WORLD CHAMPS! And the Last Day of October

I know, I know.  I've written A LOT about the Red Sox this month.  At last count, I've written four posts about them, and mentioned them at least twice in other non-related posts.  BUT I do have good reason!  Last night, we finally completely and totally killed the Curse by winning the first World Series at Fenway in 95 years.  This team absolutely deserved it.  They've worked so hard this year and had so many set backs over the last couple of seasons.  It's just amazing to see how they've come together under John Farrell's expert managing and become an amazing team.  I'm so excited that I can't even stand it!!! YAY RED SOX YOU'RE AMAZING!  And that ends my posts about the Red Sox until next season. Unless something amazing or awful happens in the off season.  I make no promises.

Today is the last day of October, which means it's not only Halloween (yay!) but the last day of my blogging daily.  And I can't tell you how glad I am.  As mentioned before, November is CRAZY busy, especially since I signed up for NaNoWriMo on top of all my other commitments.  So I'm glad I won't have the responsibility of writing on this here little blog daily.  I can just write when I feel like it.  It'll be awesome!  Happy Halloween everybody!!! Eat lots of candy and wear cool costumes!!

Extended Birthday

Last night was the continuation of my birthday celebration, or as I'm calling it: Extended Birthday.  I gathered my Dallas friends for a great dinner at Ellen's Southern Kitchen.  It was a super fun time, filled with good food and good conversations.  There were a couple of awkward moments, which happens when you're combining friends, but for the most part it was good!  Except somewhere along the way I physically lost $40.  I pulled it out of my purse to help pay for parking, and I must have dropped it on the ground rather than back into my purse.  So that was a bummer.  But besides that minor mishap, it was a really fun evening!  I'm grateful to everybody who came out to help me celebrate!

Aw Rats!

I totally forgot to post yesterday.  And I've been doing so well!!  My only excuse is that I had a busy busy day followed by an even crazier evening.  I didn't get home until 11:00 last night.  That's what time I usually shut it all down and go to sleep.  So the fact that I still had to get everything ready for bed when I got home pushed me about an hour off schedule.  It's show week, coupled with Extended Birthday, friends visiting, and Halloween, so really I have no time at all this week.  I've had to schedule myself to do home chores AFTER I get home from my various outings, and I have a feeling I'm going to have to leave Halloween early, just so I can get home and be prepared for Show Weekend.  I don't know why, but this show seems more stressful than the others.  Maybe it's because there are more cooks in the kitchen when it comes to running it.  Or it could be that our director, as wonderful as he is, managed to not only throw me under the bus but piss my section off.  Luckily they're all pretty awesome and don't blame me for his mishaps.  Let's just say that he handled solos very poorly this semester and ruffled a few usually placid feathers.  So that's life as of right now.  I'll keep you appraised on things :-).

They Say It's Your Birthday

It's my birthday too yeah!  I had such a fun birthday weekend with my family, followed by a very relaxing and semi productive evening at home.  I feel utterly blessed and humbled by the amount of love shown to me today and this weekend.  I'm not sure I entirely deserve it all, but I am greatly appreciative of it!!   Now this week starts the first of five crazy weeks, filled with planning and weddings and fancy dresses and insanity.  Wish me luck!

How I Spent My Saturday

I'm in Houston this weekend with my family, and this is what I've done today:

• Woke up at 6:30 and went for a walk
• Had Rice Krispie Treat cereal 
• Woke up my baby sister
• Read several books to my goddaughter, then got her dressed
• Ate a second breakfast of waffles (my actual breakfast of choice)
• Went to the Peddler's Craft Show with my sisters, my mom, my aunt and my cousins.
• Bought an adorable nativity set
• Carried a very large Santa around
• Ate kettle corn, fudge, and a baked potato
• Watched both Tech and Notre Dame play football.

Now I'm waiting to eat Chinese food and banana cake for my birthday!  Happy Saturdays!

A Little Self Promotion

So I dunno if you go and read other blogs, but I do.  I've been reading Court's blog Baking in My Bathing Suit for a while now.  She's pretty awesome, and I think well on her way to being my blog friend.  Which is super cool.  She called for guest posters this week, and I answered.  If you head over to her blog, you'll be able to read a short story I wrote, just for her.  Thanks for the opportunity Court!  You're pretty swell.

Solo Issues

So my choir show is a week away, and my director just assigned solos.  And I may have gotten one.  That's not false modesty, I seriously don't know if I got it or not, since he hasn't definitively said anything yet.  But this solo I may have gotten is giving me a lot of trouble.  It's from a song I know REALLY well from the actual Broadway show, and the part that is the solo is NOT the part I normally sing when in my car/house/with my sister.  So it's causing some angst here.  I don't know if I just need to hear the ACTUAL music that's going to go with it or what. I can sing the part perfectly in my head or with the Broadway recording, but when I try to sing it along with the recording for the piece we're doing, I screw it up EVERY TIME.  And I can't figure out why.  I think I may be coming in too early when trying to do it with the recording.  I need to look at the music and figure out where everything goes.  I can't tell you how frustrating it is to think you know a piece and then mess it up every time you try to sing it.  It makes me not want to do the solo.  Which is unthinkable in my head.  And yet....... I'll let you know how it turns out.

What I Love Right Now

So many good things are happening right now.  I am very excited.  These are the things I love right now.

1. Jon Lester, and Jon Lester's beard

2.  Jonny Gomes, and Jonny Gomes's beard

3. Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Jarrod Saltalamacchia's beard

4. David Ortiz and Mike Napoli, and David Ortiz's and Mike Napoli's beards

5. Jacoby Ellsbury and Jacoby Ellsbury's beard

6. Dustin Pedoria and my Captain's beard

So really, I love beards, baseball, and my Boston Red Sox.

ONE DOWN THREE TO GO!

Make You Feel My Music

Today, between working out and having a budget meeting and eating a healthy dinner, I finally watch the tribute episode of Glee to Cory Monteith, or Finn.  It aired on October 10th, but due to circumstances, it wasn't available for me to watch until last week, and well I just couldn't last week.  So I finally did today.  As predicted, I 100% cried through the whole thing.  I'd stop crying and someone would sing a song, or say something, or break down, and I'd start crying all over again.  Especially when Lea Michelle sang "Make You Feel My Love".  I bawled throughout that entire song.  It's a good thing I was at home by myself, otherwise people may have thought I was a crazy person.  That song makes me cry anyways, but to see her sing it just was even worse.

It made me think about songs that have different connotations.  For example, "Sweeney Todd" will forever remind me of college choir days, singing that song creepily during a concert.  And Coldplay's "Yellow" will remind me of my best friend calling me while she watched Coldplay at ACL and holding up the phone so I could hear it.  And Paul Simon's "You Can Call Me Al" will always be mine and my sister's song.  There are songs that make you dance, there are songs that make you vomit, there are songs that bring a smile to your face, or a tear to your eye, or a grimace.  There are songs that you never ever associated with someone until you heard them in a certain context, and suddenly, you can't even listen to them anymore.  "Goodbye My Almost Lover" by Fine Frenzy, for example.  Every time that song even starts, I have to skip it or switch it.  Then there are songs that mean nothing connected to anyone you know, but just give you a warm all over feeling.  Like Josh Groban's "Awake", which happens to be filling my earholes at this moment.  Music touches something inside of us, and makes us feel.  Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's awful, sometimes it's indifferent.  But it's always something.  We just have to let it.

Late

So I forgot to post today.  And by "forgot" I mean that the time I was going to spend posting, I spent writing a guest post for another blog.  Sorry!  So instead of telling you all about my super fun weekend, I'm going to tell you about the craziness I've taken on for the upcoming month.  I am not going to be home for the weekend at all in November, I have not one but two weddings, a baptism, a show and family vacations to take, and now I've decided (or become convinced, I'm not sure which) to take part in National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo.   Basically, you start a novel on November 1st, and you pledge to write 50,000 words on that novel in the month of November.  You know, because I am going to have so much free time to write 50,000 words.  I'll keep you updated on the progress of my work.  I can do anything for a month!

We're Going to the SERIES!!! (And the Differences in Celebrations)

Last night, the wonderful wonderful Red Sox charmed their way into the World Series.  Shane Victorino totally earned his paycheck by hitting a grand slam in the 7th inning, and then Craig Breslow and Koji Uehara rocked the innings and got three up three down in order to clinch the American League Championship Series.  It was AMAZING.  And SO SO SO exciting for me who never gets to watch anything, but got to watch the last two innings in the game.  And the celebration after.  It was terrific!!!!!  The boys were so excited and had such a great time celebrating.  AND I'M SO EXCITED!!!! WE'RE IN THE WORLD SERIES FOR THE FIRST TIME IN SIX YEARS!!!

The only issue that I had with this last night was my company.  I was watching the end of the game with my uncle, who is Canadian and prefers hockey to baseball.  So he had lots of questions, and he really did not understand why they were celebrating when they still have another series to play.  I tried to explain that they were celebrating their terrific job so far, but he didn't understand it.  And he also didn't understand why Koji won the MVP for the series.  Uh because he was AMAZING throughout the whole freaking series.  I mean come on, a closer can make or break a team.  They can be up by a million points, but if a closer sucks, they're totally not guaranteed a win.  If their closer is awesome, they are pretty much a guaranteed a win.  So hell yeah our awesome closer deserves a MVP award.  So besides that little annoyance, I am so so so so so so so so happy that we're going back, and that our amazing team is getting the attention they deserve!!  This series starts on Wednesday, and it's going to be so much fun!!!  In closing, I leave you the video of their celebration!

http://wapc.mlb.com/bos/play/?content_id=31167291&topic_id=61827086&c_id=bos

W(h)ine Differeneces

Have you ever noticed that conversations vary between the same people, depending on the type of wine they're drinking?  It's something that just occurred to me this weekend.  I'm currently hanging out at my 'country estate' (which is the pet name for my aunt and uncle's house out in the country), and we ALWAYS drink wine.  It's pretty awesome.  It really depends on what we're having for dinner or the weather as to what kind of wine we drink.  Tonight, it's a beautiful warm Syrah to accentuate the fantastic cold weather we're having/going to have.  When we drink reds, my aunt and I tend to get into deep conversations about the family.  When we drink whites, we tend to be a little more loosey-goosey.  Though that's not saying we are not always loosey-goosey!  I'll tell you all about my fun fun weekend on Monday.  Have good Saturdays, and GO RED SOX!!!!!

Adventures in Dye-ing

I've been dyeing my hair for almost ten years now.  I started when I was 18, on a Girl Scout road trip to NYC.  I've been through the gambit of colors, from that awful first one I chose (it was supposed to be a deep red but on my natural color came out more fuchsia and faded to a bright red)  to blonde, to dark, to really everything in between.  Most recently, I've been on a red kick.  I've been almost every shade of red, and truthfully I look best  in a coppery auburn.  At least that's what I've decided.  So please, tell me why, after nearly a decade of experience, I decided it would be an excellent idea to delve back into the deeper reds, and I decided it would be a great idea to not only dye my hair while drinking (don't EVER do that), but to do it without a mirror.  You know, because I'm super smart.  And my companions, wonderful girls who don't have a lot of experience in DIY dyeing, didn't think to stop me.  Probably because I was so confident.  So I did it, and it came out just awful.  The color was a purpley red and I TOTALLY missed HUGE chunks of hair.  So some was a deep purpley-red and some was brown.  Like dirty blonde brown.  And of course, I didn't have time to redo it, plus it was pouring down rain and we were leaving town.  So I had to go out like that.  Luckily I had also thought it would be a good plan to do little curls all over my head, leaving me with Shirley Temple-type curls the next morning.  That distracted from the million different colors residing on my hair follicles.  I'll tell you what, I was a hot mess. I'm surprised the people I went to lunch with (including my best friend's new boyfriend) didn't think I was insane.  So getting through Sunday was fun.  Monday, after work, before choir I RAN to Ulta to get a new color.  And what did I decide to get?  A dark brown.  Something different for fall.  So after choir, I rushed home and redyed my hair.  It looks pretty good, and I think as it fades it'll get prettier.  Right now it's real real dark, and I'm not used to that.  But everybody else seems to like it.   So lessons learned:

• Don't dye and drink
• Don't dye without a mirror
• Stick to the colors you know will look good.
• I don't look good in curls

Initial Color (don't mind the curls, that was an experiment)

Notice the several different colors spread throughout my head

New dark hair!  It looks darker in person! Or maybe it's just me

Edit: As of yesterday afternoon, I decided that my dark hair was just way too dark for me.  I felt like I was wearing a wig.  So I used Color Ooops and got rid of it.  Now I'm back to my pre-color, and my hair feels like straw.  I will be conditioning it over and over before I apply more dye to it.  My poor mistreated hair.

Update (This Will Blow Your Mind)

Guess what guys.  If you stop eating fruits and vegetables on a regular basis, and you start drinking soda like it's water instead of oh I dunno, WATER, and at least one of your meals contains something fried, it really doesn't matter how much exercise you do, or how far you walk in the rain, you WILL gain weight.  Amazing right?  I just completely blew your mind didn't I?  I know.  Don't worry.  So because for about the last week this kind of eating has been my MO, I was not at all surprised when I stepped on the scale yesterday and saw I gained 2 lbs.  I was actually surprised that I hadn't gained more.  And I know I need to make a change.  So I started yesterday after work.  I went to the grocery store, and I got fruit and I got veggies, and I got stuff to make a healthy dinner tonight. Then, after my WW meeting, I wanted breakfast.  But here's the catch.  It was late and I didn't want to make it myself.  So I went over to IHOP.  And not only did I get a reasonably healthy breakfast for dinner, making sure to say no whipped cream on my pumpkin pancakes and turkey bacon rather than real bacon, it was pretty cheap.  So  all in all, except for the hash-browns (I'm a sucker for a hash-brown) and the cinnamon rolls I baked up for the rest of the week, I think I'm getting slowly back on the eating track.  Hopefully I'll be down next week!

Things I Should Feel Awful About (But Really Don't)

I used to be a people pleaser.  I used to try to make everyone like me.  Now, I don't care particularly if you like me or not.  I'm going to be nice to you, because I'm a nice person, but it really depends if I actually give a rat's ass about you or not.  In that line of thought, I've come up with a couple of things I should feel awful about, but truthfully I don't care.

• Disliking certain people for no reason: I'm sure everyone has felt this at one time or another.  There are just certain people that no matter what they do or how they behave, you really really dislike them.  To the point when you see them post on Facebook or whatever, you not only wonder why the hell they're your friend but also get a deep feeling of annoyance.

• Getting frustrated with small talk: this isn't always.  Sometimes small talk is good.  But I'm sorry checkout dude, when it's 5:30, and I'm buying two bottles of wine and a meal that's obviously for one, do you really think I'm in the mood to chat with you about the traffic or the rain?  Especially when I have yet to actually smile at you?

• Writing off people's problems: truthfully, I don't care if you are pissed off about being at work.  Or about your marital status or the fight you had with your boyfriend, or the state of the union.  It may sound super selfish and petty, but really, today, I just don't give a flying fart in space. 

• Eating crap and not tracking it: sometimes you just need to eat junk food and not feel guilty about it or the amount of it you've eaten.  And you don't want flack from your scale or your friends or others.  Yeah yeah emotional eating is bad, blah blah blah.  Truth is: SOMETIMES COOKIES DO MAKE IT BETTER.

• Disliking people's sympathy: I really appreciate all the phone calls and the texts and the messages people leave places or make or send when a crisis arises.  No truthfully I do.  It makes me feel loved.  BUT what I dislike, and this is awful, but I hate when people continue to harp on the sympathy.  Or worse, when they start with the sympathy, move on to something else, then circle back to the sympathy.  I don't need/want buckets and buckets of sympathy. I want a dash.  A bit.  A brief two minutes where you express your concern and love.  Then we can move on.  And I don't want to go back to it.  I got it, you're sorry for me and you love me.   Stop harping.

See these are ALL things that I utterly should feel terrible about. I should not want to do these things.  I should be a nicer person.  But the truth is, sometimes I'm not.  And today happens to be one of those days.

A Year

A year ago, I got one of the hardest phone call I've ever received.  The only one that rivals it is the phone call I got from my mom about my RowRow.  Which is ironic because this phone call was from my mom as well.  It was awful.  I fell apart and I didn't know how to fix it.  One of my best friends was gone.  Gone and he would never ever come back.  And now it's been a year.  365 days. I still think about him every single day.  He flits across my thoughts with the whims and the fancies of a fairy, and sometime it's just a touch.  Sometimes I think of him so hard I reach for the phone to call him.  And I know he's not there.  I don't know if I'll ever find someone to take his place.  In 365 days I haven't. I miss you and I love you my Toto.  I'm dressed up today, just like you liked me to be.  I'm waiting for you to show up in your swanky suit and take me dancing.  I guess I'll whirl by myself today.

Lunch Dates

So my brother-in-law's aunt is in town.  And she was visiting a friend for breakfast.  And my brother-in-law and my boss had a meeting at 1.  So she came here and my sister brought the kids and lunch.  Which is excellent, because this morning was hard emotionally.  Instead of driving around in the rain and the dark and feeling sad, I spent my lunch break with three of my favorite babies, which cheered me up exponentially.  So yeah that's my life.  Made better by babies.

Slacker

Yeah, so I forgot to blog this weekend.  In my defense, I was out of town at a lake house.  And I was hanging with people, so it would have been rude.  At least that's what I'm telling myself.  So this post counts as my Saturday and Sunday posts.  I'll do another one for today later on.

I just spent around 48 hours with two of my favorite people.  I was supposed to be part of my favorite Allyson with a Y's bachelorette party this weekend, but due to several occurrences, it was postponed.  So instead of a weekend with a bunch of cliquey girls all running around trying to be in charge and stick to a schedule, it was a relaxing weekend of fun, shopping, food, booze and girl time.  Ally, her sister and I all got to spend some great quality time together and since I can't go to the newly rescheduled bachelorette party, we celebrated in a low key style!  Turns out I know a lot about Ally!  We were really productive in our shopping endeavors, finding both our bridesmaids' shoes and her rehearsal dinner dress.  We also (very poorly) dyed my hair, which I'll write about on Wednesday.  We also ate fantastic food, laughed a lot, and just had a really really good time.  Then I got to see my other Austin besties and meet the new guy of one.  It was all in all a very very great, albeit tiring, weekend.  I am not as young as I used to be!!

10 Things I Did Today

1. Watched an awful show.  I mean just terrible.  Most Eligible Dallas?  Seriously worst show ever.

2. Finished two and a half books

3. Watched an amazing sunset

4. Went to HEB.  It's so nice to go to a HEB after Kroger and Tom Thumb

5. Figured out electrical issues all by my lonesome

6. Had a great conversation with one of my besties

7. Went for a walk around East Austin

8.  Decided I really love hipsters

9. Had a waitress pick a DELICIOUS drink for me

10. Started an amazing weekend with my sister from another mister.  It's gonna be amazing.

Our State Fair!

Is a great State Fair!  As you can guess, I went to the Texas State Fair last night.  After I worked out, showered, and weighed in (I gained .8 lbs, whoops), I met my friend Zack at Fair Park for a night of eating fried oblivion!  I didn't end up taking any pictures, just because I was focused on the food, but oh man.  It was so good.  We had

• Fried Meatloaf (OH MY GOD)
• Deep Fried King Ranch Casserole (Seriously, it shouldn't be served any other way)
• Fried Cuban Roll (Totally deserved the 1st prize this year, and I only had one bite)
• Fried Cake Balls (SO sweet and more cookie doughish than cake ball.)
• Fried Oreos (he had those, I was enthralled with the cake balls)
• Fried Spinach Dip (I want to try to make those at home.  They were SO GOOD)
• Fried Biscuit and Gravy (again, he had that one.  I was SO FULL)

I also went outside of my comfort zone and had a Shiner Blonde.  Guess what?  I didn't like it.  Totally not worth the points, but I drank the whole thing.  Made me feel like I should have been playing beer pong.

So the fair was super fun.  We completely missed the Fried Thanksgiving Dinner, which we both wanted to try, but meh it worked out!  I love the fair, and I can't wait to go again next year!! (Pics from Zack's FB page)

 Top is fried meatloaf and bottom is deep fried king ranch casserole

Big Tex!

ALDS CHAMPIONS!

Last night, at just past midnight, the Boston Red Sox officially moved on to the American League Championship for the first time in five years.   You can't see my face right now, but I can promise you I feel like this:

I am so stinking excited for my boys to go on.  They're amazing, and they totally deserve everything!!!!  For your viewing pleasure, I give you the bearded boys of the BoSox celebrating yet another milestone on this awesome road we're traveling down.

FEAR THE BEARD!  BEAT THE TIGERS/ATHLETICS!

Aw Nuts

In this hyper-aware, hyper-foodie, hyper-healthy society we live in, nuts make an appearance in almost all food.  I mean ALL food.  Food that I think shouldn't include nuts.  Like soups, salads, breads and cookies.  Now I like nuts.  Well, sometimes I like nuts.  I like certain kinds of nuts.  I'm a big fan  of cashews and walnuts, almonds and peanuts as snacks.  I like nuts when I'm expecting them.  What I DON'T like is when I'm eating something, say a slice of pumpkin bread, or a cookie and then all of a sudden there's a nut.  Not just a single nut, but a slew of nuts.  Nuts spread out through the entire loaf or the entire batch of cookies.  I didn't sign up for nuts in my cookies, I didn't sign up for nuts in my bread (unless it's my mom's banana bread), and I most definitely did not sign up for huge chunks or a full nut in my food.  Unless I'm snacking on them, I prefer my nuts in tiny pieces.

This post brought to you by the awful surprise I found in my pumpkin bread from Whole Foods today.

The Craziness

This week is one of the craziest weeks I've had in a long time.  I only have one night at my house.  The rest of the week I'm out different places, until Thursday when I leave for a bachelorette party (more on that later).  I've been, not dreading it per say, but being very anxious about it, but I think I've turned a corner.  Rather than be completely worried about the amount of money I'll be spending or the time I won't have to myself, I'm going to embrace the insanity that is my life at the moment, try to make plans to fit everything I need to in, and really enjoy the things I have going on.

For example: tonight I have a board meeting before choir, and I know it's going to be a long one.  It's going to be full of people expressing their own opinions and not listening to anyone else.  BUT I am going to focus on the fact that this meeting will help our show in a few weeks be the best one yet, and it'll all be worth it.  I'm going to ignore the fact that I won't get to eat dinner until 9:00 (again), and pick up a snack on my way out there.  I'm going to do my best to be cheerful, attentive, and helpful.  I'm already taking more control of my job (section leader and concessions for the shows) and I'm going to do my best to really buckle down and be a good example!

Wish me luck!!

Words, Words, Words, I'm so Sick of Words!

Seeing as my life is made up of words, that's probably not a good thing.  But I don't want to write today, mainly because my wrist hurts, so I give you a song instead.

Happy Sunday!

Different Strokes

I was having a conversation with a friend of mine the other day, and this friend is directly affected by the furlough.  Both she and her husband are in fact.  So we were talking about how ridiculous the whole thing is, and I made a comment about the awful state of the union, and how I don't know how we can get back.  She said if everything melted down and it became a survival of the fittest.  That's the only way this mess could be fixed.  That struck me as extreme measures.  Not to mention callous and cruel.  The Hunger Games was a book series, not real life.  Not to mention how would you define "fittest"?  Would it be those who have been trained to fight?  Would it be those who have the best survival instincts?  Because I'm pretty sure that's a great way to return to animal instincts and even more general chaos.  What about those who are amazing people who work their asses off every single day just to barely make a living?  Good people who are just trying to live their lives?  Would they be wiped off the slate along with those who are considered "weak"?  What about the elderly, and the sick?  What about the mentally and the physically disable?  Would they be considered weak?  Would they not survive? What about the children?  Why would you wish for a world where every single day is a battle? I don't understand.  I don't have a solution, but I do know that the fall of western civilization is NOT the answer.  Let's pretend we're decent humans, shall we?

Little Red Riding Hood

Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays.  I love dressing up (even now) as someone completely different, I love the decorations, I love the good old fashioned fun of trick or treating.  When I was a kid,  I loved it ever more.  Halloween was when I got to be someone different than who I was, I got to dress up, wear makeup, transform myself.  The only problem was I didn't JUST want to wear my costume on Halloween night.  I wanted to wear it all the time, from the time I got it, until it fell apart.  Luckily for me, my birthday is right around Halloween.  So every year I would have a costume party.  An afternoon into evening party, where my many cousins and siblings and friends could come and dress up, usually the weekend before Halloween. So not only did you get to wear your costume more than once, you got to wear it BEFORE Halloween.  Now this seems like a great plan for a child who enjoyed pretend, but for a klutzy, haphazard kid such as myself, it didn't always work out for the best.

When I was seven,  I went as Little Red Riding Hood for Halloween.  I had the cutest red cape (with a hood!!), a red dress, black tights and red shoes.  I carried a little basket and had rosy red cheeks.  The day of my birthday party, I was running around with my cousins and friends, playing in the backyard.  I tripped, and not being able to catch myself, fell and scraped my knee on the back porch.  I was fine, but my tights were ripped.  This didn't bother me a bit, because they were hot, itchy and constricting.  So I went back to my room and took them off, not really bothering to tell anyone.  Then I went back out and played.  Except this time, I went out in the front yard to greet more people.  Running along the sidewalk, I tripped (again) and this time I really scraped my knees up on the concrete. I don't remember being in pain, probably because I was so used to falling and hurting myself that a little pain wasn't an issue.  What did bother me was that the blood from my knee was running into my white socks.  Tights could be replaced, but these socks were special, and they wouldn't be white anymore.  My nurse mom fixed me right up, and we continued on.  But on Halloween night, I remember being sad because my socks were ruined.  I wonder what happened to that costume.  It was a good one!

Random Things Happening This Week

I don't really have the time or the energy to come up with a big awesome post.  Yeah, it's Thursday during a busy week.  And I haven't had caffeine in the past three days.  So I give you a list.  It's a random list, full of nonsensical things going on in or affecting my world this week.  Here ya go.  Enjoy.

• I've woken up at 6:50 or 7 every day this week, even though my alarm starts going off at 6:20.  And I'm still tired.
• My Nana had a knee replacement on Monday.  She's still in the hospital, and she's doing all right.  Though she hates being there and doesn't care for "all the fuss".  If you could send good thoughts and prayers for her speedy recovery, that'd be cool.
• I have family coming in this weekend from all over for the Notre Dame game being played at Cowboys Stadium.  Some of which will be staying at my house while I stay at my sister's in Fort Worth.
• That mean I have to double spot check tonight, make sure everything is completely clean, wash the sheets and remake the bed.
• I've never had a dress professionally altered before, but today I'm getting two done.
• Josh Groban started his "In the Round" tour yesterday.  There's a rumor I may get tickets to his final night here in Dallas for my birthday, but it may not happen.
• The Red Sox start the ALDS tomorrow, and while I'm super pumped, I'm also super nervous.
• I get to play with lots of little kids this weekend, so that should be fun!
• Sometimes I just want to not go to work and sleep the rest of the day.  That's normal right?

Government Shut Down? More like Big Old Fit-Throwing

I just want to preface this by saying that I only have a minor understanding of politics.  Politicians tend to say a lot but really mean nothing, so I don't really pay attention.  As one does when there's someone blowing hot air.  Therefore, what I say here is COMPLETELY opinion, and really just the outside observations of someone who cares more about the fate of the baseball postseason than really what goes on in Washington. Which makes me sound like an AWFULLY shallow person, but there you have it.

The United States Federal government, for the first time in over two decades, has shut down.  800,000, that's right, EIGHT HUNDRED THOUSAND, people have been furloughed, meaning they're basically out of work, without pay, for WHO KNOWS HOW LONG.  And why has this awful thing happened?  Because the bigwigs up in Washington can't figure out how to reconcile their differences long enough to sign off on a budget.  Basically, the House and the Senate are sitting up in DC going "I want this." "Well I want this. And I definitely don't want you to have THIS." In the meantime, the thing that the House is fighting tooth and nail about is going into action.  So really what we have here is the full scale, grown up equivalent of two toddlers throwing temper tantrums.  But instead of just making a scene in the middle of the grocery store or park, they're making a scene on a global scale.  You hear that? A GLOBAL SCALE.  Countries around the world are watching as one of the major super powers in the world, the self proclaimed "best country ever", basically implodes. It's frankly terrifying and embarrassing to those of us who simply want to live their simple lives, and do the best they can.  How can we be expected to reach our full potential and strive to be better when we're being run by fit throwing idiots?

October

October.  It's an interesting word isn't it?  Fun to say, and full of connotation.  Say it in March and it brings up a faint memory of coolness, different spices, sweaters, boots, and just a hint of excitement and hope for those die hard baseball fans.  Say it in July and it's like a tease. There's no way it could ever feel cooler or be less gross outside.  But then that calendar flips from September 30 to October 1st, and suddenly, even when the high is 90 degrees, it feels like fall.

October has always been my favorite month, in no small  part because of that thing that happens at the end of it.  No, not Halloween.  That other, much more personal thing.  Oh yeah, the day of my birth.  But this year, October is different.  It's still good, and it's still going to be fun.  But there's a sad tint to it this year.  The only thing I can hope is that I'm able to focus on the good and only indulge a little in the sad.