Life Lately | November 2018

Thinking:
I didn’t write about it earlier this month but I went on my first overnight trip away from Forest in early November. I’ve been ready for a weekend away for several years now but I knew Forest wasn’t. Finally this summer I knew that it would be a lot easier to get away for the weekend and so two of my friends and I made plans to spend a night away. We’ve been friends since the summer of 1998 and were living aboard the TS Texas Clipper II.

Ideally we would have liked some quaint cabin in the Hill Country but with last minute planning and driving distance we opted to split the drive sort of in the middle in Waco. Waco has become a bustling little town thanks to the Magnolia store. Well, our decision for Waco and waiting until late September to book a hotel room turned into a problem because there was a Baylor game against, I think, OU. Needless to say, we booked a hotel in Temple instead.

Our plans for even visiting Waco changed after we thought about the amount of traffic dealing with parking for the Magnolia shop (Full disclosure: I’ve never seen an episode of Fixer Upper and most of my information on Chip and Joanna came from a Texas Monthly article about two years ago.) as well as college football traffic, well it sounded like a nightmare. So we stayed in Temple completely, wandering their slowly growing downtown, finding a unique coffee shop in the dying Temple Mall, and generally catching up on life and staying up later than our late 30s bodies should have! It was really nice to have that time to connect and I think our goal is to at least make this a yearly activity, if not a twice a year thing. We did agree that the next time we needed two nights away.

What else is on my mind? It’s several weeks past now but I was a little bummed that Beto didn’t win the senate race here in Texas. I checked the results at one point and he was leading and I got my hopes up a little then and then of course checked thirty minutes later and it was clear he wasn’t going to win. I’m just glad to see Texas and Texans actually challenging the status quo of Republicans running everything in Texas. A couple of things I thought about: if Andrew White had been the nominee for governor instead of Lupe Valdez, I think there’s a very good chance Beto and Andrew could have won running their campaigns in tandem. I just shake my head at the lost opportunity of having White actually give the governorship a good run for its money. With Valdez there wasn’t even a chance. The second thing was, maybe Beto should have run for governor instead of senate. Anyway, I know there’s a lot of talk about him running in 2020 and part of me wishes it would be ‘thing’ but part of me hopes he either goes for Cornyn’s senate seat or is a VP running mate for someone else with a bit more experience. *shrugs*

Gardening:
My gardening post the other day pretty much summed up what’s going on right now. This afternoon at lunch I tried to take down the luffa vines and gourds but apparently the 10+ still in the sweetgum tree are going to stay there until the vines rot enough for them to fall! Some I can probably reach with a ladder, the others are 20+ feet up in the tree!

Loving:
+Forest and his little sayings
+NYX Liquid Illuminator: I don’t wear makeup these days, haven’t really for years, but I’ve been feeling like I look a little pale and in need of some pep lately so I bought this stuff that really acts as a light, well, illuminator! You can use it to highlight your eyes or your cheeks or just lightly spread it as if it was foundation. It isn’t as thick as foundation so it doesn’t feel like you are wearing makeup. It really just adds a touch of color. I don’t use it every day but it has been fun to try to use.
+Oh, one of my shopping splurges while on my girl’s weekend were these rub on nail sheets. They seriously stayed on for about 10 days until they really started chipping! I was impressed because regular nail polish lasts just a few days for me before chipping. I keep my toes polished, that lasts much longer, but nails? I haven’t really done my nails but a handful of times since having Forest. First it was because there was no time to have my nails dry between picking up a baby and then I just never wanted to go back to dealing with it chipping from gardening. So I’ve never bothered. Anyway, it was fun to have the nail sheets while they lasted. I have enough to do one more round.

Reading:
As per usual I have about 3-5 books I’m reading at any given time. I’ve been meaning to do another book report here but haven’t really felt inspired to do so. One book I’m currently reading it Walking with Spring about Earl Shaffer’s thru-hike of the AT. For those unaware, he was the first documented thru-hiker of the AT in 1948. I can’t believe it has taken me this long to read the book but I am really enjoying it so far. I love the history he weaves into the story as well as how he discusses the trail as it was during his hike. Because he wrote the book well after his hike he has little amends in there saying that the trail was moved further west or away from such and such landmark, usually with a bit of chagrin. One interesting note is just how many people in 1948 are the same as today in a: wanting to know if you are hiking with a gun and b: interested in snakes, ie: the snakes are out to get you and OMG kill ’em if you see ’em.

I find myself doing so many other things in the evenings, working on photos or blogs or podcasts, working out, doing chores, or other random things that reading falls to the wayside. I sometimes read on the Kindle when Forest is falling asleep but lately I’ve been uninterested in that.

Making:
Forest and I were going to the studio frequently before Thanksgiving break and we need to get back over there. I am working on putting together some of my grandmother’s granny squares into a pillow cover so I can cover a pillow I have on the futon in the studio. I have two more identical squares that need a second pillow to cover but I’ll likely have to make that pillow.

My creativity like I said earlier is mostly through photography, writing blogs, or editing podcasts right now.

Watching & Listening:
Dr. Who continues to blow itself out of the water in awesomeness! Does that make sense? Having the new doctor be a woman has been a revelation! There are definitely some pointed parts of episodes that are like “hey, we’re going to teach you about feminism, or racism or whatnot” but I’ve been really intrigued with the historical aspect of the story this season. Since I’ve only watched the newer Doctors, I’ve gleaned from other people that the original series from the 60s and 70s was more based on teaching history lessons. This season seems to bring that back a little more as we’ve had lessons on Rosa Parks, the partition of India (which wow, I didn’t know much, if anything, about!), and the most recent episode was a twist on witch hunters/witch trials in early 1600s England involving a very cheeky King James I. If you’ve never watched Dr. Who, picking up with this season is a great start!

Outlander is back on and I am loving it! I finally feel like we’re back to a season 1 kind of love. It probably helps that I have not re-read Drums of Autumn recently so my knowledge of the book versus what they are reworking on the show isn’t making it hard to watch.