This morning I was able to procure P!nk tickets, thanks to Ticketmaster finally adding a Paypal option.

It’s remarkably frustrating to enter your credit card number, verify that it’s accurate and that the rest of the personal data matches what’s on your account, click off all the silly boxes, and then to watch as the tickets you’ve tried to buy 3,648 times are again ripped out of your hand because “the card information you have tried to enter is incorrect.” Multiple days, different browsers. None of it mattered. And because it was a presale associated with my credit card company, it’s not like I could just sub in a different card.

But this irritation will fade into the distance and the excitement of seeing P!nk will grow as we get closer to the concert date next August(!).

I wish similar resolutions to all the Taylor Swift fans out there, because I can’t imagine how pissed off they are right now.

I had a surprise visit with a friend tonight, intending only to drop something at his gate. Instead, I ran into him and his dog while they were out on their evening walk, and he asked me in and then I just … hung out. Which was such a nice, relaxing thing to do.

I’m getting better about having people over. The amount of stress the first time we did it late this summer was nearly unbearable, but our messy apartment did not break the friendship. We’ve got friends coming over after we get back from Thanksgiving and then our tree trimming is the following Sunday.

I’m also hoping to start having people over to hang out when Rudi’s away on his coaching weekends this winter for game nights or supper or whatnot. I mean, I’d love to have people come when he’s around, too, but that will require some additional thinking, because he goes to bed really early during ski season.

But to do that, we need to have a less cluttered apartment, which we’ve been working on (undiligently) off and on since summer. Before he left for his coaching trip, Rudi put a dent in the closet. Since he’s been gone, I’ve done some work in the kitchen and have some more to do before I hit the living room. There is progress being made; we just have to keep moving forward — and maybe pick up the pace a bit.

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I finally drove our new car. It’s … big.

2. I paused our volleyball game Saturday evening to admire the sunset, which was glowing neon orange through the trees.

3. I made lemon bars (and a friend has agreed to take some so I don’t eat the whole pan).

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?

Ticketmaster and Citibank are thwarting my buying tickets to see P!nk next summer, but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy a Bob Dylan cover by her from earlier this fall to celebrate getting over the hump.

Rudi has gone to Colorado to run a ski camp for some of his athletes, which means I’m home alone. The only things that were in pen on my dance card are now in the past, which means I need to get a plan to fill my time a bit more productively than I have been lately. Here are ten things I’d be very happy to have crossed off before Rudi returns home Monday morning:

• Reduce Mt. Laundry significantly again. I picked up a roll of quarters Monday, and can always head back to the credit union on Friday if I need another.
• Get some more job applications in. Because I’ve been slacking on that the last little bit.
• Paint my nails. Rudi does not love the scent of nail polish, so I try not to do it while he’s awake/home.
• Get the kitchen cleaned up. Rudi did a rearranging of our kitchen shelves and pantry earlier this year, but never came up with something to do with the things he didn’t find a place for. Time’s up and everything is going where it fits. We can rejigger again as need be.
• Switch the rugs. We have two rugs in our living room and they need to be on the opposite sides of the room. Easier with two people, but better to have it just done.
• Donate the Toys for Tots. I meant to send them with Rudi when he went to the storage place on Monday, but I only mentioned it in my brain.
• Finish a knitting project. It’s been on the needles for way too long.
• Pick the last of the tomatoes and tomatillos in the garden. It finally looks like that freeze is coming.
• Get my clothes switched out. Right now there are piles everywhere.
• Buy tickets to see P!nk next summer. I mean, does that even need further explanation?

So this week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic from That Artsy Reader Girl asks for specific “awwww” moments in books, and like many participants, I struggled to come up with those. So I’m sharing ten books that made me hug them or my people when I got to the end of them:

1. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Anne Shaffer and Annie Barrows
2. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
3. Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
4. The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune
5. Landline by Rainbow Rowell
6. The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon
7. A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
8. A Snicker of Magic by Natalie Lloyd
9. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
10. The History of Love by Nicole Krauss

Are there particular awww moments, or awww books in general, that stand out for you?