Apologies to Rod Stewart, but it’s late October, and I really should be back in school. And when I say “back in school,” I totally mean back writing on this site and finishing up my long-awaited (HA!) collection of short stories and essays, Captured Ghosts.
To be fair, I think I’m as close as I have ever come to finishing this book. I’d really like to have something to show for the effort at Thanksgiving and then to sell to people by Christmas. I’m about 60/40 that it won’t happen. I’d like to flip that and get it over the hump, but I’m just not quite there yet. Ugh.
I can’t seem to lose any more weight, which makes me depressed. I guess I need to really eat a lot fewer carbs and sugar. It is depressing. Of course, these next few weeks and the last two months are nothing but carbs and sugar. I’m getting more and more depressed.
I don’t have much willpower. I just got done eating a grab-and-go can of Pringles, and I have another one at the ready for a bit later. However, I am drinking a Hint crisp apple, and it has no carbs or sugars, but it tastes kind of like if someone ate an apple and then burped into the plastic bottle of water. It’s not very good, but it’s healthy! Oh, boy. Sigh.
I should finish watching both House of Dragon and Rings of Power, but I also want to watch the rest of Community (I’m only on season 2) and a bunch of other things like Ted Lasso, Star Trek Discovery, His Dark Materials, Stranger Things, and Doctor Who. I’m still watching and enjoying Star Trek Lower Decks and have caught up with Andor and now waiting for the last three-episode story arc to drop so I can binge it back-to-back-to-back.
I’m also watching Clerks 3, and I’m about twenty minutes or so in. So far, I like it, but the dialogue is too cutesy by a factor of five. I wish he’d dial back some of his tropes and just write people like normal people.
I keep thinking I’m going to go see Black Adam in the theater, and then I’m like, nahh. I’ll just wait until sometime in December when it will appear on HBO Max.
The World Series is about to start, and I don’t really care about it. I guess I’ll have to root for the Phillies, but it feels weird. Most of the time, I enjoy watching MLB when I don’t have a rooting interest. Maybe I’ll just wish everyone has fun playing the games.
I can’t wait for the political ads to stop playing during every commercial break. At least I’m in Illinois and not some state where crazy people are running like Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania. Sometimes I wish I could be a-political and not worry about which party is in charge, but I’m afraid if I do that, then something terrible is going to happen to my family and my country. Maybe not. Maybe I’m insulated enough by my economic status, the color of my skin, and lack of religious beliefs. I don’t know, and I guess that’s the fear. Tuning it out can only go so far.
Illinois football is on a tear, and that’s something of a surprise. It makes things more interesting in this neck of the woods. Also, Illinois basketball is also looking to be extremely competitive, and having both of these sports playing at a high level is blowing my face off a tiny bit.
I need to get back to reading more. I have several novels at the ready, both in paper and glue form and as audiobooks. Of course, my huge list of podcasts to listen to has not diminished and really makes it hard to get into an audiobook.
My ankles and knees hurt, but part of that is what happens when you hit your fifties. How did this happen? I guess I just kept getting older. It certainly beats the alternative. I have to up my exercise and try and strengthen those painful areas. Speaking of exercise, I think what I want to do is start a rowing machine regiment. Of course, I need a rowing machine, but I’m pretty sure I’m getting one of those this Christmas. I think it will help. I think…
It’s about to get super busy here with Illinois athletics, Thanksgiving/Christmas, colder weather, and everything else. First-world problems galore. I guess now is as good a time as any to simply enjoy the crispness in the air, watch the leaves fall, and breathe in the stillness before the storm.
