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Five Things

Well, Hurricane Nicole made landfall to the north of us, giving us a mildly windy night.  We awoke to a beautiful and breezy Thursday.   School had been canceled, but the place I work was open so my husband and daughter stayed home while I went to work.  I thought I would stop at Starbucks on my way for a treat, but Starbucks was closed (WHAT.)  When I got to work, it turned out that almost all my clients had canceled because they thought there was going to be a hurricane.

ARG!  Can we come to some sort of consensus?  Are we open, or closed?  I know that hurricanes can be dangerous and unpredictable, and the schools especially have to exercise an “abundance of caution” in these matters, but I propose that next time, we try being a little more reckless and see how that works out.

Don’t get me wrong- I’m glad the storm didn’t hit us.  I’m glad our house is intact and that we still have power.  But this whole thing put me in a bad mood.  I decided to follow the advice of Linus Van Pelt (from Peanuts) who said that the secret to happiness is having “five things to look forward to and nothing to dread.”

Five things I’m looking forward to:

1. A trail run on Sunday.

When I get really cranky like this, I know I need a trail run.  It’s been over a week since I was out on the trail, and I can tell.  Sunday is supposed to be a beautiful day- a little cooler and dryer- and I have a long run planned.

I’ll be there soon!

2. My son is coming home!

My son will be home in eight days.  The stretch from August to Thanksgiving is the longest we go without seeing him, and I really miss him.  He’s a sophomore in college now, and it doesn’t get any easier.

3. Thanksgiving… kind of.

I’m looking forward to Thanksgiving in the abstract, but I’m not really looking forward to all the cooking.  Let’s say I’m looking forward to pie.  For our family of four, we make three pies.  Some would call that excessive but we think it’s just about right.  One of these is a pumpkin pie (for me) made with no sugar, which I know sounds awful but is actually really good.

From last year, and I’m laughing a little at my decorations… seriously? “Pie?” Let’s try to be a little more creative this year!

4. A book flood.

Jolabokaflod, or the “Christmas Book Flood” is an Icelandic tradition of giving books as Christmas presents.  This article describes how Icelanders traditionally give presents on the 24th, and spend the night reading.  I want a Christmas Book Flood!  This year, I’m planning to give my son a “flood” of sci fi/fantasy books for Christmas.  He reread the Harry Potter books during the pandemic and told me it helped him forget all his worries (yes, that’s what reading is for!) and he wishes he had another series to get into.

I’ve already gotten some great ideas from NGS, but if you have any suggestions for me, let me know.  What’s your favorite sci fi/fantasy book?

5. A trip to Tampa.

My daughter will be going to Tampa in January for All-State, and we’ve decided to make a family vacation out of it.  I’ll get to hear my daughter play and also visit some friends we haven’t seen in a long time- they recently moved from Philadelphia to Tampa.  I’m VERY excited about this trip, and am hoping it will help ease my post-Christmas depression.  January is usually such a blah month.

Linus was right- I’m feeling better already.  Thanks to San for organizing NaBloPoMo!

Can you think of five things you’re looking forward to?

Don’t forget, I’m collecting ideas for great sci fi/ fantasy books!

More Posts

Somber Coffee Date

It’s the first Friday of the month, so I’m linking up with Coco and Deborah for the Ultimate Coffee Date!  Sadly, we just received news that my husband’s brother, Charles, died.  I couldn’t just go ahead and write a lighthearted post, but on the other hand I don’t want to make this post too heavy either.  Let me explain… Charles was an eccentric man, and in later years had become reclusive.  My husband visited him occasionally, but the rest of us never saw him.  When she found out he had passed, my daughter said “Oh no- I was hoping to meet him someday!”  All this is to say, the only person greatly affected by his death is my husband. Charles was much older than my husband, and was a father figure to him when they were growing up.  The family dynamics are complicated, but any way you look at it, it’s hard to lose a family member. But life goes on!  While giving my husband all the support he needs, the rest of us are carrying on.  Here’s what I’m looking forward to this weekend: NOT WORKING.  I always work Saturday mornings, but then have the rest of the weekend off.  Two Sundays ago, I went in to work to pick up a few extra hours.  I really didn’t enjoy that, and vowed I wouldn’t do it again.  But then last Sunday someone really wanted me to come to her house and give her and her daughter a massage.  I couldn’t turn down two private massages, so I did it.  But seriously.  This Sunday I am NOT WORKING. FOOTBALL!  So much football!  Starting tonight (Thursday) with KC and Mahomes, then the second Baylor game on Saturday afternoon, and continuing Sunday afternoon with the first Dolphins game of the season.  In honor of the occasion I’m going to get out all my football decorations (why are they not out yet???) and make a fun charcuterie board for the Dolphins game. RUNNING!  I’m continuing with my every third day running schedule, and so far, so good.  Saturday is a running day, woohoo!!! What are you looking forward to this weekend? As you can see, I have not fixed my blog issues yet.  It won’t be this way forever! (OR WILL IT?  Just kidding. I’ll fix it soon.) Top photo by Trishy on Unsplash

Reading and Eating

Well, I’m nearing the end of Winter of the World.  There’s a quote on the cover that says “This book is truly epic… The reader will probably wish there was a thousand more pages.”  Well, yes I do!!!  Luckily there’s one more book in the trilogy, Edge of Eternity.  I’ll be starting that one next. Last week I went to Barnes and Noble to look for some of the books Allison mentioned in her guest post on Engie’s blog. Guess how many they had?  ZERO.  Darn!  Barnes and Noble doesn’t have a very big horror section. I still had fun though.  I sat in the cafe and read this magazine… And I found a planner I love!  Well, I love the cover. The inside might not be quite what I’m looking for, but I love the cat so much (the top of the cat’s head and eyes are peeping up on top of the pages as well) that I might try to make it work.  I decided to think it over a little before I buy it.  (Should you get a planner just because you love the cover?  Probably not.) Now I’m excited because tomorrow (my day off) I’m going to a used bookstore!  I’ve never been there and didn’t even know it existed until recently, but it’s not far from me.  I hope I walk out with an armful of books. Okay, eating.  Remember the grand plan of prepping ingredients on Sunday for a week’s worth of bowl dinners?  Well, the last two Sundays I worked.  Not a lot, but just enough that I didn’t ALSO feel like doing meal prep.  Somehow we got through last week anyway.  And, since this Sunday was the start of Pumpkin Palooza, I made my favorite Pumpkin Baked Ziti (recipe from Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s Veganomicon.)  My sister and I were commenting how the orange and brown color combination looks so pretty now- but once Thanksgiving is over, it looks drab.  When I take down the fall decorations and put up all the sparkly, colorful Christmas things, I can’t believe how dreary orange and brown look.  But for now, I’m loving it! Lastly- pumpkin oatmeal for breakfast!  I just make my regular oatmeal, put in a couple dollops of pumpkin, and all the pumpkin spices (don’t forget cloves- very important!) I’m not quite sure what we’ll have for dinner the rest of the week (leftover ziti will be making an appearance) but we’ll get through it. Do you like used bookstores?  What are you reading now? Top photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Ways in Which I Am Losing It

Wow.  I’ve really been, shall we say, “absent-minded” lately.  Leaving my car keys sitting on the treadmill at the gym, going to work without my lunch… (in the first instance, a good samaritan turned them in at the front desk; in the second, I was hungry all afternoon.)  Let’s look at a couple other recent examples. Several weeks ago, Elisabeth talked about Oliver Burkeman’s Four Thousand Weeks on her blog, and included some quotes from the book.  It sounded really good, so I immediately requested it from my library (a copy had to be transferred from a different branch.) When it was available, I went to pick it up!  As soon as I held it in my hand, I realized… I have already read this book.   Yep!  I read it about a year ago, and had completely forgotten all about it.  SIGH.  I brought it home anyway, thinking that maybe I would re-read it, but never did.  I returned it to the library, unread… or at least, unread this time… or whatever. Moving on.  As we all know by now, Sunday was the first day of Pumpkin Palooza!  I made pumpkin waffles to celebrate.  Here’s the photo: Hmm, you might be thinking.  Nice can of pumpkin there!  The REASON I included that in the photo is… that was the pumpkin that was supposed to go in the waffles. Yep!  I made my “pumpkin waffles,” and when I took my breakfast over to the table, there was the can of pumpkin, unopened.  I FORGOT TO PUT THE PUMPKIN IN MY PUMPKIN WAFFLES.   HOW could this happen?  I’m supposed to be the Crazy Pumpkin Lady!  This was an epic fail.  Although- the waffles were okay.  Not great, but okay.  I still put in all the pumpkin spices so that kind of counts… right? You can see the problem.  Possible solutions include: Pay more attention to what’s actually going on instead of thinking about the book I’m reading all the time, Have myself committed, and/or Start getting more sleep. I’m thinking I should start with a combination of 1 and 3.  These points are actually related, because I keep staying up too late reading.  But my book is so good!  I look forward to reading it all day, and once I start, it’s hard to put it down.  Well, we all know sleep is important, so I’ll try.  It would be nice to get through a few days without doing anything stupid. How is your sleep these days? Have you made any glaring errors lately? Top photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash    

Weekly Rundown- IT’S TIME!

Hey, guess what- it’s pumpkin time!  September 1st is the official start of Pumpkin Palooza, a festival celebrated by… well, very few.  But those of us who celebrate, do it very enthusiastically.  Light your pumpkin-scented candle and let’s get into the Weekly Rundown!  Thanks as always to Kim and Deborah for hosting. Monday I started the week with an upper body workout from Sally McRae’s app, and followed that with Caroline Girvan’s deadbug workout. After work I went to my sports chiropractor for the second treatment on my calf.  He did some scraping, and ART.  He suggested waiting a couple days to let the soreness from the treatment subside, then run on Thursday.  Okay! Tuesday 45 minute pool run!  I think this might have been my least favorite pool run ever.  It rained, and also with about 20 minutes to go my flotation belt broke.  I finished the workout awkwardly holding the belt under my arms. Later in the day I did my hip stability exercises. Wednesday Gym day!  I did 20 minutes on the Stairmaster, then did a hard leg day, plus bench press and abs.  I was definitely feeling down before this workout but felt MUCH better afterwards. Thursday Running day, finally!  I walked one mile and ran two.  No pain in my calf, but that doesn’t mean anything.  I usually have no pain the first run back.  But I’ll take a pain-free run any day! Friday Full body strength- hip stability, upper body (Sally McRae app) and core (Caroline Girvan.) After work I had another ART treatment on my calf.  It was painful but productive!  He suggested that, for now, I run every third day- okay, fine.  Any running is better than no running. Saturday Off- except that, at my daughter’s request, I got out our pull up bar and did some dead hangs.  Funny how hard those are now!  Am I going to once again start doing dead hangs and negatives, pretending that I’m working my way up to an actual pull up?  We’ll see. At night, WOO HOO!  The first Baylor game! We have an exciting new quarterback, and won 45-3.  Perfect way to start the season! Sunday On tap for today- well, it’s the third day so I get to RUN!!!  After that, the first pumpkin waffles of the season, and taking out my fall decor.  Don’t try to rain on my parade by telling me it’s too early- school has started, football is in full swing, and it’s September.  Pumpkin time! I’m still working on my blog issue- please scroll waaaay down to leave a comment (I don’t know why this happened, grr!) Do you follow college football? Too early for fall, or are you ready? Top photo by Dave Adamson on Unsplash

28 Responses

  1. Those are great things. ESP the trip to Tampa.

    Hmm. 5?
    A trip to NYC
    Holiday parties
    Races
    Thanksgiving dinner with family
    End of planking. Lol

    Reply

  2. These are great – I love posts like this.
    1. I can’t believe you make pies. All the props for this – I will buy every pie for the rest of my life I can help it! I love to eat pies, but have no desire (not sure why?!) to make them myself.
    2. Christmas Book Flood = SUCH AN AMAZING IDEA! I’d love to read all Christmas Eve…
    3. I’m so glad your son is coming home soon – and that you miss him! I mean, I don’t imagine that’s a given in every family and it’s just wonderful that you can’t wait for him to come back <3

    Looking forward to:
    1. Watching White Christmas with my best friend. It's – hands down – one of my favourite holiday events.
    2. My cup of coffee tomorrow morning – I only have two a week because coffee really upsets my stomach if I drink it regularly.
    3. Reading in bed tonight; my husband is away and the kids are sick…so I'm aiming for an early bedtime for all and a long stretch of reading in bed.
    4. Getting older. Honestly. I know there are so many things that get harder, but I'm genuinely excited to feel more at home in my own skin.
    5. Sitting on the couch and enjoying our Christmas tree. I don't love the process of getting it all ready…but I'm excited that this time next month the tree should be up!

    Reply

    1. I love how you listed “getting older.” When I was younger I wouldn’t have said I was looking forward to that- but now that I AM older I can see how much happier I am. I think there’s some actual research done that shows people get happier and happier each decade.
      Hope you enjoy your reading in bed and that cup of coffee!

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  3. Has your son read any Blake Crouch? It’s not full-on Sci Fi but his books are so smart and excellent in my opinion. But I am NOT a sci-fi person in general so my recommendations should be taken with a grain of salt!

    Let’s see, 5 things I’m looking forward to: 1. Thanksgiving because we do not have to travel. 2. Running a 10k on Thanksgiving which will truly be a fun run, especially since I am not trained to “race” what with all the illnesses I’ve had. 3. Having my voice back. I sound awful right now. 4. Putting our tree up in a week or so. I love the glow of a tree! 5. Book club at the end of the month. I always have the best time with my book club!

    Ooh that did give me a jolt of happiness to think about what I’m looking forward to! I used to do “looking forward” posts – I need to bring those back!

    Reply

    1. i’m glad you got a jolt of happiness! And I’m getting more ideas from people’s responses- oh yes, I’m looking forward to putting up our tree as well.
      I will definitely look into Blake Crouch!

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  4. Hmm..five things I’m looking forward to.
    1) Going to see a friend this weekend.
    2) The holiday parade this weekend.
    3) Making cookies.
    4) Christmas lights.
    5) Taking Hannah the Dog to the neurologist for a follow-up. She’s doing really well and I’m cautiously optimistic that we’ll get good news.

    Reply

    1. I’ve been thinking about Hannah- she does seem like she’s doing well. I’m also looking forward to hearing about her follow-up appointment. Oh, and I’ll add making cookies to my list.

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  5. I am so glad that you weren’t impacted by “Nicole”… although I understand the frustrations of getting to work (without a Starbucks coffee) and then almost everyone had canceled. Are you allowed to go home then?

    I am glad there are things to look forward to… a trail run! Your son coming home! A trip to Tampa..
    I find it always helps to have some things on the horizon that put you in a good mood.

    I am looking forward to baking this weekend, the holiday season (it’s my favorite, but it’s snuck up on me AGAIN), Turkey Trot (I wanna run again this year), the Secret Santa Mug Swap, and seeing you all thrive during NaBloPoMo 🙂

    Reply

    1. Ugh, no I can’t go home unless the schedule is really, really terrible. In this case, I had one client scheduled for the very end of the day- and another one showed up unexpectedly. But I waited four hours for those clients.
      I’m also looking forward to the mug swap. And you must be so psyched by all the interest in NaBloPoMo- it’s REALLY grown this year!

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  6. Ooooh I felt this in my bones: “I’m looking forward to Thanksgiving in the abstract, but I’m not really looking forward to all the cooking. ” In my case, I am only looking forward to the mashed potatoes and gravy. The rest, I could go without!

    I love the idea of a book flood! Blake Crouch is the sci-fi author that comes to mind, although I haven’t read his most recent (Upgrade) yet. In my opinion, he is not the best writer, but he is an excellent plotter, and his scenarios are fascinating to me. When it comes to sci-fi, I also really loved “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” by Philip K. Dick, but that’s kind of a classic so you may have read it already.

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    1. No, I haven’t read “Do Androids Dream…” or anything by Blake Crouch. I’m just getting into the genre, really. I’ll look into both of those- thanks!

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  7. I love the idea of the book flood. My daughter just explained recently to me why the Percy Jackson series is so much better than Harry Potter (according to her way more diverse) – I still would have a hard time picking my favorite between the two. I also liked the Nevermoor series, Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman and a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
    Looking forward to:
    – visiting our best friends who moved to Las Vegas
    – my birthday next week
    – the winter break from school and work
    – sleeping in
    – dinner with a friend I have not seen in a while

    Reply

    1. I’ll look into Nevermoor- thanks for that recommendation. My son already read Percy Jackson and liked them (but he would argue that Harry Potter is so much better.) I’ve read the Hitchhiker books and loved them

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  8. I have to read up on the Christmas Book Flood idea. Sounds like a lovely tradition.
    If you sin loves sci-fi maybe he enjoys the “In times like these” series by Nathan van Coop. I think he is actually from Florida and the novels are set in St. Petersburg. Its time travel and a group of friends and at times nerdy and researched really well. I told my dad about the time travel there’s and he said its all up to current theories and he studied physics back in the day.
    Also I love the “Sword of Truth” series myself – dragons, fights, good, evil and a romance.

    Your five things to look forward too are all fun. Hope they all turn out winderfully

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  9. My husband was joking about Hurricane Nicole, that she started out strong in the morning, but then faded to a breeze by evening, and that seems to be what happened JUST LIKE WHAT HAPPENS WITH ME EVERY SINGLE DAY. This hurricane is me!

    Five things to look forward to! I’m looking forward to putting the tree up and starting Christmas baking, I’m looking forward to busting out the Christmas music TODAY, we are going to friends’ for dinner tonight, I have some good books coming up on my library holds, and the weather is a bit warmer today! All good things.

    I’m excited for you that your son is coming home!

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  10. That’s a stellar list! The hurricane hit us yesterday so we had killer rain for most of the day, but I took a fairly long road trip anyway.

    My two cents on your list is:
    #1 yay!
    #2 yay!
    #3 just sayin…it’s OK to outsource anything you don’t want to cook. The first year that the hubs and I did Thanksgiving on our own, we got stuffing and green bean casserole from the deli at a fancy schmancy grocery store which gave us more energy to put into making dessert. Also your “pie” decoration is fabulous and better than anything that I’ve done.
    #4 sorry I don’t have any sci fi/fantasy suggestions BUT there are two books that I know that my husband wants but hasn’t gotten around to buying for himself and his birthday is coming up so I’m very excited to get them for him.
    #5 you know I’m a huge fan of local tourism and weekend getaway trips so huge thumbs up to the Tampa trip. I think that you’ll really like it. If I were going I’d be making a stop at the Dali museum and then heading straight to Siesta Key for a few days on the beach!

    Reply

    1. I might have to go to the Dali museum. We were all there a few years ago, and my daughter complained the entire time and ruined it for me. So… I think a solo trip is in order.
      A couple years ago my son asked if we could “elevate” our Thanksgiving dinner… seriously? I told him yes, if he does some of the cooking. So now he and my husband are in charge of the mashed potatoes and salad, and I can say both those dishes are REALLY elevated!

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  11. I’ve never heard of a Christmas book flood but I’m definitely loving that idea!! 😀

    I’ve heard great things about The Wheel of Time series but haven’t yet read it myself yet!

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  12. My daughter (aged 10) is a big Fantasy Book reader so if you have any titles appropriate for her age, I’d love to hear them. I was not a big fantasty reader growing up so I’m a bit stuck! She’s read and re-read all Harry Potter and loved them! Five things I’m looking forward to? I have a work trip to Ghana, Christmas (although I feel it’s come too suddenly!), a family trip for a week to South Africa just before New Year’s, and a couple of races (not goal races but looking forward to that race atmosphere!

    Reply

    1. Okay, I’ll let you know. My son found a series he thought he would like but decided it was too young for him- it might be perfect for your daughter. I just have to find out what it was.

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  13. These are WONDERFUL things!! How exciting. I teach at a university, and my students miss their homes right now so much– especially because we don’t get a fall break.

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    1. Yes, my son can’t come home for a “fall break” because he’s so far away. This is the first time he’ll be home since August.

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  14. JENNY YOU’LL BE IN TAMPA??? I know you’ll be busy with your family, but let me know if you can steal away for a quick coffee date or something! It would be fun to meet up. 🙂

    Hurricane days are hard! I wasn’t sure what would be open on Thursday so I hunkered down inside for the whole day. Wah.

    Hooray for your son coming home after such a long time away. <3

    Reply

    1. Yes, I thought about trying to see you- I would love that. When it gets closer to the time I’ll see what my schedule will be like and let you know. It might be a super busy time, but we’ll see!

      Reply

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