I believe in ... FALL!

It has happened again. I was having a harvest party for the Girl Scouts ... after all, Thanksgiving is a mere week away it seemed appropriate. I had most of the things I needed but had to pick up a few last minute items. Guess what I found at the store? Sheaves of wheat? Indian Corn? Pilgrims? Turkeys? Get real. Those things are all part of the forgotten season ... Fall. That's right. I am hear to tell you that there is a season and and event between Halloween and Christmas. Fall, Autumn, Harvest and Thanksgiving. Sadly, this always gets squeezed out by Christmas ... starting in September it seems! So, as I looked for items for my harvest party, I was treated to chestnuts roasting on open fires and jack frost nipping at my nose. The upside was that the fall items I needed, while limited in supply, were 60 - 90% off. Don't get me wrong. I am all about Christmas ... but can't we wait until at least the Friday after Thanksgiving?

Homemade Halloween Costumes

I don't know about your neighborhood but my neighborhood goes really, really, really big for Halloween. I'm not talking about a few kids running around and dads pulling coolers ... I'm talking kids trucked in from other neighborhoods, neighbors hosting parties in driveways, garages turned into haunted houses, full size candy bars that the kids have to earn by performing a trick (like balancing a balloon on their elbow) or answering trivia (name a country other than the US (1st grader) name a country that borders Germany (5th grader) and golf carts stuffed with assorted ghouls hauling trailers with plywood coffins stocked with booze. It's impossible to over buy on the candy and most people have a special stash of goodies for the kids they know. In short, it's a late night, all out romp on Halloween night. Now, poor Prissy is an only child. That means that you have got to find a buddy for Trick-or-Treating or things get really sad. For the past couple of years Prissy has teamed up with Hermione G. for loot-getting. Now, technically, Hermione G. doesn't live in our neighborhood but the description above works for her neighborhood too so let's just pretend it's the same neighborhood, shall we? This year the girls got all coordinated-like and everything. They announced, in June, that they wanted to be Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum for Halloween. Now, it doesn't take a rocket scientist (in other words, I didn't consult SEMM on this one) to figure out who (Craftier) is going to have to pull this together (Craftier) because I have somewhat of a reputation for being the go-to mom on these sorts of things (Craftier). In my former life, I managed large projects for a range of clients. In my current life, I manage the largest annual project of kid year for a two discerning clients. Funding may not be at stake, but geez, I was stressed. My clients and I met several times to discuss the options. The kept saying "round like berries" which sent me down the superstructure path. How'd that work for me? Let's just say I'm no civil engineer. In the end, I went with the original plan ... pilllows ... lots of pillows. Turns out you can turn two normal-sized 12 years olds into fat little berries with size XXL red stretch pants and pillows from their beds. Add a beanie ordered on-line, men's XL dress shirts with "Dee" and "Dum" written in fabric paint, suspenders from "who the heck knows what it's really for but it's red" from the notions section at the fabric store and POOF story book characters come to life. All of this is to say, what do I like right now? Homemade Halloween Costumes.

I can't help but hear her words of wisdom echoing my my ears ... "You know, they've proven that old adage wrong ... the one about the million monkeys and Shakespeare.  Have you read the blogs?  Tripe."  Tripe indeed and knowing that what prompts me, a lowly monkey, to start this? Well, there's Hat Chick (That's her super secret Blog name.  It's all very James Bond this world of Blogging and, no, she's not the one who called blogs Tripe that's someone else.).  Hat Chick blogs and almost every time I tell her I like what she's written she sniffs and tells me that I should blog because she likes the way I write (you just can't let that sort of devotion down forever) and there's the Steely-Eyed Missle Man (SEMM from here on out because you can forget about me typing that over and over again).  He's always telling me that I should write.  He believes it ... you can't let that sort of belief down forever either.  And heck,  it'll make that Christmas letter 2009 that much easier; so why not?

Of course, all that introduction being behind us what shall I write about ... certainly not my every day life.  No matter how well I write (according to Hat Chick and SEMM) I can't make that interesting (much less inspirational).  Geek that I am I considered "What I learned today."  This introduced two problematic issues.   The first being the word "today."  Good gosh that's all awful lot of pressure ... today.  It implies a sort of "Johnny On The Spot" attitude and organization that, face it, I won't be attaining this lifetime.  I'll never be the sort to crank out something daily.  Let's get that expectation set correctly up front.  I will blog on a semi-quasi-nebulous schedule meaning when I feel like it and I have the time.  Being queen of this Blog I can set up such a capricious schedule.  Don't like it?  There's other blogs, baby.  Now, where was I ... today ... no ... ah yes, "what I learned".  You think today is bad ... learned?  Way too much pressure.  Something new, interesting and innovative.  Why every time I posted I could hear the voices in my head (I like to think of them as a Greek Chorus) "You posted that why every one knows that already.  You may be able to string subject and predicate but boy are you stoo-pid!"   I didn't like that, which got me to thinking of what I do like ... which got me thinking that was a pretty good idea.  My blog will be what I like right now (right now being wonderfully present without the added pressure of a daily nature). 

WHAT I LIKE RIGHT NOW ... it's perfect!  You see liking something right now doesn't mean I will like it forever.  Nothing last forever, I've learned that in life.  But for several golden moments in the sun the object of my affection can be shared and glorified and then abandoned to the dustbin of past posts.  WHAT I LIKE RIGHT NOW also gives me the flexibility to select persons, places, things, concepts anything real or imagined.  I might not talk of my life directly but I suspect that my reader (hello Hat Chick!) may learn a little about my goings on along the way.  WHAT I LIKE RIGHT NOW ... that's all I have to offer.  Today, of course, what I like right now is this blog and Hat Chick and SEMM for encouraging me to do it.