Halloween and Other Tales

Halloween was on Tuesday this year.  It struck me as all sorts of awkward because my work stuff was the previous Wednesday (the day everyone's in the office--though my team did nothing) and Carter had a normal Monday after a day off Friday but before a parent-teacher conference half day Tuesday.  His Tuesday morning was just harvest party time (with costumes, thankfully), and then he had the afternoon off.  I went into the office in the morning on a normal home day because they were having really good donuts and cider, before coming home around lunch because I had a chiropractor appointment (more on that in a minute).  I guess it all made a normal weekday into a bit of a non-standard one, which can be helpful for making it through the week, but it just felt a little all over the place.  Oh, and did I mention it was cold?  It snowed in some places that day--I only saw some frozen graupel-type stuff, but some areas had legit snow by that night.  Not us, thankfully.  November really came in with winter mode fully loaded. 

Anyway, Monday after our fun weekend I dragged myself through evening stuff and still had to carve the pumpkin, which I did pretty much entirely on my own this year.  Whatever--I did it fast.  Just when my kids are mostly done with this stuff, I get efficient...ha.  This was our pumpkin, complete with a fun top.   

It looked better in the dark.

Carter got his Fortnite Skull Trooper costume the previous week in a semi-panic because it was one of the last costumes left at Target that was a reasonable price and would still look sort of cool without a mask at school.  But it looked significantly cooler (and creepier) with the mask.  Jacob's team had a scrimmage Halloween night so Carter and I were on our own (and we couldn't give out candy...boo for kids, yay for us?).  We bundled up to go out in the 40-something degree weather with lots of layers and gloves.  

Fortnite emote pose!

This one sort of cracks me up--scary guy, cute pumpkin.

We took our normal route around the neighborhood to maximize the number of good houses.  Some of the best decorated houses in our neighborhood don't even give out candy, but at least they're fun to walk by!  

This one did give out candy.  I think they're in a competition with the house next door.

The house next door.  They do not seem to give out candy.  They seemed to have a spot for it, but it must have been gone?  They have so many silly skeletons, including flamingoes and Bills Mafia members.

One house down our street had this ginormous pumpkin.  They also have a cat arch and two spiders, one of which moves.  But the pumpkin was amazing.

We had a really good time walking, and just stayed warm enough.  Carter had some issues with condensation making the inside of his mask a little damp, but he loved getting compliments on his costume--be they "cool" or "scary".  We enjoyed running into the golf cart ladies who give out candy and enjoy some beverages, and while there were a couple toned down houses (including the one I posted pics of last week that wasn't giving out candy either), it turned out to be a pretty awesome night.  We ended up having to use every spare spot for candy--Carter's costume had a pocket and a pouch, and I had to use both of my coat pockets, and his pumpkin was still overflowing!  One house (within the last 10 or so that we did) filled him up, and then the one across the street did it again after we shifted some of the candy out!  He was a very happy kid when we got home!

The coolest part of his costume was that his mask glowed in the dark.  I tried to take this in the basement and you can see how it looked...so creepy!

I forgot to take a picture of the pumpkin on the porch, but here was our full crew of pumpkins the next day.  The warty one on the left came from my office.  I'm a little annoyed the bottom one of the stack lost most of its green over the last couple weeks.

I did a half day in the office on Friday and came home for another chiropractor appointment that afternoon.  It had been a busy week at work and Friday ended up being a pretty nice day so I took a quick, cleansing walk right after work before dinner.  My watch's monthly reward is for closing my exercise ring 14 times this month, which might be a feat, so I'm trying to take advantage of any day when the weather is nice and any evening I have enough energy to hop on the bike or elliptical.  It won't be easy.  I spotted this leaf as I walked and I was obsessed.

As my dad's cousin's wife said, she couldn't decide what to wear, so she wore it all!

The leaves have taken a beating over the last week between last weekend's wind and this week's cold.  It's now November and "blah fall" is upon us.  Fall always feels magical and cozy and colorful and tasty from September through Halloween, and then the bottom falls out.   It gets cold, it gets brown, pumpkin and apple everything get old before Thanksgiving finally brings up the rear.  I moved all of my winter sweaters up into my closet so I have officially surrendered to the cold.  The time changed this weekend so while I will embrace not waking up to pitch blackness for a few weeks, I am dreading the early darkness.  I can only hope for some colorful sunsets on my evening commutes for a bit.  

As I mentioned, I went to the chiropractor this week because my body is just not cooperating.  I'm not sure what's happening, but I've had head pressure (mostly without pain) for a couple weeks.  I honestly haven't been completely healthy pretty much since I had COVID.  I have had ongoing bouts with congestion that seemed like they would turn into something more, but I kept fighting it off with Zicam.  I can't decide if my immune system stinks because it's catching everything, or it's impressive because it keeps fighting things off.  But based on the bloodwork I had done a couple weeks ago, I suspect my IgA antibodies are low and that can lead to more cold and sinus issues.  But my doctor won't currently help me confirm that.  Last week I had a ton of random stuff happening and it made for a rather uncomfortable week.  Head pressure that sometimes seemed like sinus pressure, tooth pain like I get with sinus infections, jaw pain, tight shoulders, arm fatigue, and a couple close calls with back spasms.  For a while I thought the jaw and tooth issues were from clenching my jaw (I caught myself once at night, but not since), but then I realized the sinus stuff felt like a sinus infection without congestion, if that's even possible.  I used some of my nasal rinse steroids and the sinus stuff felt better the next day, so it added to that theory.  But with everything combined, I realized that maybe something was off-kilter, causing tension through my shoulders, neck, and head, and maybe a little adjustment might work.  I'm the last person to jump to chiro, but it seemed plausible.  The first visit felt pretty decent but didn't do a lot, but the second one...holy cow.  She found this spot in the occipital area (base of my skull on either side of my spine) that she spent a while rubbing out, and I'm still not sure what it did, but WOW.  I felt so light and loose after that.  I don't know for sure that it directly helped with my issues but I didn't have tooth pain on Saturday, and felt better overall.  Not perfect, but better.  Enough that it made me wonder if I could have occipital neuralgia, as that causes head discomfort.  Seems weird and random, but it was interesting that whatever she did to that area made such a difference, even for a bit--at least until I did yard work, anyway.  Then I was tired and achy and tense again, but at least my yard is ready for winter.  I'm still not sure what to do moving forward, but I think I should call the ENT and ask if it's possible to have a sinus infection without congestion.  If that's not a thing, maybe I need to get my head examined, literally.  I mostly just worry about whether COVID might cause issues with clotting since my grandma had a minor stroke when she was young and my mom had carotid issues when she was around my age.  They seem to have resolved for her, but when you add something like COVID into the mix that can cause unexpected clotting, it just makes me nervous that my head almost always feels off.  It gets worse over the course of the day, too, especially when I'm sitting at a desk.  So we'll see where that goes as I try to find the happy medium between taking care of my health and looking like a hypochondriac.

In other news, the boys have recently been working together and bonding over Fortnite, of all things.  Tonight they made a great comeback after Jacob got killed off and Carter got a Victory Royale on his own, and it was fun to watch them celebrate together.  Sometimes I wonder how life might have been different had they figured out how to co-exist and work together sooner.  I would do so many things differently going all the way back to my pregnancy.  We sort of backed off because we didn't want to freak him out, but I wish we would have talked it up--he's going to be your best friend, you have to teach him everything, etc.  Instead we had years of annoyance.  Slowly but surely things have gotten more tolerable, but there's still a lot of work to do.  But it's nice to see signs of bonding, like the sports they've played together or the times they team up on video games and don't fight.  

Speaking of Jacob, his leg is slowly but surely healing.  He's started to do a couple jump shots, so hopefully he only improves from here.  

Today was a good day for me because I finally got together with a friend I hadn't seen in ages.  She was the friend who worked in the kids' school, whose son played lacrosse with Jacob, and who we saw at church.  Between COVID and her MS-related immunity challenges and life getting generally exhausting as COVID wore on and life simultaneously got busier, we mostly lost touch without being able to chat at church every week.  She's only on social media very minimally, and while we did text back and forth a bit a handful of times, it certainly wasn't what it should have been.  One of our last text interactions we decided we needed to pick a day, and this weekend she had sent me a doctor recommendation because I had asked for them (since my doctor is frustrating), and I realized I had a whole weekend without plans.  We made a time on Sunday to grab coffee at this sweet local coffeehouse and had a couple really fun hours.  It was much needed but wasn't nearly enough so we've already made a plan to do it again next month.  We deal with a lot of similar things--kids of similar ages, boys in sports, and being on the more liberal side of Christianity while dissatisfied with terribly extreme politics on both sides.  It was nice to just chat with a friend, let alone one that I had missed and have so much in common with.  

I know that I need to get back in the groove of a Bible study small group at church, or find a volunteer opportunity there, but all of it has felt like the one more thing I haven't been able to tackle (amidst a lot of other "one more things" that have felt hard lately).  I am severely lacking connection--I barely see my co-workers, I don't have much opportunity to see long-distance friends or Buffalo family, and I've never been good at local friendships.  It's my extreme introvert self just getting through the day and not knowing how to have a social life beyond that.  I have never been one to feel confident calling someone and being like, "Whatcha doin'?" So, if no one's calling me, guess what?  I'm mostly content to sit at home, at least until I realize I don't have a life.  I keep hoping that in some phase of life I will get better at it, or hopefully have an existence that makes it easier--better church relationships, the right neighbors, a perfect-fit work buddy, fellow sports parents, or I'd even take a fun group text.  I'd appreciate any sort of social structure where it lends itself to making plans more naturally.  It hasn't happened since I worked in sports, when we all just knew we were going out after games, but I'm holding out hope for someday.  But today was nice.

Overall it was a quality weekend--productive with some fun.  The turkey decorations are out,  Thanksgiving is less than three weeks away, and the Christmas pajamas were bought at 40% off.  It's a start.  We're officially on the roller coaster chugging up the hill as we anticipate the wild ride of the holidays.  We're hoping for a normal one this year, for the first time since 2019.  Yet I'm finding myself skeptical and nervous, because weather and illness have bitten us for three years straight.  Jacob keeps getting annoyed that I'm not in a Christmas mood yet for music or movies, but right now it just feels like one more thing to do.  He asked me tonight to put up the tree, and that was a resounding no.  I like Christmas, I swear, it's just a one-thing-at-a-time issue for me.  Also, if I start getting wound up now, it'll be even more of a disappointment if it doesn't go well again.  But for now, another week awaits.