October Recap

We’re nearly halfway through the month of November already so this post is comin’ at ya LATE. But let’s take a look back on October, shall we?

READING

It was another great month of reading for me! I read 13 books for a total of 129 for the year. This means I’m just 6 books away from my goal of 135! I really thought that was a stretch goal for me this year, but apparently not. My top-three for this month are:

• Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker because of its insanely great writing and complex look inside schizophrenia disease and its many facets
• 40-Love by Olivia Dade because it was just such a fun romance featuring an older, plus-size woman (more of that, please!)
• A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson because, although it required a ton of suspension of belief, it was a fast-moving, incredibly fun thriller that I couldn’t put down

WATCHING

• The Good Place, season 5 – I watched the final season of The Good Place and I really enjoyed it. The finale was a wee bit triggering for me (as someone who is so very scared about death), but all in all, an excellent show! JANET 4EVER
• Big Brother – This season of Big Brother was rather boring with one big alliance running the house the whole game, but at least we had a satisfying winner, right? I hope the producers make some changes to the game for next season, though.
• The Amazing Race – It is so lovely to watch The Amazing Race right now. This season was filmed sometime in 2019 (they were filming another season early in 2020 that had to get shut down due to covid) so it’s a beautiful representation of the “before times.”

LISTENING TO

• 1619 – I finally listened to this five-episode series and it was excellent. The title derives from the year enslaved people were first brought to America, signifying that is the founding date of our country. It shows how slavery’s reverberations have affected so many facets of our society, from our economy to our music to our land. A must listen.
• What’s the deal with swing states? on Stuff You Should Know – I live in a swing state (Florida) so perhaps that’s why I found this episode so interesting, but it truly was so eye-opening to recognize what it means to be a swing state and how it can affect election outcomes.
• A plethora of political(ish) book recs on What Should I Read Next? – If you’re a political junkie like me, then you’ll love this episode that Anne did with the ladies of the Pantsuit Politics podcast. All three women share a handful of political book recs—both fiction and nonfiction!—and I added books to my TBR like crazy. I’m most interested in These Truths: A History of the United States by Jill Lepore and Accidental Presidents: Eight Men Who Changed America by Jared Cohen.

BUYING

• Etsy prints ($16) – I bought a handful of cute Etsy prints early in October that I still need to get printed so I can hang them up. Originally, I was planning on hanging them up in my little office nook and I might still do that, but I also might put a few on my gallery wall. Inhale/Exhale | Writing | Books | Words
• Painting supplies ($51) – My mom and I have grand plans to paint a bunch of ornaments we found at Michaels. She bought the ornaments and paintbrushes and I bought all of the paints. I really hope this project doesn’t turn out horrible, haha.
• Command strips ($20) – I put up my gallery wall this month and I needed to purchase a whole bunch of Command strips to do so. I love how it turned out and it definitely has room to grow!

Highlights

> After all the hubbub around mail-in voting, I had no trouble with getting my ballot received and counted in less than a week. My mom and my brother also mailed in their ballots (my brother did it 10 days before the election) and there were no issues!

> I helped my brother register to vote! Yes, he should have been registered to vote a loooooong time ago but at least he did it for the most consequential election in our lifetimes.

> I spent a week detailing my life in a series of Week in the Life posts and had so much fun with that. Those posts always get a great response, which I’m happy about because I love doing them and glad you all love reading them!

> I finally got my hair cut! It had been almost six months since my last cut, which may not seem that long for most people, but I’m used to getting a trim every 3-4 months. I went to a cosmetology school for the haircut to save some money ($12 vs $60, ya know) and it was a good experience. While it took fooooorever (two-and-a-half hours!), I really enjoyed the stylist I worked with and watching the education process. Would I go again? I’m not sure. Saving so much money was really nice but it took so long for such a simple haircut.

> I purchased a new desk and was super grateful for my stepdad and mom coming over to help me put it together. It’s so much bigger than what I had previously!

> I went to my office this month to pick up my desktop. My company announced early in October that we would be moving to a remote workforce (based on how productive everyone has been working from home and the fact that we all want to continue doing so, even when things go back to “normal”). Our office will switch to more of a coworking space, which means every employee has to pick up their work desktops (previously, we’ve all been remoting into our desktops in the office through our laptops). Getting my desktop set up at home was easy and my work life has gotten so much better. Hooray!

> I had a lovely lady date with my girl, B. We used to have a standing monthly lady date, but that fell by the wayside with the pandemic. But we’re both feeling pretty comfortable going to restaurants and seeing people right now, so we’re baaaaack. This month, we had a delicious meal at a restaurant downtown and it was so nice to have two hours of uninterrupted time with her.

> My writing partner, M., had a birthday this month, and the timing couldn’t have been more perfect as we decided to bring back our in-person writing dates a few weeks before her birthday. We meet at Panera and I suggested that we surprise her at the end of one of our writing dates! She was completely shocked, which made it all completely worth it. 🙂

> I haven’t been dating since the pandemic began (er… or before it, lol) but I had the best friend-date with my friend, A., this month. I told her it was the best date I’d been on in a long time, haha. We started at a cat cafe where we spent 45 minutes petting cute cats that were up for adoption, went to a nearby park to read by the water for 30 minutes, and then went to a local restaurant for dinner. If all of my actual dates could be that perfect, I would love dating!

> October is a hard month for my family, as it’s the month that Grandma and Pops died. We marked five years since Grandma died on the 9th and two years for Pops on the 28th. Those griefstones were horrible, but on Pops’ anniversary, my cousin suggested meeting up for dinner at his favorite restaurant and that was so very needed. I haven’t been around family all year long with the pandemic and such, so it was really nice to reconnect.

> Halloween 2020 was a weird one! I usually spend all month planning out a “punny” costume to wear to work but not this year. The only plan I made was to go to my mom’s house to help pass out candy. We weren’t sure if people would be out trick-or-treating, but we saw 27 kiddos (yes, we kept count, haha) and they were oh-so-cute. My mom and I sat on the porch, wore masks, and sanitized our hands between each candy drop so it was as COVID-safe as it could possibly be. Hopefully next year COVID-19 will be a thing of the past and we’ll see lots more kiddos!