Ta-Da List: October.

I started doing these "ta-da lists" (vs to-do) a couple years ago in a halfway, inconsistent sorta way - always appreciating when I did.  The idea is from Gretchen Rubin's podcast "Happier" - implying that you will more often get a positivity boost from making a list of things you did after  you did them than before you did them.  For me, it works.  To cure the halfway-sorta-way of doing them, I've recently decided that I'll try doing them monthly, rather than weekly or daily.  

So here's October.  Some of these include pictures, which are also a happiness boost for me.  These are in no particular order, by the way.  

1.  Bike ride / walk four miles round trip to patio lunch at Founding Farmers.  This was an excellent way to spend an afternoon with otherwise no plans. 

He was a real trooper on the bike for this long.

2.  Related to bike rides and general around-the-town, there's been at least ten playground outings, duck-feeding walks to the lakes, the invention of a chestnut-throwing game up the slides at one particular playground framed by chestnut trees, soccer kicks and baseball practice at various fields around town and in our front yard.

3.  I personally walked 29.7 miles, ran 2 (ha!), and took four virtual barre classes.

4.  One day, we decided spontaneously to walk home from preschool - about a mile and a half.  Super fun, nature oriented, in-the-moment sweetness ensued.  

5.  We hosted two outdoor playdates with friends.  One involved snails.  The other involved approximately 6,000 stickers and lots of joyful squealing.  Both were brought to you by the letter S.

Never found that second snail.

Stickers really gave it the upgrade they were looking for.

6.  Gave both Matt and Arthur halfway decent hair cuts.  Matt's turned out a little better than Arthur's, the exact opposite of what happened last month.  

7.  Switched Arthur from his toddler bed to a twin bed, against my will and heartstrings.  He loves it.  It's quite comfortable, so I'm proud of myself for doing all the research and getting a quality mattress that should last a long time.  

Last night in the old bed

First night in the new one

9.  Decorated outside and in for Halloween.  Turned out to be my favorite version of how things came together - especially the lighted spider web on the front tree.  

10.  Watched the illegally uploaded on YouTube version of "It's the Great Pumpkin" Charlie Brown special while sitting on the floor eating our traditional pumpkin patch dessert by Halloween candlelight.  You people with your Apple TV would be sick with envy.  #lowblowapple

11.  Other Halloween-related "ta-da's" included baking Mummy pizzas and candy corn cupcakes, spending the best $6 ever on a Target cardboard version of jackolantern cornhole and playing it several hundred times in our hallways, spending an equally best $7 on a jackolantern ornaments foam crafting kit, several bike rides/walks around Reston to see spooky decorations, carving a jackolantern (me, though intended to be a family endeavor but...me), and perhaps our favorite...vampire teeth for the most hilarious win.  

They're supposed to have black olives for eyes.  But we don't like those.  

12.  Oh, and trick or treating.  Our neighborhood is growing and growing with kids and this month alone I have met four new families who all have similar-aged kids and seem like reasonable people I'd talk to again.  With a little coordination prior, everyone creatively put candy out in ways that didn't require anything up close and personal or touching multiple surfaces.  It surpassed our expectations and Arthur gave it a glowing report.  

13.  I SUP'd for the first time since 2016 on a gorgeous fall day and loved it.  

I didn't fall in.  I thought I might and was mentally prepared.   

14.  We did Nick's Pub Quiz (NPQ) virtually with our family in Wisconsin, Scotland, and Norway - spanning four different time zones - and managed to get most of the questions right.  As always, shout out to Nick Heath for simply being Nick Heath.

15.  I attended (virtually this year) a really great "Gilmore Girls Fan Fest", with a special treat from my husband of a hotel room alone in Georgetown so I could thoroughly enjoy it uninterrupted.  It felt like a mini-vacation.  The festival was WONDERFULLY PUT TOGETHER, with even more cast members able to come, or in some cases pre-record an interview - due to the virtual format.  It was my first time participating in a virtual "event" with a pretty advanced conference platform that had a lot of neat features - kind of an eye-opening insight into what probably a lot of the world does, especially nowadays.  But beyond the tech-wizardry that impressed me, the camaraderie of the fans and the nostalgia of the cast and crew members really translated well - particularly well over a computer screen.  I conversed with fans from all over the world, learned new little nuggets about certain cast members and some things that were written into the show based on reality that I didn't realize and had thought were fictional.  I also did a ton of "one-off" research into various charity projects, writing endeavors, documentaries that sound interesting, Sirius XM radio personalities, and a lot of reading on IMDB - all related to things brought up during interviews and panels.  Definitely worth the $35 ticket!  I missed the fall foliage trip to Connecticut, but I had a pleasant meander through the streets of Georgetown at dusk and enjoyed wonderful takeout food and junk food - just like the Gilmores.  

Clockwise from top:  Emily Kuroda (Mrs. Kim), moderator for the panel, Biff Yeager (Tom), Liz Torres (Miss Patty) with Nick Holmes (Robert) helping her with the technology, and Mike Gandolfi (Andrew)

Two new shirts!  I have a problem.  The pink one was free though - a nice surprise from the vendor (who also runs the festival) for making me wait an amount of time that I was unaware was a long amount of time for delivery.  How Stars Hollow friendly!  

The only sad moments of being in Georgetown included seeing the beautiful Kennedy Center...

...and Blues Alley....both dark and lifeless.  Ugh.  Gut punch.  

16.  Outdoor parent-teacher conference with Arthur's preschool teacher, where she shared adorable papers with us that he had written letters, numbers and shapes on, as well as a hilarious drawing of Granny.  Relieved to hear that he seems to be doing well socially and learning-wise.  She said he gets along with everyone and we hope this is truly the case.  (We suspect it is; we've decided to get along with him.) 

17.  Finished one cross-stitch Christmas ornament and bought the supplies to do the finishing parts to make it an actual ornament from what it is now.  

Do you think the song was originally maybe just one verse?  And started with number "2"?  That would really help reconcile my cross-stitching endeavors.  

18.  Finished reading "Homegoing" by Yaa Gyasi.  Exhaled a lot.  Heavy, heavy stuff.  Brilliant, brilliant writing.  Need something lighter before I try her new one.

19.  VOTED.  More exhaling.  Which is good, because I think we'll be holding our breath for a few weeks, maybe longer.  

20.  Perfect day-trip to Sky Meadows (and a bakery stop on the way!) for picnicking, baseball, soccer, hiking, autumnal skies, and creek-wading.  This place feels like it belongs a little more to us every time we go - now three times just this year.

21.  Taught 465 students during 93 virtual music classes from the piano room.  From the long-anticipated  new desk that finally arrived this month after a long trip "by sea", as the customer service rep informed me.  It's a writing desk, with curved edges, and midcentury trim.  I started looking for a new desk in June.  Every single person in every single country has already bought every single desk from every single store.  This is confirmed; I have searched and asked and followed up and asked and learned about stores that make desks and stores that just buy desks and resell them, and stores that might start looking into offering more desks so they're dabbling in a few desks right now.  But it's okay because I love this one and I own it now and am okay with my last place status of achieving the home-office desk purchase of 2020.  

22.  Learned to play the first 27 measures of Gershwin's Jazz Prelude No. 1.  At 40 beats per minute.  It's supposed to go at 100 beats per minute, so....only more than halfway to go!  But right now, 40 beats per minute feels....legendary.  So there's that.  I'm self-ridiculing, but I'm actually quite proud of myself on this one.  Any available minutes spent on the Steinway (which had its first tuning since delivery last week, so another "ta-da" for taking care of this precious, beautiful thing I still can't believe I own....) are minutes very well spent.  

23.  Learned what a high-stakes ultimatum feels like.  Extremely shitty, if you are wondering.  Also learned what true deflation, disregard, disrespect, not being heard nor understood nor valued - all feels like.  (Also shitty.)  Everything else in my life has pretty much halted in favor of feeling mentally, emotionally, and physically terrible about it most minutes of most of the last eight days.  To be continued on that one, very unfortunately, but I'm disgusted at several people.    

24.  Started watching a show on appointment basis with my friend Kickball Kevin.  We both hit play on Netflix at the same time and stay on the phone or email chat online.  It almost feels like the 90s when you’d get together for appointment TV.  

25.  A Sunday morning deep-dive into poetry that has led me to read some Carl Sandburg, Dickinson, and Ross Gay this month, among others.  

26.  Two Family Movie Nights.  The Muppet Movie (original) and The Jungle Book (also original).  Looking forward to more with cold and dark moving in.  

27.  FOUR cherry tomatoes showed up!  The kind we can eat! Can you believe it?  I certainly can not.  

Ta-da! 

28.  Had a lunch date with my husband!  Just us!  Outside, in the rain, at mostly covered outdoor seating at Caboose.  We've spent approximately seven hours alone together outside of the house since March 7th.  So, these 75 minutes were lovely to note.

After a romantic walk in the rain down a service road near the brewery.  He still holds the umbrella for me and makes silly jokes at the ambience.  

Ta-Da!  

P.S.  Next month's "ta-da" might be really short, as it has to begin with me getting through the end of Daylight Savings time.  <insert unabridged, unprecedented panic>

#screamintoapillow

#walkintotheoceanandkeepgoing

#crawlunderablanketandnotcomeoutuntilmarch

 

- 

I started doing these "ta-da lists" (vs. “to-do") a couple years ago in a halfway sorta way - always appreciating when I did.  The idea is from Gretchen Rubin's podcast "Happier" - implying that you will more often get a positivity boost from making a list of things you did after you did them than before you did them.  For me, it works.  To cure the halfway-sorta-way of doing them, I've recently decided that I'll try doing them monthly, rather than weekly or daily.  

So, here's October.  Some of these include pictures - also a happiness boost for me.

- We hosted two outdoor playdates with friends.  One involved snails.  The other involved approximately 6,000 stickers and lots of joyful squealing.  Both were brought to you by the letter S.