Have you come to sing pumpkin carols?

Linus: "Tonight the Great Pumpkin will rise out of the pumpkin patch. He flies through the air and brings toys to all the children of the world."

Sally: "That's a good story."

I will dress my dog in her bee costume, hand out the cute little boxes of temporary tattoos (CVS!) for the kidlets, watch a marathon of American Horror Story on FX and wait for the Great Pumpkin to arrive.

Happy Halloween!

I'll take "things that need updating" for $500...

New health insurance that includes vision coverage = new glasses (to make me feel better about the fact that my vision changed for the first time in six years and I have to get new lenses and I'm probably like a month away from needing reading glasses which makes me feel like young me is trapped in a me that is aging and that makes me feel anxious). So I'm getting these cool-ass frames.


Super cute and I can't wait until they're done (and not just because I have daily eye strain). Blink blink.

So hearing is the next thing to go?

If you are at first lonely...

I first posted this sometime in 2010, but I love it so much I thought I'd share it again. It made me feel okay about being okay with being alone. (say that three times fast.)

"If you are at first lonely, be patient. If you've not been alone much, or if when you were, you weren't okay with it, then just wait. You'll find it's fine to be alone once you're embracing it."



Video by the extremely talented filmmaker Andrea Dorfman and poet/singer/songwriter Tanya Davis.

"Alone" doesn't always mean "lonely." And when it does, "lonely is a freedom that breathes easy and weightless and lonely is healing if you make it."

Today I share two favorite things...

Remember that post from August where I mentioned being happy on Dec. 31, 2010 (and then had a happiness dry spell until July)? It's okay if you don't. You can read it here. Or not.

I really just wanted to share what I look forward to every single day: Being in my bedroom, an hour or so before sleep, snuggled in my super comfy bed with my other favorite (not sure if she qualifies as "thing"), the Prettiest Puppy in the World, a.k.a. Sweet Girl, a.k.a. Lulu Tiny Dancer. She knows my routine at night (outside in yard one last time, inside to fill my nightstand water pitcher, turn off living room and dining room lights, plug in my iPod to sync podcasts, grab a "night-night" bone) and runs upstairs about 5 minutes before I do.


This is what that looks like. This is where I keep my (paper) notebook. This is where I've had some of my best ideas. This is what gives me peace no matter what's going on in my life. The thread count matters. I have special Texas Lavender linen spray that I get at the Farmer's Market. At least once a day, it's the most soothing place in the world. And right now I'm happy just thinking about it.

Happy now.

Now.

Today I believe in happiness...

After a marvelous weekend that began with a Saturday morning trip to another farmer's market (there are many in Austin) as I kept my eye on the cloudy skies, hoping the weather wasn't being a tease again.

It wasn't. I spent the rest of the weekend enjoying the sound of rain outside, reading some new pages of a friend's book in progress, catching up on more "Doctor Who" (the first David Tennant season), napping and being a bit lazy. I steamed lovely tamales from the Farmer's Market for dinner (chicken mole and spinach/caramelized onion).


I happily spent Saturday evening watching television and drowsing off to the sound of rain on the roof. Sunday morning felt like Christmas morning, waking up before dawn to thunder, lightning and more (!) rain. For those of you outside of Texas, I am not usually obsessed with rain. I am currently obsessed with rain because we haven't had any significant rainfall in Austin since MARCH. March, people, and if you've never seen what a drought looks like I'll sum it up: depressing as shit. Brown lawns, brown leaves, brown trees, yards turned to dust and dirt, highways lined with brown grass. Oh, and there's the fires that happen spontaneously because everything turned to kindling over the dry summer.

On this wonderful Sunday morning there were puddles everywhere and it was raining so hard the puppy wouldn't go outside (but the front porch was just fiiine...). I trekked to Starbuck (happily in the rain), got my usual gigantic (trenta) iced coffee and settled in to work on some copy and line editing. The rain let up long enough for me to walk the dog and it was wonderfully cool and breezy. I wore a hoodie.

My point...if you're expecting me to lead you to one...I had several in-the-moment-I'm-happy-right-now pauses throughout the weekend. Just for the little things. Like tamales. And rain. And my dog's third birthday (my sweet Lulu went from this to this in such a short time!). I'm happy right now.

And now.

Now.