These (Ankle-High) Boots Are Made for Walkin’

I LOOOOOVE to walk. Been trying to do more of it, at least more frequently, even if not as far as I have in the past.

Between that and brisk walking all over the store at my present job, and generally not having a 30 minute lunch due to shorter shifts, and therefore eating a bit less during the course of the day, AND with the effects of some of my current medications, I’m starting to lose some weight. But I like walking for its own sake. I originally started it for mental health reasons, as far as my most recent exercise endeavors.

Sometimes, most often I would say, I have a playlist going, earbuds in. My current fave is my How Thin the Veil playlist I made (I think) last year.

I have also listened to audiobooks while walking, if there was one I was especially into at the time and wanted desperately to hear what happened next.

I’ve really been enjoying Spotify’s option to listen to audiobooks with Premium. Recently, I tried Caroline Frank’s Fall Into You, Hate Hex by Gina LaManna, and Jenna Levine’s My Roommate is a Vampire. All very on-brand for this time of year.

I’m at the beginning of Ali Hazelwood’s Bride, at the moment, which I’ve heard so many great things about. I’m just juggling a lot right now, even in the realm of just reading…

I checked out a no-renewals copy of Britney Spears’ memoir, and the first book of The Others series by Anne Bishop, since I finally got around to the paperback copy of Crowbones gifted to me by a friend. Wanted to go back to the beginning and fill in the gaps.

AND today, I discovered a short collection of poetry written by a former professor of mine– the same collection that was required reading for the course, which I hadn’t read since I was an undergrad. Naturally had to check that out, too!

Today was an especially magical day. I get that the main purpose of this post was just to answer a short question, but Imma cheat and use it as a lead-in to an update, since I haven’t been on in a while.

Fear not… there shall also be pics.

First, I had an email from Starbucks about specialty Wicked drinks only available in the app. I was SO PSYCHED that I hadn’t gotten Starbucks yesterday instead and used up what was left on my e-card, so that I could get in on the novelty. I haven’t seen the musical of Wicked, but I did read and love the book. I plan on seeing the movie, perhaps even in theaters.

The cold brew one settled a bit on the drive over to my parents’ house. I delivered one of each drink there for my mom and I to taste together. Here they are. Glinda’s Potion and Elphaba’s Cold Brew, photographed with some of my mom’s hand-painted Halloween decor.

My mom only sampled the first drink, Glinda’s Potion. She didn’t like the looks of the Cold Brew’s color. They were both really good, however. Pardon the mild imperfections of the witch pictured with Elphaba’s Cold Brew. Aw. Homemade arts and crafts.

After the drinks were toast, she and I went for a walk together. Generally, I walk alone, but this time, I didn’t. Their neighborhood is particularly lovely for walking in. Mine has a lot of hills. There are some picturesque residential streets by me (and there’s a Little Free Library, but my parents have one by them, as well); you definitely have to exert more energy to get around, where I live, though.

Here’s some fall color I captured today!

First, above, a bush growing right in their yard, with some gorgeous shades of pink coming in.

Next, a view of the most vivid tree along a street in their neighborhood, lined with trees of the same variety.

Third, a view from the walking bridge we crossed and doubled back upon.

Lastly, one of the majestic trees just to the side of the walking bridge.

After the walk, I still had plenty of spare time before I needed to head to work… even figuring in leaving early so I had time to relax in my car before heading inside. SO… I decided to read a bit at the library.

Not only did I happen upon the song known as my daughter’s song, because I often sang it to her when she was a baby (Guns N’ Roses’ “Sweet Child O’ Mine”); I also discovered that poetry collection written by my former teacher. I read some of her poems until it was time to drive to work.

Work went really well, especially given that I started the day having woken up earlier than intended but unable to fall back asleep. We had a SUPER fun pair of customers toward the end of the night.

Closing went smoothly.

Then, driving away from work, I heard the original version of my current all-time favorite song (“Human” by The Killers, but my FAVE fave variation is the remix that DJ/musician Armin van Buuren created for his radio show “The State of Trance”).

So yeah, today was a really great day.

I’m still hoping to get out to a pumpkin patch before Halloween. Maybe tomorrow? We will see. But I WAS in a one-night only October-themed art show, fully in costume as Crow Barbie, AKA Barbie Draven.

There I am, in front of my painting. Got some fun compliments from peeps on the street coming to and from the restaurant around the corner from the gallery, where my friend and I had dinner. I had my very first Croque Monsieur. I pronounced it in French when ordering it because I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how ELSE to say it. The server had no idea what I was saying. So I pointed. LOL.

What the heck… here’s the sandwich, and my sweet potato fries.

I’ve already done my seasonal watching of Practical Magic, and I finally finished reading the whole book series. A night or two ago, I watched Hocus Pocus.

It looks like you can stream The Crow (Brandon Lee version) on Amazon Prime, so I may watch that before Halloween, too. Kinda feel like I HAVE to this year, what with my costume choice!

Prior to all of this awesomeness, I first had a period of extreme productivity in a lot of arenas of my life except my creativity… unless you count a wee bit of creativity with sketching in my journal…there was the October painting for the art show, but I think I painted that back in September…maybe that lack of creative engagement was part of why I burned out and crashed?

Was very VERY depressed after that, to the point that I needed some med tweaking to be able to keep on keepin’ on at work and such.

I finally got the go-ahead to double my dose of my antidepressant and felt much, much better.

Trying as I can to work creativity back into my life. I made two digital collages for Halloween, with which to decorate my PC desktop and my Facebook profile page. The second one was more technically complex, and truer to my usual style. But I think I nabbed a couple of those images off Pinterest rather than Pexels, so I’m not going to share it here. Just in case.

I didn’t even attempt Inktober this year. Too fried.

HOWEVER… I am off tomorrow.

We will see what I can make of the day!!!

Happy Spooky Season!!! BEHOLD, my festive shelf!!!