From the left corner of my brain

I can remember one Halloween as a kid that I was allowed to dress up for. I was a kitten in my ballerina tights and body suit with a little face paint. A few older kids knocked on our door and completely freaked me out because they were so scary looking. So I never really celebrated Halloween. Partly because I was not allowed, but I think that was okay with me.

To this day, I can NOT do scary things. Remember that movie Scream? The one that was so lame it was funny? Yeah, well I watched it a few years ago and spend more than 3/4’s of the movie with my hands over my eyes. Oh yeah, and I jump three feet into the air when the taxi was empty and then the guy suddenly appears in the alley. Holy Crap, even writing about it freaks me out. 

Needless to say, I do not watch scary movies around Halloween. But there is one movie I love : Nightmare Before Christmas. It’s one of my favorite movies.

Moving onto the reason for this post:

Carving pumpkins.

I have never carved one. Maybe once when I was little, but it has been at least 20 years. ( The fact that I can have 20 years since I have done something is weird. How am I getting so old so fast?!!?)

Over the last two or three years I have been determined to carve out a pumpkin.

Has it happened?

No.

At least this year I  bought a pumpkin, which is closer than I have ever been before. So now it is the night before Halloween and I don’t think our pumpkin will get carved. It will probably remain on our front porch for another two or three weeks until I have to throw it away.

I was going to carve this:

but thought it might be a tad bit too adventurous. I thought I could give it to a friend. I know she would love it and cherish it forever. Or at least enjoy smashing it to pieces.

So what do we have planned for Halloween evening? Jeremy is determined to turn off all of the lights in the house and watch a 5 hour live marathon of Ghost Hunters with the surround sound blaring. Me? I will be hiding under the covers rocking back and forth with my fingers in my ears saying,
“Go away bad monsters, Boo!”

Me: I finally figured out who I am voting for

Jess: Who?

Me: Can we still be friends when I vote for Obama?

Jess: Communist

Me: Ha! I don’t even have a response for that. You… you… person who likes old men. (that sounded so very different in my head)

Jess: haha ya I have a thing for wisdom and experience. So  be honest you’re voting for Hussein bc he uttered the words ‘head start’ last night aren’t you

Me: You know me too well friend -too well

Me: Among other things. But yes, he uttered head start and I immediately rushed to the tattoo shop to have ‘Yes We Can’ put across my forehead

Jeremy and I have both been sick.Today we stumbled home from work and both collapsed in the living room. By 6pm, we were both snoring away. Around 8:30 I woke up and realized I should probably wake up for a minute or two.  Jeremy woke up a few moments later and we limped our way to the kitchen to reload on orange juice and cold medicine. 

As at looked at my husband that I love so much, in his sweats and hoodie, and I in mine, I realized the truth. We are getting old. Tonight was the first time in our entire 5+ years of marriage were we collectively looked and acted old. 

It was strangly humorous and made me love him a little more. Look at us growing old together.

I would like to talk about my neighborhood grocery store for just a moment. To protect their identity, I will call them SHomeland. Over the past two months, I have grown an extreme aversion to this store. Actually, I like all the food I can buy there because they have such a wide variety of organic products.  Anyway, back to my story.

Every time I check out, the cashiers (yes, plural) feel the need to comment on the volume of food I am purchasing.

And ask many people live in my house.

And ask if I am married.

And make some random comment that I must be having a party. And they raise their voice at the end to make it a question. 

The list goes on. The first few times it happened, I thought ,”Gosh, do I really buy that much food?” But today I bought two weeks of groceries and kept the list to the minimum. 

Now please know, Jeremy and I cook most of our meals – including lunches we take to work. Most of our meals are made from scratch. It is rare we eat frozen or prepared dinners or hamburger helper etc.  So all of this does create a little bit more food to buy, but it is not like we are eating a feast every night. Just regular meals. And can I also mention that we spend waaaayyyy less than what was suggested for our grocery budget in our Financial Peace Class. 

I am sick of having to defend myself to acne-covered kids who live on ramen noodles. And who are maybe just a little bit high. I don’t want to explain my entire menu to them when they have the munchies. That’s just mean. 

But really -how on earth do they think it is appropriate?

So here is my question. Is there any one else out there that cooks the majority of their meals that experiences this at their grocery store?!!? Maybe it is because I buy the majority of our food two weeks at a time rather than once a week? Maybe it is just three very special people at my local SHomeland?

People, I’m feeling a little venerable.

You may have noticed the Twitter Bar over to the left. I have had a twitter page for a while, and I think I will keep it around. You can follow me here.

I’ve come to the realization I am not a superhero – I can not be involved in everything. I am finding myself pulled in too many directions. Work is requiring more, I need to study for my state test ( rapidly approaching in January. GULP), church involvement , although I love all of it, requires a great deal of my time, and then there is the usual stuff, laundry, dishes…… breathing etc. 

I did not set out to become over-streched, or jump in all at once. The busyniess increasded slow and steady, a little here, a little there.  But here I am, overwhelmed. So I am re-evaluating all of my commitments and how I spend my time. I’m prioritizing and working through which areas I can pull back from. Although I do not feel it is fair to flake out on areas I have already committed to, I am trying to figure out how I can be more reasonable with my time. 

Time management has never been my strongest quality. I think I am going to have to be incredibly self-disciplined with my time in order to make it through the next few months.  Self discipline? Yeah, I’m as good at that as I am with time management. 

*Sigh* it might be a long few months.