4 things I learned in October

"I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers." So says Anne of Green Gables, so says me. October does everything best. But here are some less obvious observations I've had this October.

Social media fast—I did Pres. Nelson's social media fast challenge. Mostly. I only did it seven days instead of 10, but I figured that was enough. And rather than make me realize something profound about how social media was ruining my life, seven days without it made me more grateful for it. I am connected to far more people than I would be without social media—going without it made me feel more isolated, if anything—not to mention it's a handy tool for keeping tabs on people I don't see very much and keeping me up to date on what's going on in the world. It's such a universal way of communicating now that sometimes it's the only way I can get updates about family events, ward happenings, etc. And I missed being able to scroll through Twitter when I needed to numb my brain—that's been a super handy trick when I need a quick break from editing or when my thoughts are racing at night when I should be sleeping.

I enjoyed the break from all the negativity—especially on Twitter—and I'm going to be more mindful about staying off social media when I should be focusing on what's going on around me. But overall, going cold turkey for that long was an unnecessary nuisance.

2018 spooky read—For the last few years, I've read a spooky book in October. I need challenges like this to get me outside my reading comfort zone occasionally. I don't enjoy horror, but I loved 11/22/63 so much that I had to read some more Stephen King. So I chose one of the classics of the horror genre: The Shining. I was prepared to be jumping at shadows all the time and to have nightmares every night—but the book really didn't scare me that much. 

I mean, yes, it's a freaky and disturbing book and it deserves its spot as one of the premier horror novels of all time, but I couldn't suspend my disbelief enough to buy that a haunted hotel could make you go crazy or that hedges could come to life and attack you. I can put myself in any fantasy story, memoir, contemporary novel—basically any other genre—but in horror, apparently I can't do that enough to relate in any meaningful way. And since I don't find horror tropes entertaining or educational—the top two reasons I read—this book didn't have much to offer me.

I still don't think I could handle the movie, though, unless I went into it with the intention of mocking the absurdity. It's a lot harder to get disturbing images out of your brain if you actually have to see them. And the music! Horror is vastly more effective with a suspenseful soundtrack.

Working from home—I've started working from home one day a week because I moved into the part of Utah that gets the worst traffic in the entire state. (In my totally unbiased, rational opinion. Redwood Road is of the devil.) The older I get the more I feel like the 9-to-5 office life is slowly sucking the life out of me, so getting one weekday away from that makes me feel like I have a little more control over the way I live. I'll probably be stuck in office culture for another 35 years or so, so I'm grateful to have wrangled a little bit of flexibility out of it.

Ask and you may receive—I'm not the inquisitive type. Not if it means physically asking someone a question. Nor am I the type to seek out help from others. I'd rather suffer in silence until I explode. But recent experiences have made me realize that if you ask for something, you just might get it. Opening up, even just a little, doesn't necessarily mean you'll be rejected or ignored or seen as weak. Mind blown.

8 things I learned in June (and half of July)

1. South Dakota is beautiful. Before vacationing there for a week, I was under the impression that South Dakota was one of the boring states. Which may be true, depending on how you define boring, but its beauty is also significantly underrated. I might blog more about this later. If I have the mental energy/brain space for it.

2. I also couldn't be content living somewhere that remote. My goal in life is to, essentially, avoid people, so this realization came as a surprise to me. I always pictured myself being happy in one of America's wide open spaces, with nothing but trees, sky, and clouds for company. But, after a while you start to get tired of all that green. Deep thoughts while enjoying nature don't entirely compensate for the opportunities of the "real" world. You start to miss having access to all the conveniences of civilization. Never thought I'd say that, let alone believe it, but I guess it's good I realized all this before I made an impulsive move to a sparsely populated spot. Utah is just the best, guys—you get the best of both worlds. (Although not quite that much green.)

3. Wyoming is the most boring state in the nation. That million-hour drive through Wyoming's nothingness is enough to drive you to insanity. The most interesting part was the windmills. And the clouds that seem to go on for an eternity.

4. Brandon Sanderson's cosmere is even more complex than I thought it was. With Oathbringer's release date just a few months away, I'm trying to get some good cosmere studying in. And it's intense. But one of these days, I will understand it. I'll probably still be saying that in 20 years.

5. Lemonade doesn't quench your thirst—it just makes you more thirsty. I love lemonade, but I think I'll refrain from buying it from the store from now on, even if Trader Joe's is having a sale. I spent many evenings this week overfull because of the thirst that cannot be quenched.

6. What kind of editor I am. We're in the middle of hiring a managing editor at work, and this whole process has helped me see where my strengths lie as an editor and what I actually want out of a career. I feel like I have more realistic long-term goals now, and a much clearer picture of what my career will entail here on out.

7. Why I'm rereading everything this year. Since I became a podcast maniac 3–4 years ago, my reading habits have changed. I read more, I read more widely, and reading has never been as big of a priority as it is now. But this year, I keep going back to my old favorites. I've gotten so caught up in discovering new authors and forming opinions on some of the hot books everyone is talking about that I haven't spent as much time on my first love, the genre that made me a compulsive reader—fantasy. So I'm going back to my reading roots. Book Riot recently posted a stupid article about rereading not counting as reading, but it's been the most satisfying part of my reading this year. One pass simply is not enough for any book worth rereading, and I've gotten so much out of all of my book reunions.

8. Taking time off to play is worth every hassle. I totally already knew this, but I wanted to share two more pictures.

Planning our yearly sister party is a huge ordeal, but it usually ends up being one of the best weekends of the year.

My favorite South Dakota picture.

442

Since I started this blog in June 2010, I've never gotten through a month without posting at least once. If I don't post today, that streak will end, and I just can't allow that to happen.

I was looking over my paltry blog stats today and realized that this thing has been going for seven years. 442 posts. (Does that number make anyone else think of Lost? It's not exactly one of the numbers, but it's close.) I know I shouldn't be surprised that I've found 442 things to post about—I've filled 21 journals on much more mundane things—but, well, I'm surprised.

So I'm going to celebrate my seven-year blogerversary by highlighting some fun (for me, at least) stats.

First post: So, I'm done with classes. Now what? Boy, I was a rambler. Probably still am, but I hope I've curbed that tendency somewhat.

Post with the most page views: Bold literary characters. I wonder how many people stumbled upon this post because they were looking for inspiration for their English papers.

Most popular topic label: Life lessons. I know, I know. You're all shocked Harry Potter isn't at the top. I am, too.

Post with the most comments: My pre-30s bucket list. It's a little depressing how few of these things I've actually accomplished. Somehow I've got to find a way to go skiing, leave the country, get married, have a kid, buy a house and a piano, finish learning "Rhapsody in Blue," and perfect my ranch dressing recipe in the next 3 1/2 months. Totally doable.

Post that used the least amount of words: 10 reasons why the NBA lockout sucks. I had forgotten about this one! Things are a bit different now.

Post that was the hardest to publish: I have a hard time being publicly personal (public = anyone who is not me). The personal stuff doesn't always make it to the publish phase, and when it does, my instinct is to quickly bury it so no one sees it. All of the Pearls of 20something Wisdom posts have been hard for that reason, especially the aloneness one.

My favorite post: Burning books (although this one is a close second). I stopped so many people from reading The Casual Vacancy with this post. You're welcome. But I still look back on the book-burning experience fondly.

What I did this summer besides not sleep and talk about Harry Potter

I just realized that the only things I've blogged about this summer are Harry Potter and sleep. And while those two things really have been on my mind a lot the past three months, I'm pretty sure other stuff happened, too.

Such as, I worked a lot. Preparing for this year's International Convention about killed off our department. But that's not a fun thing to talk about, so let's move on.

I played stake softball. But I don't have any pictures, so I guess it didn't happen.

Ooh, I know. I finished my ginormous afghan just in time to summerize my bedding. I'm excited to pull it back out in a few months.

My family had a water party on Memorial Day for the grandkids and Tyrel.

Ladies, this muscular dork is single. (That's a balloon on his head, if you're wondering.)

Avonlea loves her cousin Noah. LOVES him. 

Passing on a beloved tradition.

The 4th of July happened, and we did sparklers and pop-its (is that what they're actually called?). Once again, for the grandkids and Tyrel.

She looks so much like baby Kimberly in this picture.

We also watched Prince Caspian on our garage door, because that's what you do when fireworks are banned in your area.

I colored my hair for the first time since high school. It's not really what I had in mind, and I miss my natural boring brown hair. But I'm reconciling myself to going about life with yellow hair.

I went to Seattle with my family (minus the married kids), where we weren't allowed to talk about the w-word for a whole week. Many hilarious things were said, we ate a ton of great food, watched the Olympics every night, and slept in every morning. Heaven.

Other highlights include going to a Mariners game, which we all enjoyed more than we thought we would.

Except maybe Shannan.

I ate a deep-fried Twinkie, which kind of tasted like bread with powdered sugar on it. Not really what I was expecting.

We fulfilled our hike obligation for the next couple of years. (Except for Tyrel, who climbs a mountain once a week.)

Look at all that green!

Mom and Dad aren't so sure about Tyrel's tripod/selfie stick.

I had a great time embracing my crazy, curly hair for a few days (humidity's one redeeming quality), and learned that taking dramatic wind pictures is hard and usually not glamorous.

We went to a bunch of museums. The guitar tower was my favorite.

And the Invisibility Cloak display that had nothing in it.

I faced my fear of heights and made it to the top of the Space Needle without completely losing my dignity. I somehow ended up at the front of the elevator, right in front of the window, and had nothing to hold onto to make me feel anchored. And once we got out of the elevator I couldn't shake the feeling that the tower was swaying. The view was awesome, but I don't need to go through that again.

Note Mt. Rainier in the background. 

This picture makes me look slightly more terrified than I actually was. Only slightly, though.

And other shenanigans happened in Seattle.

We rode the ferry and went on a boat cruise.

We sat in these amazing recliner chairs for the Star Trek movie, so we had to go back and see another movie (Pete's Dragon) on our last day. And stick our very own Troll in the Troll's head.

I dove right back into the craziness of work, and went into Convention exhausted. I have no pictures or cool stories from this year, but I do have documentation from my Fitbit that it happened—I averaged 18,000 steps per day over the four days. That's about double what I usually get. I watched Friday Night Lights every night and took the most amazing bubble bath of my life on the last night to recover. And slept a lot on Sunday.

So, some good stuff happened this summer. But, as always, I'm stoked for it to step aside for fall.

I like random thoughts

It's been a long time since I did a good ol' brain-dumping list post. For my own amusement, I thought I'd see if I can still do it.

• I graduated from high school 10 years ago this week. Oddly, that doesn't make me feel as old as knowing that I graduated from college almost six years ago. I'm much more in tune with my college self, and it's strange that she's so far away. (I know, most of you are laughing at me for thinking six years is a long time to be out of college. Shut up.)
• I'm on pace to read 100 books this year. While I've always fantasized doing that, I don't think I'll push myself too hard to hit that number. I might end up hating reading if I do.
• I am far more excited about the new Beauty and the Beast movie and the Gilmore Girls revival than I am about any of the Harry Potter stuff coming up this year. If J.K. Rowling were writing an actual novel—not a play-printed-in-book-form-to-inspire-clickbait-and-confuse-people—I may have caused my own death via excitement by now. I obviously enjoy anything Harry Potter related, from books to movies to theme parks to online discussions to JKR-approved spin-offs, but nothing comes close to the exquisite delight of reading an actual Harry Potter book.
• Somehow, Harry Potter always finds a way into these types of posts.
• I tried to give The Office another try a few months ago, and only made it two episodes in. I think I could appreciate the show now, but I just CANNOT stand Michael Scott. I want him killed. I don't think the good things about the show are enough to compensate for my dislike of that character (the actor annoys me, too).
• For years I've been trying to convince Mother Nature to not allow rain and/or thunderstorms on Tuesdays (softball days), but she continues to ignore me. If you can't tell, I'm in need of something fun outside of books and TV.
• Yesterday (Wednesday), my first thought was, "At least today is Thursday." Even the warm donut dripping in chocolate frosting I got upon arriving at work wasn't enough to help me recover fully from my devastation knowing that the week wasn't even halfway over yet.
• I've noticed that when people come to talk to me at my cubicle, I almost always reach for my water bottle for a drink. I guess it's a coping mechanism for dealing with unexpected social encounters. Which reminds me of a Gilmore Girls quote! "Are you sure you don't want some tea? It tends to make situations like these less awkward. There's things to hold and stir." Something like that. 
• The term "manic pixie dream girl" keeps popping up in the podcasts I listen to.
• This borderline jacket weather is really getting on my nerves.
• Fake Coach K agreed to play a game in Provo? That's not a safe place, dude.

And, I'm out, folks. Have a nice day.

From wall space to wallpaper

When I moved out the first time, I took a small stack of pictures with me to hang up on my allotted wall space. It was just a few pictures I had lying around, but they brought a little piece of home to a strange environment.

Each time I moved, I brought more pictures with me. They provided a nice spot for my eyes to land on when I needed a breather from writing papers.

When you really need a break from studying, though, the best thing to do is make a chain counting down the days you have until you're free from tyrannical papers.

Even after I graduated and moved into my first post-college apartment, I kept the picture tradition going. Only now I had enough pictures to turn my picture wall into a picture door. Having my own room helped.

When I moved into the apartment I'm in now, I put my favorite pictures in picture frames and hung them up around my living room, because that's what real adults do. But I still had a large stack of pictures on my little bookshelf, generously collecting dust. (You may not know this, but printing simple 4x6 pictures is super cheap. I continued to print my favorite pictures from time to time because I'm paranoid that I'll lose all my digital copies and that would be tragic.) I wanted to put the pictures back up just for old time's sake, but never got around to it.

Until I switched back to 9:00 a.m. church. I've been on 1:00 p.m. church for years and had grown to really love it, so the transition was brutal. But the hardest part wasn't getting up early.

It was all the extra time I had in the afternoons. 

Sadly, I have lost my ability to take marathon naps on leisurely Sunday afternoons, so I've had to find other ways to fill my time. One Sunday I was going a little stir crazy, stuck inside having already done my other go-to Sunday activities, so I decided it was time to liven up my kitchen.

After 2.5 hours of work, I was finished.

For weeks afterward pictures kept falling down due to my sticky-stuff stinginess. Still not even sure if I liked my new wallpaper, I kept re-taping pictures to the wall until I had finally used enough tape to mummify a small child.

Once I got over the shock of seeing so much color where there used to be boring whiteness, I started to enjoy it a little, just like I did in my previous apartments.

There are pictures along the entryway, too—can you see them?

I look at those pictures all the time now when I'm cooking, doing the dishes, and heating up food. I see them and think, "What an interesting life I've had."

One full of laughter, silly antics, and love.

This wallpaper is about as ghetto as it comes, but it follows me wherever I go. It's too precious to just sit in a drawer, unadmired.

If you're having a boring Sunday, here's a challenge for you: see how many pictures you can find that made it onto each of my picture walls. While you're looking, I think I'll go make some cookies.

This post is sponsored by Dove® Chocolate

Okay, Dove didn't actually sponsor this post, but I like that title too much to change it.

I've consumed a lot of Dove Chocolate over the years, and I've kept a lot of their cheesy, inspirational messages, too. In college I used the wrappers to decorate my side of my bedroom and, when it was time to move back home, added my favorites to the scrapbook pages I put together for my sophomore year.

I usually get some form of chocolate in my stocking each Christmas, and this year it was Dove Chocolate. Before I put those decadent squares delight in my mouth, I still have to make sure I read the Dove message on the inside of the wrapper. From what I've seen so far of this batch, the messages are better than they've been in recent years.

So I decided to take on a challenge to make January a little more fun: do what each of those wrappers tell me to do. Sing for my snack, and all that. (Note: I did not make a healthy-eating resolution this year.)

Things didn't really go as planned though, due to what happens whenever anyone tells me to do something I don't want to do—the rebel breaks free. And when I'm already battling post–New Year's blues, snark becomes a coping mechanism.

You'll see what I mean in a bit.

1/5: Quote your dad. "I have to do everything around here" and "Un. Be. Lievable." are some of my favorites.
1/6: Improvise. This one is really hard to do on demand. Does coming up with names to call Coach Krystkowiak count? (Fake Coach K is the nicest one I've heard, and I'll be calling him that in printed form from here on out because I don't want to go through the trouble of memorizing that spelling.)
1/7: Take a run on the wild side. I drove to work in a cloud today. It was pretty wild.
1/8: Share something offline. You mean, like talk to someone in person? Millennials don't know how to do that.
1/8: Happy Un-Birthday. Oh, be quiet, I just wanted some chocolate.
1/11: Build a bridge . . . with chocolate. This bridge will save ants from falling in the tiny crack. If they can survive the trek over the bridge.

1/11: Show up without a reservation. Well, I could go to a meeting without RSVP'ing, but that just seems silly.
1/12: Make all food finger food. Tell me, how am I supposed to turn this into finger food?

1/12: Coin a new catchphrase. This isn't new, but I do say it a lot: "Why, hello."
1/13: Ignore the clock. I did that this morning as I was catching up on some reading. It was lovely.
1/15: Actually go to a bookstore. ARE YOU FREKAIN' KIDDING ME? I've done pretty good so far this year with curbing my superfluous spending, and now you throw this at me? How about we strike a compromise. I'll be in Portland in a few months, and I promise to spend hours at Powell's Books.
1/20: Solve all arguments with a dance-off. Ha. Yeah, not happening.
1/23: Start a game of tag with your friends. Most of my friends who live nearby are imaginary, so this shouldn't be too difficult.