Well, October is officially over. After a summer-like Halloween, the rain and wind came overnight and accelerated fall even further by blowing a ton of remaining leaves off the trees, so I guess we're officially on the downslope of the season. Boo, indeed.
The last week was pretty nice, though. We did have a couple days where the trees really started to lose their leaves, and the past peak feeling was a little bit sad because the colors had been really nice this year. I swear the gorgeous tree next door went from 2/3 full of gorgeous red-orange leaves to mostly naked in a day or two. We did have this gorgeous sunrise earlier in the week, made prettier with the burning bushes and the colored blankets of leaves across the street.
As if it wasn't a hectic enough week with Halloween and lots of appointments, on Tuesday night I realized that my cold brew coffee pitcher had a giant crack in it. I have no idea where it came from, but more than likely something bumped it in the sink or on the drying rack. The glass is super thin and Aldi people post often about how many of them have broken, so I guess I should consider myself lucky it made it about a year and a half, but it was a bummer nonetheless. But it still didn't seem to be leaking, so out of desperation for the rest of the week, I slapped some duct tape on it and gave it a shot. It hasn't broken yet, but I am ordering a new one.
Wednesday was my big Halloween day at work. Some years I can't be bothered to participate. We've had a lot of busy fall seasons and sometimes that is the one thing that has to give, especially when work gets nuts or I'm busy helping Carter with his costume. This year the theme was pretty simple, and I knew instantly what I wanted to do. Our suite was doing "Under the Sea" and I've long admired umbrella jellyfish--clear umbrellas with fabric strips hanging down, and ideally some LED lights making it glowy like at the aquarium. By some miracle, Aldi sold a $6.99 clear umbrella the week before, so of course that made it easy! It took two trips to Dollar Tree, four rolls of glitter tulle, and two sets of LED lights, but somehow I managed a haphazard but fun jellyfish! The tulle was a bit hard to work with and the umbrella was already starting to break in one spot by the time I was done, but I made it work...although I forgot that it would be hard walking through doorways and as a result I managed to spill cider on myself before 10am. Good times.
Ill-advised selfie attempt at my desk! |
Our suitemates did a heck of a job decorating, including this mermaid cove. I am in the middle there.
Here's a better view next to a jellyfish friend.
They really went all out, including this display near the front of the suite that included a treasure map!
The map led to a treasure chest with candy coins and Swedish fish. It was really cute and the theme was super fun. Somehow (::cough:: biased judges ::cough::), we only got Most Creative. Another team that did a Mario theme (not as good as our team did in 2019, mind you) got best overall. Fixed!
Last walk photo since my colleague requested photos for a celebratory video of some sort |
It's a work thing that encouraged us to get in as many steps as possible for the month. We had a department team and had a good time encouraging each other. I had pretty low expectations, but in the end I only missed one day, October 1! It got very competitive and I didn't want to let my teammates down, so I really had to push myself every day to get in some sort of walk or other workout (which could be converted in the app). Luckily my Apple Watch made it easy to log things. I have to say, even though some days it wasn't ideal, it did push me and I did appreciate the extra time outside enjoying the fall colors. Thankfully the weather was good for most of the month, only a handful of truly brisk walks.
Gorgeous colors on a tree around the corner |
This was my final image in the app. Note that one white leaf. Yellow means 10,000 steps, orange is 8,000, and red was 6,000. Not too bad.
Our team and my individual score were both in the top third, so not too bad. I finished third on my team out of seven (those two were crazy dedicated, though!). I lost a couple pounds (although Halloween eating probably took care of that) and I even get a free pair of gloves, so that's not too bad. I hope to keep it going as much as I can as long as the weather makes it tolerable, although I'm happy the pressure is off--at least until my watch decides that crazy month of long streaks for all the daily goals means that my monthly challenges will get unattainable!
It was pretty straightforward and simple to carve, though the engineering of the steps and door took some work, but I think it turned out really cute!
I would have loved to have the time and energy to do the other big pumpkin I got from my work's pumpkin patch, but that just wasn't happening. Our little setup was still pretty adorable, and there was even a teenage girl who was completely smitten with it.
Carter agonized over his costume for a few weeks, but ultimately nothing really worked out. I don't like paying $40 for a costume he wears for a couple hours (turned out he couldn't even dress up at school), so I didn't want to go the route of anything at the Halloween store. He considered the hot dog he tried on at Target last year, but we couldn't find one when we went back. I offered up a Pinterest version of the light-up stick man costume he saw at the Halloween store, but he wasn't into it. So, baseball player it was! He looked good, though!
We did our usual loop around the block plus a few extra houses on the fringes where we could. Candy felt super expensive this year so I think people gave out a little less on average, and I have a feeling more houses stayed dark than usual (aside from the year it was on a weekend and we figured everyone was out at parties). There were fewer good displays aside from the two houses around the corner and the hayride trailer we saw driving around. The house that used to have a big garage display but is selling their stuff did have a few things out, including this amazing ghost broom that moved around on its own. The widow who kept her husband's display going for a couple years appears to have retired. I think it was out last year but she didn't give out candy, but it didn't make any appearance this year. It was sort of nice that a lot of people were outside giving out candy this year. I think it made things quicker and friendlier. I offered to keep going even once we wrapped back around to our house, to a few other fun houses around the corner, since it was such a gorgeous night. But Carter was thirsty and had a full pumpkin, so we called it quits. I sat outside for the rest of the night for the handful of additional trick-or-treaters we got, listening to the crazy kid party at the house on the corner. We got almost no trick-or-treaters last year when it was freezing, but we probably had about a dozen groups come through this time.
So, November is here. Turkeys will come out this weekend and now we begin killing time until a late Thanksgiving. That third full work week is always a tough one, especially when you know what's coming after. I'll probably have to give myself permission to start a few Christmas things early because it will be a short season once it gets here. Wegmans has begun filling their entry with all things Christmas (although it's not overwhelming yet), and I saw my first tree in someone's window on my drive home from the store. It's coming and I am most definitely not ready. Even though part of me feels like I rocked October because of my many outdoor walks, I guess spending most of the month in a car/anxiety stupor didn't do me any favors. How is fall (and this year, for that matter) almost over?!