Did I predict the future?

Three years ago today I said this "Tip for the day: It's almost Halloween, so skip the makeup this morning and get a little more sleep."

As I stood at the train station this morning waiting for my train and scrolling through Facebook the above status update popped up in my memories from three years ago. I thought to myself.  That's a good post, I'm pretty funny sometimes.

Then I realized...I had forgotten to put on any makeup before leaving for work!  Look at me, predicting the future! 

If only I had used my magical powers to play the billion dollar Powerball. Alas It would seem I can

The kids of Halloween Past...

only predict my own personal behavior, which is probably really common and not at all magical.  Nevertheless, on the Eve of Halloween, I'm calling myself a psychic, consider it my costume!


Happy #NationalCandyCornDay !!! Will you be buying a bag to enjoy or throw directly into the trash?  Candy Corn brings out strong opinions!

The Incredibly Silly Thing I've been Doing

Nostalgia is a very effective means of stress reduction. Note, I have no scientific basis for that first remark.  Life is stressful!  The news is stressful, people are bonkers.  And let's not forget it's unseasonably cold in my area.  I hate turning my heat on before November.  I gave in and started wearing my winter coat a week ago.  It's madness I say.  Also stressful is being the passenger as BMO works on reaching 50 hours of driving time to get his driver's license!

I bet there are tons of happenings in your own life stressing you out.  If you are like me, you really can't afford to take up a daily drinking habit--so what is a girl to do?

Some people turn to ASMR on YouTube.  I have turned to watching old commercials.  To be more specific holiday commercials.  Did you know there are hours and hours of commercials from the 70s, 80s, and 90s curated on YouTube right now? 

Yes Virginia, hours and hours of Christmas Commercials awaits you!

I know it's silly, but it's so relaxing to revel in the Nostalgia of childhood.  Try it! You'll like it!  

Happy Wednesday!

xoxo

When was the last time you tried something new?

It was a funny thing, for most of junior high Anna was very opposed to continuing band in high school.  Even as we discussed her schedule for the upcoming year, she didn't really want to continue.  So yes we nudged her a bit, nagged a little for her to give it a try for the first year,  just the basic band and if she didn't want to continue after that, she could stop.  Then out of the blue, just before eighth grade ended, she decided to attend the marching band meeting.  This was a surprise development, we went to the marching band meeting and saw the well-made promotional video and Anna decided to join marching band.

This was the same girl who said previously, "I'm never joining marching band, marching band is like a full-time job."  The first couple days were rough, not knowing how things worked and where to go and how to act, but after a few weeks she was warming up to it.  This was due, not in small part, to the band matching up Seniors to mentor Freshman.  By the time band camp arrived-- note, I didn't know band camp was really a thing--she was all in.

Saturday was the last marching band performance of the year at the University of Illinois, it was about 20 degrees below zero outside and the wind was a brisk 30ish miles per hour.  We froze as we watching the band perform, and we respected Ms. Anna's request that we not acknowledge her in any way.  If you ask her how the band did, she will tell you they had a bad run. She is more critical of the ensemble than the band director!  What I saw was all the kids giving it everything they had all season long. In the aftermath of the season finale, Anna has now been hit with the cold that has been going around school for weeks.

Moral of the story, nudging a teenager to try something, to push themselves,  can work.  Really, this also goes for adults, especially those long past the high school years.  Give yourself a nudge, try something new, push yourself.

xoxo

The thing about blogging is...

The thing about blogging is that it would be cool if lots of people read my blog; however, in order for that to happen, you have to invest a ton of time and some money to try and make that happen.  It's a bummer but that is the way of writing really, anyone who writes doesn't write with a guarantee that anyone will ever read their writings.  Even Stephen King doesn't know that whatever he is writing today will ever reach the masses --sure it's fairly likely in his case, but no guarantees. 

Today we are driving down to the University of Illinois to Ms. A in the marching band competition.  She said she would like us to be there, but she doesn't want us to try to talk to her or make contact while we are there because she needs to concentrate on her performance.  I admire her dedication and was also a little annoyed, as is to be expected when dealing with teenagers. If it was up to me we'd stay home and watch the live stream, but when youngest child asks us to be there, well we are going to be there even though we are going to have to drive over two hours to watch an 8-minute performance and drive back.  I'm really not complaining, much.   

Need Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer in Your Ear Holes? Listen to the Dresden Files!

Death Masks by Jim Butcher
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I listen to this series on audio, I don't read any of the books--James Marsters is perfection as Harry Dresden. This is book #5 of this enjoyable series that I tend to pick up, listen to a book and then a few months pass and then I pick it back up. There is enough reiteration of who the main players in the series are to help you remember if you don't binge read the series. I am going to make more of an effort to get through this series in a more timely manner. I have to say I don't really care about the romance aspect of the book, but if Harry is happy I'm happy. Whenever Harry talks about his cat Mister, I think anew that Mister is the perfect name for a cat. And speaking of perfect character names, I hope the next book has more Murphy- the perfectly named police detective- in it.

Love that this book takes place in Chicago. Nice that Harry and modern tech don't get along as this is handy for plot building. The pacing of this book was good, I personally wouldn't mind if there had been a bit more downtime - like maybe 2 fewer battles, but that's just me. I'm going to go see if my library has book #6 before I get distracted by another book on my TBR pile.


View all my reviews

 #ThursdayThought :  Today marks  the 4 week countdown until Thanksgiving.  😱😱😱😱  I'm hungry right because it's lunchtime and my mouth is watering as I am adding to my Thanksgiving Feast Pinterest Board.  Click to see what I'm planning on serving this November. I've also begun creating a Christmas menu as well.

Happy Thursday!

xoxo

Is Being a Morning Person a Choice?

My goal this Fall is to become a morning person. Is this goal achievable? I really want, need, to finish the book I've been slowly writing over the last year so my latest scheme to make that happen is to become a morning person.

To that end, I started setting my alarm earlier- from 6:15 to  6:00, to 5:35AM. Yes that's right I can't yet push myself to be up at 5:30AM, I need that extra 5 minutes. To show the extreme lengths I will go to try and make this morning person thing happen--I even set an alarm and got up before 7AM on the weekend.  On the weekend! Sunday I didn't even take a nap!  Did I get more writing done?  Barely, but slightly more than the previous few weeks is an improvement.

Here I am near my window, daylight has just broken.  You can't see the sun because my window is Southwest facing and I didn't feel like getting up and trying to get a picture w/the sunrise in it.

I wonder how long this transformation will take?  weeks? months? decades? Can you reset your internal clock for good? Or will one week of vacation set me back? 
******

Frost is now upon the pumpkin, soup weather is here! Please do yourself a favor and make this fantastic soup

xoxo
V