My last two posts were poems. I never really write poems, but since I wrote a few, I decided to share them. Funny thing is that I pre-scheduled the second one three days in advance thinking that I’d write another post in between. I didn’t expect them to be back-to-back, haha.

Some random thoughts from this past week or so:

BAKING: Last week, my friend Jeff brought me pumpkin cookies. I ate one while he was here and held back. After he left, after a weekend of a haunted hayride and a scary movie, I ate the entire tub of cookies in one sitting. It was only six, but still. They were delicious. I instantly looked for a recipe, and found one from Cooks.com. A week passed, but I made them tonight. Yummy! The second batch turned out better than the first- I took them out at 15 minutes. They are more soft and moist. I technically made one batch, but I had to bake one pan at a time because I only had one baking pan, haha. I have more pumpkin, so I will make more, but I got tired.

I baked soft pumpkin cookies while drinking Harvest Moon by Blue Moon

READING: I finished LIES MY MOTHER TOLD ME by Kaylie Jones. It was fabulous. One line from one of the later chapters really, really resonated with me. Don’t want to say which one it is, because it’s too personal for this blog. But, I guarantee you that if you read this memoir, something will stick with you, too. I just started a new book last night, YEAR OF WONDERS, a book about the plague in 1666.  I like it so far. Was hard to adjust from Kaylie’s conversational style to the more formal English that people in 1666 speak, but I like the main character a lot. This is the first book of fiction I am reading in over two years. It’s been all memoir since I started the Wilkes program. I think I did read Animal Farm and some Stephen King in the middle somewhere, but pretty much, all memoir. Wonderful memoir, may I add.

WATCHING: Rocky Horror Picture Show, put on at Music Box Dinner Theater in Swoyersville, was tons of fun. I went with a new friend I made through attending events at Paper Kite Press and had a blast. The cast was great. Very, very enjoyable. Another friend of mine heard I was going, so she went also and had a great time. What a fun night!

DRINKING: A new dive bar. I went to a new bar, Full Moon Cafe, in Larksville on Friday and had fun. I love finding hole in the wall places. It was quite the eventful evening, too. And in fact, I just wrote a nine-page essay about the night. Long story short: I complained all night about my hair being in a ponytail. When we got to Full Moon and I said it again to an older woman I knew through a previous job, she whipped my hair tie out, fluffed my hair, then proceeded to give me smokey, sexy eyes. Yes. An impromptu make-over at a dive bar. One of the funniest things ever. Here’s a picture for your viewing pleasure in case you don’t believe me. Love nights that I can write nine pages about. A cute boy helps, too.

If strange things happen when there is a full moon out, imagine what happens when you are INSIDE the Full Moon. (Wow. Did I just write them a helluva tag line or what?"

LISTENING: Tom Petty Live Anthology Superhighway Tour is going well (I blog about Tom Petty music a lot). Think I am on Week #4 and I am just enjoying it to the fullest. Every week, two new songs and lots of memorabilia like newspaper clippings, set lists, studio papers, and more. Fun, fun, fun. Best $25 I spent in a while. Can’t wait until the physical set comes out on November 24. Things have been so busy for me lately that I actually forgot to check the last two weeks, so tonight, I am enjoying four new live songs! As I write this, I am listening to “Breakdown” as it was recorded live on June 30, 1981 in LA – sounds so young! What a freakin’ jam session this was, too. They break”Down” into Hit the Road Jack. Wow, just a killer performance of “Breakdown.”  The crowd sings along in a lot of it, and it makes me wonder who was at that concert, and where they are now.  I love the commentary about these songs and shows that the band gives through the Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers Superhighway Tour.

SLEEPING: Sleep has been going better. Still hit snooze two hours before I wake up, but I am in my bed before 11:00 p.m. every night. I stop drinking caffiene after 12 or 1 – usually my last coffee around 11 and my last soda with my lunch. If I need the fizz, I go for a Root Beer. Before bed, I’ve been journaling to get my mind to stop racing, then that gives time for my peppermint melatonin tea from Alvita a chance to get to get to a good temperature, then I have been reading (while my white noise machine playes) until I fall asleep. I’ve been getting a lot more sleep and feeling better during the day. The only part of the equation that still makes no sense is the waking. Amazing, still, how I hit can still hit snooze for two hours.

PLANNING: I’m doing a talk at Wilkes next week for my former mentor and friend, Jane, and the student-run PR agency and am very, very excited.

WONDERING: And, I woke up this morning, as shown below, with one sock on and one sock off. This has been going on for years. Last week, my friend Jeff stayed over and I showed him in the morning how the same thing– one sock off. We had watched Paranormal Activity, so he said, “Maybe a demon is taking your sock?” Hm. Here’s my blog post from over a year ago about this…

99% of the nights I sleep with socks on, I wake up with the left sock off. Have no idea why. Do you believe in the sock monster?

And, that’s it. Just some random stuff I’ve been up to.