Boo

 I've been tired and achy all week. On Monday I came home from work and everything hurt so much I sort of just sat on the couch or limped around until I could take a bunch of Advil and go to bed and put pillows under my knees and behind my back and read until I went to sleep. When this happens it's hard not to get into an icky self-pitying spiral. I made a list of anti-inflammatory foods. I contemplated ordering purported pain-relieving essential oils. I complained to my sympathetic friends.

I slept well and did a good yoga session Tuesday morning and then took it kind of easy for the rest of the day, and I felt better. And I realized that I just had a bad day, and every day won't be like that. My massage therapist says I should go to a rheumatologist and get formally tested for fibromyalgia, but I'm not sure I see the point. My old doctor thought I had it, but when I google it now it still says there's no way to definitively diagnose it, so what would be the point? 

ANYWAY, it was our friends' annual Halloween party on Saturday and Matt was between Arizona and Mexico so I didn't have to go alone. 

Typically I either come up with a costume that I like the idea of and then hate when I finally put it on, or grumpily declare that I'm not going to wear a costume and then end up throwing something together last minute, which is fine but it means I was anxious about it for longer than I needed to be. This year I saw my bright yellow dress in the closet in September, ordered a couple of cheap accessories to go with it, and even remembered to grab a yellow t-shirt for Matt when I was at Michaels a FULL MONTH AGO.

I was going to just write Honey on it, but then I thought doing the chemical formula for honey instead would be funny and appropriate since most of our friends are science-y. If you happen to know the exact formula for honey and this isn't it, please exercise forbearance and realize that I am basically like a monkey transcribing Shakespeare in this instance.

I would walk up to Matt all night and say "Hi Honey!" and then laugh really hard at my own joke.

The party vibe varies wildly from year to year. Sometimes it's chill, and sometimes we feel like there's extra oxygen being pumped in and go until 3 a.m. This was kind of a middle-of-the-road year, for me especially - I had a headache that I should have taken a migraine pill for but I didn't realize this until I was going to bed. 

It was still fun. The host hired my friend Dani (HI DANI) to give Tarot readings for something a little different, and everyone really enjoyed it - even my friend's son who said something like "huh, that was less lame than I thought it would be". It was my first reading, and I knew it was more about sort of intuitive interpreting of the cards, and I have to say, my first-drawn one seemed devastatingly appropriate

My middle card was something about logic vs emotion, and Dani said I should try to be less defensive. The third card she said "means look for a surprise" and I sort of threw my hands up in front of my face and she said "not in a bad way!" in a 'have you learned nothing' tone of voice. Working on it.

Plus it's just fun to watch the monster from Halo getting a reading

Various degrees of costume commitment

When people start stealing parts of other people's costumes

Now it is Halloween and my hands were too sore to carve the pumpkins and Matt is in Mexico, but I put in a bit of effort anyway, and it is 7:30 and I have only had THREE trick or treaters. They were lovely tween girls and they loved Lucy and said I was so sweet for how much candy I made them take, so honestly, I'm fine if that's all I get. 

This hot dog is finding the waiting a little tedious, though

Happy Halloween!

Five Fails For Friday

1. I had book club last night - second part of Don Quixote, which I finished reading at 2:15 yesterday afternoon. It was at Carolyn's new house, which I had never been to, and I was giving our new member a ride because she had shoulder surgery and can't drive yet and she was closer to me than anyone else. It turned out that it was helpful to have Laurie with me because she grew up in Ottawa and knew the area we were going to better than I did. I dislike night driving more and more, especially when I don't know the route, but we made it to the area and parked on a side street about five minutes away. The house fronts on a beautiful park, so we were walking down a really pretty lamplit sidewalk, looking for number 128.

I have a bad habit of not noting down people's addresses in an easy-to-locate place, and then having to ask for them again every time. The night before book club I had very carefully put Laurie's address and Carolyn's with their contact information in my phone. I found Laurie's house easily. But we got to the end of the lamplit path and were not yet at number 128. Because Carolyn's house is actually number 28 WITHOUT the 1, because I... didn't check that carefully, I guess?

Sometimes you try to make a Good Impression on a new acquaintance and instead end up vividly demonstrating Exactly Who You Are.

2. I'm really  happy with how my Disrupt the Clutter project this fall has gotten the main floor to the point where it's quick and easy to get it back to clean and serene condition. Did I still have to hide some stuff in weird places when my parents were coming over for Thanksgiving dinner? Yes I did, but, like, eighty percent less stuff.

This morning I was tidying away a few things that had collected on the dining room table. Unfortunately, two of those things were bowls full of Halloween candy.

Sometimes you try to Clean and Organize your living space and just end of Organizing a bunch of Mini Kit-Kats into your face.

3. On our walk today we walked past a driveway where a little girl and a younger boy were playing, the younger boy on a little scooter. When he saw Lucy he yelled "DOGGIE", and started scooting down the driveway directly toward us. Lucy seemed interested in meeting the small human, so I stopped and said "do you want to pet her?", whereupon he abruptly about-faced the scooter and booked it back up the driveway. Okay then.

Sometimes you try to be a Nice Lady and end up being Stranger Danger.

4. Suzanne mentioned crunching acorns in her recent post, which reminded me of how Eve always loved collecting acorns from under a giant oak tree on the way home from the bus stop or while we were walking around the block. She would make a hilarious little "ah!" squeak when she saw one, would pick up a few, turn around and see more and go "ah!" and throw the ones she had up in the air to pick up new ones. I tried to get some pictures on our way home from today's walk, but you know what, acorns are just not that photogenic.

Sometimes you try to be Artistic and you just end up looking like a Weirdo with a Thing for Acorns.

5. Special thanks to Elisabeth for the Cool Bloggers Walking Club, because I have been taking my walks with Lucy in different directions so I'm not always taking the same pictures. I've been a bit anxious lately, and some of the walks have had an undercurrent of obligation and slight fretfulness, but today was sunny and the perfect cool temperature and the walk felt like pure pleasure. AND then I realized I was fairly close to Eve's BFF's house. The BFF is in Vancouver, but I haven't seen her mom (also my close friend) for months, and I texted her on a whim to see if she was home and she was. This was amazing for me and for Lucy, who loves Di so much she literally looks like the heart eye emoji when she sees her (to be fair, so do I). She also gets along well with their dog Piper, and they ran around in excited lockstep.

Sometimes you try for Five Fails and end up Failing to Fail on the last one because the day is Actually Awesome.

Fall Braking

 I saw Ruth the Massage Therapist of Awesomeness again today. She's at the same massage place I usually go to, but a different location. This is not an issue - it's pretty much the exact same distance away, just in a different location, and it's not a women-only place but I don't care about that. The principal difference has been the music. At the place I used to go to, it was generic spa music - pan pipes and quiet chimes. At the new place it's piano arrangements of, well, every song ever. The first time I was lying there thinking 'huh. Is that Wonderwalls by Oasis?' just before it ended and I then thought "huh. That is Hit Me Baby One More Time". Today was energetic keyboard renditions of Love Me Harder by Ariana Grande and Despacito. I fully expect to hear a tinkly version of WAP before my treatment program has concluded.

The rest of Eve's week at home was wonderful. The kids came over and painted the pumpkins on Tuesday, and then engaged in one of their favourite activities, namely watching terrible reality television - I don't get it, but they're all really smart so I choose to believe they're doing it ironically. I do NOT recommend The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, for the record.

Wednesday we went to get Eve a new phone - we tend to keep ours for a long time, and the last time I went to upgrade mine she had just bought a biodegradable case and didn't want to have to buy a new one. But her phone was starting to glitch, and it was time. We are almost weirdly determined to avoid having the newest phone, but there was a promotion on which meant that newest was the best deal, and we're not quite weird enough to pay more money to avoid having the newest model. She's now realizing how slow the old one was and is really happy, but still bitter that she has to buy a new case.

Thursday we went to the craft show at the Aberdeen Pavilion at Lansdowne Park. I had kind of forgotten that Lansdowne park is now a whole big thing, whereas it used to be the Pavilion and the stadium and that was pretty much it. Fortunately it wasn't a weekend so the parking lot was manageable. We got a little lost trying to find our way up to the surface and ended up in a GoodLife gym. We asked if we could get out that way and the woman at the desk told us we could take the stairs or the elevator. We found the elevator first, so we took that, but when we got out we looked down and the woman at the desk was embarrassingly close, like there would have been about eight stairs, so we avoided eye contact and slunk out.

The craft show was fun - we found a couple of things I could buy for her and save for Christmas, and some hummus and toffee and a candy apple, and then we decided we should stop buying food, so we left, and immediately stopped in a cafe for vegan cinnamon buns and chai lattes. Then we stopped by my parents' place for a bit, and my mom showed her everything she'd baked for her to take back to her house, and my dad did his usual thing where he makes her a bunch of pancakes to save for a couple of weeks of breakfasts, then pretends he's mad about her taking them.

Friday we had a chill day and she finished up some work - I told Eve to bundle up and sit outside for a while and brought her lunch. Saturday we drove back to Hamilton. It was a beautiful day and she played me the music she's listening to and read through her lines for a scene she has to do Wednesday in her theatre class. When we got to her house I texted my professor and she had her grandkids for the night so we went and met them on the corner for twenty minutes on our way to dinner with a couple of Eve's housemates. They had quite a bit of energy, and somehow the doorway to the bookstore became a dungeon that various people kept being put in. We got a few pics, but they were all action shots.

Sunday I went to have tea with my professor so we could have an actual conversation, then took Eve grocery shopping and then to get her Covid and flu shots, which she had, with admirable forethought, made an appointment for while she was still at home. My drive home was probably the easiest it's ever been. I listened to You Are Good podcast episodes about the movie adaptation of Christine (recommended by Nicole and Hannah HI NICOLE AND HANNAH), and about Scream and The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, and then I was a little sleepy so I played the Hamilton soundtrack and sang really loudly to wake myself up - my voice has come back to the point where I only run out of voice on the highest notes, so I guess my larynx was just traumatized by the horrifying cough and needed some time to recover. 

I have definitely missed a few walks in the CBWC, but Eve and I got out for some nice ones with Lucy. 

Lucy is not a big fan of the Halloween decorations

Work was fine today, but I'm tired and a little out of sorts and I don't like my hair, or that I have a dentist appointment tomorrow, or the fact that my nearest kid is five hours away, but it was a good week. 

A Million Pumpkin Patch Pictures

 The inaugural photo shoot in 2019

2020, during semi-lockdown. I overheard Eve on the phone with Jackson saying "well you can go in Marianna's if you want, but I feel like that's the most infectious car".

Pumpkins were painted outside that year

2021

2022

2023

This year

No Climbing On the Pumpkins

My all-time favourite pic (from 2020)