September Ultimate Coffee Date!
Yes, you know it- Pumpkin Palooza has begun! It’s my favorite time of year, and today I’m linking up with Coco and Deborah for the ULTIMATE COFFEE DATE! I’ll be drinking Earl Grey tea, of course (woohoo!) If we were having coffee together, I would tell you all about our new kitten, Foxy. He is settling in so well. All kittens are hilarious and have their own unique personalities. One funny thing about him is his meow, which is a tiny, high pitched “mew.” (As opposed to Muffin as a kitten- her meow for some weird reason sounded like “ngar.”) Sometimes when Foxy gets REALLY excited his “mew” will become elongated. So for example when it’s time to eat, and I’m carrying his food to the other room (we keep the cats separated at mealtimes for now) he’ll trot along beside me, excitedly squeaking out “Meeeeeeeeeeeeeew!” It is HILARIOUS. At first Muffin was upset about Foxy, and she spent the first two days hiding in the garage. BUT! She’s slowly but surely warming up to him. She’ll still hiss sometimes- he’s a little too exuberant for her right now- but she’ll comfortably be in the same room with him as long as he’s not pouncing on her. Another thing I would talk about over coffee is books! I read ten books in August, which is a lot for me. My favorite was The Anomaly by Herve Le Tellier. I have some great books lined up for September, starting with this one: I’m about 1/3 of the way through but so far I’m loving it. The last thing I would share over coffee is, I’ve added oatmeal back to my diet! My stomach is doing well with it. Here’s the first pumpkin oatmeal of the season: Do you have any funny cat stories? What are you reading now?
It’s Fall! (???)
Well- according to Kendra Adachi, at least! Her Fall Playbook covers September, October and November, and I’m here for it. I’ve been feeling incredibly scattered lately… I blame this guy. Well, whose idea was it to get a kitten, anyway? Mine. All mine. I’m enjoying every chaotic minute, but today- Wednesday, my day off work- I decided it was time to pull it together. I took myself to Starbucks with my planner and Fall Playbook. You may remember that SHU gave me all four of Adachi’s seasonal playbooks. I enthusiastically began the summer one, and then never referred to it again- so it was an epic fail. But I like the idea of it, so I decided to tackle the fall book, but disregard the prompts that don’t work for me, and customize it to my own use. One thing that DID work was my “Summer TBR.” I read almost every book on it, with the exception of The Ministry of Time (migrated to my fall list) and How to Read a Book, which I changed my mind and decided not to read after all. These are by no means the ONLY books I’ll read this fall… it’s just a list of books I’m interested in and want to prioritize. I also thought about my running. My big, main race will be on my birthday, March 21st (I’ll be turning 60- EGADS- and will be running 60 miles!!! Er, hopefully). But I need something between now and then, and I’m pretty sure it will be this: I’m not sure I like the photo- is this supposed to convince me to run this race? Am I going to be attacked by a panther??? But it fits in with my schedule. Having tentatively picked this race, I can organize my running more, and figure out where I want to be with my long runs each month. Lastly, I’m thinking about my trip up north to visit my son! He reports that there are FOUR bookstores within walking distance of his house. I want to visit every single one!!! He also says that everything is so expensive, he can’t believe it. Well yes- Chicago is going to be more expensive than Waco, Texas! I’m planning to work two Sundays in September and two in October, to earn extra money which I will then spend with wild abandon on the trip! I want to buy books, take my son out for dinner and go to Trader Joe’s (ALSO WITHIN WALKING DISTANCE OF HIS PLACE!!!) to stock him up with food- all without worrying or feeling guilty about how much it costs. I feel a little more like myself, now that I’ve set some intentions. And I’m super excited for the next few months- it’s my favorite time of the year, even though we won’t see “fall” weather down here until… well, possibly never, ha ha. Sometimes we have a disappointingly warm winter- but we can start hoping for a slight cooldown around the end of October. Are you excited for fall? Are you doing any specific fall planning? Top photo by Marilee and The Sea on Unsplash
Conflict and Resolution
Ha! Muffin and Foxy are getting a little more used to each other. They were looking at each other here, and just as I took the photo Muffin hissed. Well… progress, not perfection! How was your Labor Day? Not gonna lie.. mine kind of sucked. I always work on Labor Day, and that’s fine. But we woke up this morning to… a power outage. NOOOOOOOO!!! The thing is, there’s only so many hours you can go in South Florida without AC before you shrivel up and die I did my run, took a cold shower, and grabbed my breakfast out of the fridge (I know you’re not supposed to open the fridge in that situation, but I really needed that food!) Then I escaped to Starbucks. Good thing I grabbed that breakfast… because I forgot my lunch. Yes, I had a long day at work with no lunch, and my low back was really bothering me. The one bright spot was, in the afternoon my husband texted that the electricity was back on. Ah, I CAN’T WAIT to go home and lie down! Except that my daughter texted me that she was at a friend’s (she also escaped the AC-less house) and needed me to pick them up, plus two other friends and take them all to get acai bowls. Well.. it turned into a long stretch of chauffeuring kids around. After I dropped the last kid off, I asked my daughter for my change and she casually said, “Oh, sorry, I accidentally left it with Abby.” That was the final straw. I pulled out my list of grievances- “You mean I just paid $20 for an acai bowl? I work hard for my money! Also why couldn’t Abby’s mom do some of the driving today? And FURTHERMORE, why were you practicing last night at midnight???” It was not my finest moment. Then we got home and Angie snapped at my husband, and everyone was in a bad mood. And then… the electricity went off AGAIN. While we grimly went through our hurricane supplies, pulling out lanterns and battery operated fans, my daughter told me that she had period cramps today and that’s why she snapped. I told her that my back was hurting, and that’s why I snapped. It wasn’t exactly a tender moment, but it was the closest we ever get. And guess what… the electricity came back (again) which allowed me to write this post and also will allow me to sleep tonight without bursting into flames. Phew. And- tomorrow is a whole new day. How was your Labor Day? – I hope it was filled with fun and friends!
Weekly Rundown- A Big Week!
A lot happened this week, the most important being… YES! We adopted a third cat, which brought a lot of joy and a lot of chaos to our house. There was also a trail run, workouts and a football game! Thanks as always to Kim and Deborah for hosting the Weekly Rundown. Here we go… Monday 4 mile run to start the week. Tuesday Caroling Girvan deadbug workout and hip stability exercises. I know I keep promising to share them- I’ll put them in a post soon. Wednesday 7 mile trail run! I had mixed feeling about this run. Florida trails are buggy and gross this time of year. But… it was still pretty. At night we brought our new kitty home! He’s six months old, so not tiny, but still a kitten. It took several days, but after lots of arguments, accusations, and recriminations, we managed to agree on a name… Foxy! It’s not my first choice, but I like it better than the other names my daughter came up with. Thursday Boy, did I make my life harder! I now have three cats in the house, none of whom like each other (well- Foxy wants to be friends with Muffin and Charlotte, but all they do is hiss at him). I’m trying to keep Foxy sequestered from the others as much as possible for now. This would normally have been a gym day but I didn’t want to be away from home any longer than I had to. Instead I did the Caroline Girvan deadbug workout (imagine doing that while a kitten pounces on your head), my hip stability exercises, and lower body strength- squats and hip thrusts. At night… high school football game! It was hot and muggy, but we won and the band looked good. Friday Oof. Thursday night football game+new kitten= exhaustion. But I got out the door for a dark 3 mile run, which weirdly felt great. I guess sleep doesn’t matter much in the short term! After work I meant to do an upper body workout, but I napped instead. At night I watched the first Baylor game! I know, my son is now at Northwestern, but I’ll always be a Baylor fan. Saturday 4 mile run before work… … and then later in the day an upper body strength workout. Seriously… if I don’t put more focus on my upper body, I’m going to start looking like a T-Rex. Sunday On tap for today… sleeping in! Pancakes! Hip stability exercises. In all the excitement, I forgot to even mention my hip. It’s doing pretty well- I felt a pulling sensation during that 7 mile run, but then the next time I ran I didn’t feel it at all. It’s nagging at me just enough to remind me to keep doing my exercises. In other news, I’ve tweaked my low back again… it’s always something. One more thing… SHU texted me this week… How was your week? –Do NOT tell me about your beautiful weather! I refuse to listen! What is the perfect number of cats?- Three!!! Obviously.