by far. HIGH #1: All-state audition results are out! For kids who are total band nerds, this is a big deal. All-state music comes out in June; my daughter practiced it every single day, worked on it with her teacher, ran through mock auditions with me; then, in September everyone auditions; the auditions are recorded and sent to a central location to be judged. Results always come out November 1st, and I think this was one of the reasons I had trouble sleeping. My daughter works so hard- it would be heartbreaking for her not to make it. I know it’s good for them to fail sometimes, I know it builds character. But I’m very glad to report that there will be no character-building this year- my daughter made the all-state band! PHEW. (Fun fact- this also means I get my annual mini-break to Tampa in January, as I’ll be going with her. I’m looking forward to it!) HIGH #2: In spite of my sleep issues, I had a great trail run on Wednesday. It was the last long run before my race on the 9th, and I guess I’m… ready? HIGH #3: I was also very tired tonight (are you sensing a theme here?) but rallied and went to the high school football game. I did take a nap after work and got to the game just in time for the halftime show. My high school years weren’t the happiest, but all the good memories I do have come from being in the band. I still get a thrill of excitement when I see the band lining up to go on the field. Did you have any important highs or lows this week?
NABLOPOMO!!! (And… an Ultimate Coffee Date)
For the FOURTH (gasp!) year in a row, I’m joining San and an intrepid group of bloggers for National Blog Posting Month- 30 posts in 30 days. LET’S DO THIS! This year November 1st coincides with the Ultimate Coffee Date, hosted by Coco and Deborah. Pour yourself a delicious holiday beverage and let’s chat about the month. Last year I had a theme for NaBloPoMo (which then became my theme for 2024)- “Every Day Counts.” The older I get, the more I’m aware that every single one of us has a finite number of days. I don’t want to throw or wish any of them away. We really don’t know what will happen tomorrow- all we have, truly, is this day, right now. Let’s make the most of it! This year I want to continue the theme. What makes each day special, and distinct from the others? A blog post every day is the perfect way to explore that question. But, isn’t it a lot of work? Well… yes, it is. It’s not just writing the blog posts, but reading and commenting on all the other posts by NaBloPoMo participants. This is a time consuming, but very valuable, part of NaBloPoMo for me. It’s all about connection with the community. Every November, I’ve given up reading books for the month in order to keep up the blogging schedule. (This is truly a bummer, and this year I’m going to try and read AT LEAST ONE BOOK in November.) So, the days will be full. Sometimes it’s hard to fit it all in, but in the end it’s rewarding. What if all we did was go to work, and didn’t work out, blog, read, or do any of our favorite hobbies? What if we didn’t have kids or pets? Think how much free time we’d have! But think how empty and sad our lives would be. Full days= a full life. In addition to NaBloPoMo, here are some things I’m looking forward to in November: Turning the FRICKIN CLOCKS BACK. I’m sure you’re looking forward to this as well, just so you don’t have to hear me talk about it anymore. Watching the NYC marathon on TV! Good luck Darlene! A trail race on November 9th. More about this coming up soon! Our high school football team is- hopefully- heading to the playoffs. We’ll have games every Friday night until we lose (or, win state!) My son will be home for a week at Thanksgiving!!! He goes to school in Texas, and it’s too far away for us to go visit him or for him to come home, other than holidays. August-Thanksgiving is our longest stretch without seeing him. What are you looking forward to this month?
Reading and Eating
This week, I finished The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu. My son really wanted me to read it, but warned me that it was a little hard to understand, and difficult to keep the character’s names straight (since this is a translation from Chinese.) Nonsense! The name thing was a little challenging, but I’m used to it (reading all those Japanese murder mysteries paid off!) And, yes, too bad I never followed through on my summer plan to learn all about quantum physics (remember that half-baked idea?) But you don’t need to be a genius to enjoy this book- it was fascinating. I’m looking forward to the next two books in the trilogy, which my son is bringing home at Thanksgiving. There was also a postscript by the author that I enjoyed. He explains how he became interested in science, and then in writing science fiction. He says “I’ve always felt that the greatest and must beautiful stories in the history of humanity were not sung by wandering bards or written by playwrights or novelists, but told by science. The stories of science are far more magnificent, grand, involved, profound, thrilling, strange, terrifying, mysterious, and even emotional, compared to the stories told by literature.” I never used to like science fiction, but now I enjoy it. Next up… a book that’s been languishing on my TBR for a long time: A couple weeks ago Noemi mentioned how much she loves it (and the other books by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.) Whenever someone talks about LOVING a book, I’m extra-curious to read it, so I finally took the plunge. I’m not far into it, but I started liking it in the first chapter. One more bookish thing. Last week Stephany wrote about things she’s recently purchased, and I was especially interested in the “Books are Magic” advent calendar. I looked at it on Amazon, put it in the cart but then decided to sleep on it. Do I really NEED an advent calendar? Maybe I shouldn’t spend the money…. while I was thinking about it, my husband made an Amazon purchase and bought the calendar since it was in our cart. Oops! (heh heh…) On to all the amazing meals I’ve made! Er, well, there was one. On Sunday I made the Pumpkin Pasta Bake With Almond Ricotta from Nora Cooks. It was so good! My daughter didn’t like it (SIGH) which meant more for my husband and me. We ate it Sunday with a salad, Monday with roasted broccoli, and Tuesday with roasted cauliflower. It made THREE DINNERS, woohoo!!! What are you reading? Are there any genres that you previously disliked but now like?
The Big Day
Halloween, I mean. But also… the election. I’m challenging myself not to talk about the election again here until next week. I was doing pretty well, but now every time I think about it my stomach clenches with anxiety. I know other people are feeling the same way, so the last thing you need is me reminding you to worry. So let’s talk about Halloween! Do you dress up? I love Halloween, but I never dress up. There would be nowhere for me to wear a costume- I can’t wear one to work, and I’m not going to a party. I have been wearing my Halloween t-shirt though: And I’ve been sporting my “spooky” hair clip. My daughter says claw clips are for old people. So be it. My daughter will be going to a Halloween party, and I’ll stay home and give out candy. My trick-or-treating days are long over, and I don’t miss it. Well… maybe a little. This year, my daughter is dressing up as a character from a… game (I think?) and her costume is a black wig, white shirt, and black pants. Apparently her friend is going as a partner character, and the two of them will make sense together. Whatever! I miss these days: We also don’t carve pumpkin anymore, and I do NOT miss that! I never really enjoyed it. I think these were the last ones we carved: In addition to Halloween, we have a busy week and I’m all for it! My daughter has an audition, another social event, a pep band rehearsal and we have a home football game. Bring it on! It’s the start of our super busy season, and I love it. Are you doing anything for Halloween? Do you like dressing up? Do you carve pumpkins?