October Beckons – The Reluctant Grownup

Ah, it’s my favorite month, this month of my anniversary (which approacheth post haste!) Back when I was a pretentious and silly young thing, I collected quotes and poems about October in the back of a pink hardbound notebook, a notebook I still have even though I can hardly bear to read the pretentious, silly things I wrote in it. The job I just left has changed me, no doubt, and sometimes I get angry at the Self I was before, the one who thought that being smart and hardworking was all you need to get by, baby. Someday I’ll have to deal with this anger I have at the professional world, and the way it handles (maims, crushes, diminishes) women and especially mothers, but it’s almost October and October does not lend itself to angst and self loathing. That’s more of a February post, when the weather stinks and there are no fun holidays and everyone is depressed. October posts should be about Halloween costumes and root vegetables. October is a month in which I find myself more serene than the other eleven months of the year, and we won’t be jacking ourselves up onto a soapbox today.

I do realize it’s still September, by the by, but football has started and a harvest-y themed Southern Living has just arrived, so I’m in an early fall, October kinda mood. This is the time of year that I make pot pies and beef stew and breads. I’ve already begun thinking about what Jack will be for Halloween (hint – it has eight legs and it isn’t a spider.) I would love to convince my dad to come down here for the holiday. He always did it up right when we were kids: every October 31, slapping face paint and fake blood on us from birth, playing Night on Bald Mountain as loud as the speakers would go, and scaring the crap out of neighborhood kids who came to collect their candy. My sister is coming down just prior to the 31st, and we already have big plans for our annual traditional Scary Movie Night. Young Frankenstein and The Shining are ALWAYS, ALWAYS on the menu on Scary Movie Night. OMG I think we may have to have a Scary Movie Night Preview this week, I just can’t wait.

Happy End of September, everyone. I have lots to read for Contracts, but with football on in the background and a harvest pumpkin ale in hand. Aaaaah, autumn!