We are now months and months into pandemic shutdowns, travel restrictions, and general malaise. In an effort to keep these last months of the year from spiraling into a hot mess, I thought I’d come up with a list, similar to the ones I often make for weekends, of things I’d like to accomplish each month. I will not get mad at myself if I don’t cross items off, but if I get stuck this gives me a physical place to turn to to see what I could work on.
This month is … fraught. This weekend marked week three Rudi was out in Salt Lake. We know he’ll be out there at least another week, but it has the potential to stretch on for a while past then. And the sun has hit the road south to go shine on other people for the next three-plus months. And the fate of democracy … there is reason to be hopeful. Maybe not optimistic, but hopeful.
But either way, I need to do a better job of taking care of myself in November than I did in October.
Here’s how I think I can do that:
Eat supper by ten each night. (I know. Some of you are in bed at that hour. I’m not. And ten would be a huge improvement over midnight, which is when I’ve been eating about half the time.)
Get out once a week first thing in the morning before my first work call. This will be painful, but it’s probably my best shot at getting some sun during the week. Also try to take at least one midday workweek walk around the block.
Eat more veggies. I keep buying them as if someone is going to cook them for me. Related: Look through the cookbooks I love to buy and then hand off to Rudi.
Start working on Christmas stuff. I cannot make mixes, write cards, and craft all at the same time. So I need to start earlier. Maybe if I write out the envelopes in early November at least I’ll actually get my cards out this year. I have already started sampling new Christmas tunes. And I’ve done a little shopping and started looking for other gifts. (Yes, to Bridget and others wondering, we are doing the Virtual Advent Tour again this year. I’ll have a formal announcement a little later in the month.)
Put out more fairy lights.
Plan a virtual tree-trimming party. (The tree will still be IRL.) Or maybe several? Those mass Zoom calls don’t seem so fun to me.
Bake something. Anything at this rate. Or make bread. Also, see if the sourdough starter in the fridge is still any good.
Spend more time reading and less time on my phone.
Get through all my recycling and paper shredding. (I hate my shredder, so I just stopped using it.)
Call my friends.
How about you? What will help you get through November?
I may have mentioned before that I tend not to give a lot of thought to Halloween costumes until the day of (or, maybe the night before). I have an interesting closet of “normal” clothes that lends itself well to a set of concepts, and I find that procrastinating encourages my brain toward creative combinations.
It does mean that some aspects of costumes get inadequate attention, but I learned years ago that as long as you give people the suggestion, they’ll usually get there in the end. (The exception to this was Raggedy Ann, which pretty much no one got, in part because I resorted to red hair spray, rather than yarn.)
This year, my wings came up a little short. If I’d thought about this last weekend, I could have knit wings, but I didn’t. So I made do with tissue paper around jewelry wire and fastened to my cycling visibility “vest” contraption beneath my jacket. Sometimes they looked like wings and other times leafy epaulets.
On a warmer Halloween, I might have opted for a different top. But since the high today was in the low 50s and I was spending the evening at a concert in the park, I wanted warmth. I did trade out my wreath for a hat (but with the tiara on top of it) and added long mitts.
I should also add that it’s particularly challenging to get a full-length shot by yourself, so apologies for it not being the best exposure/angle. I had to use the selfie timer and prop it up against my bag of tomatoes and herbs on an upside-down water barrel.
And I will add a thank you to my parents, who feed my quirky tastes. My mom made the tulle skirt for me a few years back. The velvet jacket is also from them, as are the sparkly Chucks, the bag (for storing fairy dust, hand sanitizer, knitting, and candy corn), and the bubble wand. The fake fur muff was a gift from my brother decades ago.
What fun combinations did your closets offer up this Halloween?
This week brought some literal unraveling as I was knitting in the dark and managed, in a move I still don’t quite understand, to wrap the yarn entirely around my cuff without noticing until several rows later. I attempted to just rip back to where I made the mistake, but did I mention it was dark…?
Anyway, even if I do not finish by Halloween, I will finish in the next week or so, and I vote these are autumnal colors and I will wear them with pleasure in November. Then maybe I’ll finish the socks I started in March 2019…
In the last week I finished How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse and read more of We Ride Upon Sticks. (I’ve reached Halloween night in Salem, Massachusetts.) I started a middle-grade nonfiction book written by a guy I grew up with, but it’s about dinosaurs and I don’t feel like reading about dinosaurs right now.
So I started listening to Nothing Is Wrong and Here Is Why by Washington Post humor news columnist Alexandra Petri. Have you read her Petri Dishes column? May I suggest it may be the only thing to make you laugh over the next couple weeks while we battle for the soul of our country?
I also picked up two novels to keep my mind occupied in the next week. First, I’m going to read Brandy Colbert’s The Voting Booth, because it’s about young people being hugely invested in voting, and I’m desperately hoping they come through for us this year.
Then, while we wait to find out our fate, I’m going to read Evie Dunmore’s Bringing Down the Duke, which is feminist historical fiction and seems likely to have the happy ending I will require in every book until real life presents us with the same.
What sort of comfort reading do you have lined up for the next couple weeks?
Head over to As Kat Knits to see how others are channeling their stress.
I planned to share “Zombie Jamboree” with you today, but then I realized I’d posted it last year at this time. So instead you’re getting my second favorite Halloween song, “Monster Mash,” by Bobby Pickett.
“Monster Mash” was written in 1962 by Pickett and bandmate Leonard L. Capizzi, apparently after Pickett did a Boris Karloff impression on stage one night. They recorded it as Bobby Pickett and the Crypt-Kickers (the band also included Grammy winner Leon Russell) and was produced by Gary Paxton, who had an earlier novelty hit with “Alley Oop.” The female backing vocals were sung by The Blossoms, who, at that time, included Darlene Love.
Interestingly, the BBC banned the playing of the song, dubbing it “too morbid” for the air. Were they listening to the same song?!
