1. Three things you’re grateful for this first week of November? 

Being of an age where I can compartmentalize and calm myself in the face of SO MUCH TO DO.

My oldest son is finally “getting it”; he is becoming so responsible.

The pall I’d been feeling for half of September and some of October seems to have passed. (I wrote that on Tuesday but my Wednesday random thought would indicate otherwise!)

2. Is Daylight Savings Time a thing where you live? Do you think we should continue setting the clocks forward and back? Why or why not? If you could add an extra hour to your day would you want it added morning-noon-night? Do you think it likely you’d be more productive or more likely that you’d just waste more time?

Sadly, it is. I HATE I. I wish I lived in a state that doesn’t mandate this archaic, antiquated agrarian society method. I like the light mornings but the dark evenings make me depressed. I would totally want the extra hour in the morning because that is when I get the most done so please, give it to me! I promise to be productive.

3. Who is  your favorite author? Your favorite book by your favorite author? 

Ugh, I am so averse to answering “favorite” because I like so many! I have recently read CD Reiss and Skye Warren and I recommend. (I’m not going to rec specific smutty romance novels to you guys, ok? Just read them and I promise you’ll like it.) And poet-wise, I love Billy Collins, despite snooty academics disavowing him for being too basic.

4. It’s National Sandwich Day…will you celebrate? How often do you eat a sandwich? What’s your favorite?

I miss a good sandwich. I really don’t eat them anymore because carbs= bad but if I were to, I’d make ham and cheddar on wheat with mayo, mustard, and banana peppers, a little spinach and salt and pepper. Add some jalapeno chips to your plate and oh heck yeah.

5. Have you started your Christmas shopping? If so when did you start? If not when will you start? Do you give more or fewer gifts than you did five years ago? 

Indeed I have! I think my first shipments came in about a week ago and it was just some small things for the kids. I definitely give fewer gifts now because the kids are getting older. In fact, my oldest son is just getting the stocking and a huge computer.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I don’t know what it is about today but things seem really weird. It could have to do with what happened last night. Ash invited me to go along with him to one of our old friend’s going away celebrations. It sounded like a very well organized thing, seeing as how this guy has been in Tallahassee for a pretty long time. But it turns out it was organized by one of their dumb friends and he really only invited five people. I thought it was going to be this guy and his wife and all these other guys and their wives but it was four guys and me. Oh well. But before that, Ash and I went to the Mexican place that we like that is next to the brewery we were meeting at so that was nice. Towards the end of the evening when things were starting to die down I got messages from both boys saying that my daughter had begun throwing up. Our initial reaction was that she probably snuck some Halloween candy – maybe too much candy – and that had made her sick. Ash was pretty mad about it because the fact is, when you have kids they never do anything when it is convenient. When he got home however and we saw that the boys had cleaned up after her and she was not feeling well at all – probably a stomach bug – he wasn’t mad anymore. So that’s good because I hate when he’s unreasonably angry.

She was really not in a good spot so the evening was a little awkward because we kept listening for her to get up. He and I went to bed pretty early but didn’t sleep well. I probably slept from 11:00 to 2:30 and at that point I just couldn’t get back to sleep. I was in and out of a restful state but not really sleeping. Around 3:30 he went ahead and got up because he hates laying there. Around 4:00 my daughter was back in the bathroom feeling sick. Knock on wood, as of right now at almost 9:00 she hasn’t thrown up since. But she’s home today resting and he stayed home to get some additional rest as well. I’m on my way to work and I don’t even know what I’m doing with my students because things have been so weird.

You know how sometimes things just feel different? When I woke up to news that a player on the Las Vegas Raiders was in a bad accident and killed somebody, for some reason that bothered me. Even though none of that should affect me. It just feels like it goes along with a theme of the day of things being off. So today will be interesting in so much as when I finish class I will go home and take care of my daughter and try to stay occupied and until dinner. We are going to an end of season celebration for Isaac’s cross country team and seeing as how I’ve not been eating very healthy lately I’m doing a full 24-hour fast and will be waiting until we get to the pizza place before I eat. I am for sure eating a keto salad tomorrow!

Speaking of tomorrow, I go to my Tuesday/Thursday class and I only just now realized that when I plotted out the rest of the dates for them I didn’t account for Veterans Day next Thursday. Really surprised that nobody pointed that out to me, especially my military student in that class! Be that as it may it will be nice to have a day off, though everybody will be home. I just think it’s weird to have a day off on a Thursday. Wish they could just push it to a Friday. But that is November and a nutshell. It comes on you fast right after Halloween, then it’s definitely still Thanksgiving time in my head, Fall and all that. But society here in America likes to rush us into Christmas time. And indeed, I have been buying Christmas gifts. But I like to hold on to the fall / autumn feeling for as long as I can. But don’t let that confuse you because the day after Thanksgiving my Christmas stuff goes up. Yesterday we drove out to a nice neighborhood on the south side of town to buy a weight bench from an older lady who is moving and we saw a house where they were literally in the process of taking down Halloween and putting up Christmas at the same time. I don’t know why this surprises me but it did. I am certainly looking forward to Christmas and I was scrolling around on Sirius XM looking for any early Christmas music channels but I haven’t found them yet.

I know I have rambled on and on but I needed to put that out there today and it was indeed cathartic!