the list of now

November has been wonderful to me.  I had wanted to write this list last week before Thanksgiving, but here I am already looking at Christmas lights. So before I get all swept up in December, I figured I should reflect a bit before moving on.

- The first Thanksgiving in years that actually felt like a celebration.
- New opportunities. I have some consistent freelance blogging going on. Darcy and I are going to be managing a website today. And she is starting a really phenomenal new job next week.
- New developments for many people I care about. It feels like one of those time periods where everything is shifting around and people are beginning new eras in their  lives.  I’m seeing lots of people making really beautiful things happen.
- Being on the mend. I had a little relapse with my back at the beginning of the month, but it’s been all improvement and lessening pain since then.
- Productivity. I’m always really inspired in the Fall and it is the good kind of busy. Writing a lot. Designing holiday cards. More and more ideas.
- Cozying up to when I get to listen to Christmas music and watch all my favorite cheesy holiday comfort movies.
- Planning gifts and making all my usual candies and treats for people.
- The chill in the air. I know by February I will be officially sick of Winter, but I have really been relishing the few cold days lately and wanting more.

My Sorrow, when she’s here with me,
Thinks these dark days of autumn rain
Are beautiful as days can be;
She loves the bare, the withered tree;
She walked the sodden pasture lane.
- Robert Frost, My November Guest

I’m continuing my love affair with Fall and all things cozy that come from chillier weather.  Even the quiet, melancholic moments. November is good company for that.

- Still reading A Clash of Kings. Was hoping to finish the whole series by Christmas, I doubt it’s going to happen. I’ve been really busy and I feel like I can only take so much epic epicness at a time, so I keep taking breaks.

- On deck: The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern, The Family Fang – Kevin Wilson, The Name of the Star – Maureen Johnson

- Lots and lots of knitting.

- Saw The Ides of March. (Excellent. Ryan Gosling rocks pretty much everything.) Wanting to see Martha Marcy May Marlene, My Week With Marilyn, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Like Crazy, Young Adult, Sherlock Holmes: Book of Shadows, and also Drive and about 800 other great-looking movies that I feel like I’ve missed in the last couple months! I need to catch up.

-  I’m also super-excited for Fincher’s Girl With the Dragon Tattoo which looks like it might end up being a better adaptation than the swedish films, even though I adore Noomi Rapace. (Yeah. I said it.)

- Went on a little roadtrip with Darcy and our good friend Kate last weekend to Provincetown, MA. My first visit to the Cape (even though I live really close to it). It was wonderful. I couldn’t get over how adorable the town was. We found a great little tattoo shop where Kate got her second tattoo (on her ribs, what a badass!) and I’m thinking it will be where I get my next work done. We also stayed in the most perfect little Inn. I wanted to move in for a while.

- Drawing up designs for some holiday cards. I think I’m going to do some with ink and paint and some with papercuts.

- Planning a really lovely Brooklyn Thanksgiving with my brother and other lovely friends I don’t get to see often enough.

- Missing my days of playing guitar, which I haven’t done regularly for years now. Might be time to pick it back up.

- Avoiding the GOP debates. I watched one and my head nearly exploded. I think this upcoming election year might just kill me.

- I’ve been listening to the album Down the Way by Angus and Julia Stone a lot lately.  The songs “Draw Your Swords”, “For You” and “Devil’s Tears” seem really appropriate for the chill in the air and the long starry nights.

- I also can’t wait to get the Christmas records out. I love love love holiday music. Yes even Bob Dylan’s. (Maybe even especially.)

- I always pull out Nick Drake again every time November comes around.  I decided his perfect cover of Jackson Frank’s “Milk and Honey” just feels like the approach of Winter to me.

- I decided October is my favorite month. (Don’t tell June.)

- Craving oatmeal for breakfast and soup for all other meals.

- Fall is the best time for beachwalking, so that’s where I want to be every evening.

- Although we went up to Vermont two weeks ago, and I’m more than a little smitten with the lovely mountains and Burlington.

- Reading A Clash of Kings

- Working on several art projects at once.

- Catching up on Doctor Who, I’m finally on the current season, but not caught up completely yet.

- Checking out some new Fall tv shows. So far Revenge is the one that has me hooked. And sadly Ringer wasn’t worth watching past episode one, even for my love of SMG.

- I’m already starting to plan for the holiday season. (makes me feel all glowy) Planning crafts, cooking, time with family, gifts and making time for traditions. I can’t wait to get to watch the holiday comfort movies!

- Feeling really inspired by my beautiful friends who all seem to be making and planning big steps in life.

• My brother Dan was in town. I haven’t seen him in a long time since he lives on the other side of the country. It was great.
• For this occasion, a bunch of people came over my house to hang out.
• I made my popular spinach artichoke dip (came out well) and tried to make cheesy stuffed mushrooms (not so much).
• we made and drank Dark and Stormies
• we played Apples to Apples, which I have never done and greatly enjoy.
• I watched Flight 666 a concert tour documentary about Iron Maiden. It was excellent.
• We rented Kevin Smith’s “Red State” (available as a pre-theatrical release Video on Demand). It was also excellent. I hope to write and post a review later.
• We made the mistake of watching the end of the GOP debate this week and my heart basically broke into a million pieces when the crowd cheered the question that stated the absurdly large number of people that have been executed under Rick Perry’s time as Governor. Flashbacks to Bush’s execution stats and then the 8 long years of his presidency. The approaching election scares me. A lot.
• And also… last weekend I threw my back out. It was a flare-up of a lower back injury from a decade ago that still bothers me from time to time. It’s not a crisis, but it’s been hurting and ruining my life for 4 consecutive days now, which royally sucks
• Because of this, I haven’t worked on any of the things I’m wanting to be working on.  It hurts to sit and to bend. So that pretty much knocks out any writing projects and art projects that I would like to be doing.
• Therefore, I’ve gotten incredibly whiny and emo and frustrated with my body and it’s limitations.
• Hoping to be in a better place soon. And renewing my commitment to doing yoga everyday again, in hopes of preventing this sort of thing from happening often.

In local news I keep seeing people throwing the word “preparedness” around. I didn’t think that was even a word. And if it is, how does it differ from “preparation”? Maybe “preparation” is what you do and “preparedness” is a state of being?

No matter.  I’m rocking the prepwhateverness for this hurricane!

Because I live in a small house that I believe to be secure, located outside a dangerzone, the worst that can happen to me is losing power and getting stuck here for a while.  With that in mind, this is the (admittedly somewhat frivolous) list of the kinds of things that I’ve actually been thinking about as “necessities” for such an occasion.

I have:

• supplies to make both white and semi-sweet “puppy chow” (you know, the dessert chex mix)
• lots of tea (and a propane stove, so power or none, the teapot is not bothered)
• coffee (and a french press and a stovetop espresso pot which also give zero fucks about losing power)
• the good incense
• tealight candles
• a shelf full of comic books I have not yet read
• lots and lots of art supplies and writing implements and paper
• a portable record player with batteries
• a set of tiny speakers that run on batteries to play the mp3 player if the power goes out and I run through all the record player batteries.
• scrabble, risk, bananagrams, last night on earth (the zombie apocalypse boardgame), playing cards, uno, guillotine, chess and 90′s trivial pursuit.
• yarnstash and knitting needles
• peanut butter chocolate chip granola bars
• a guitar and a captive audience, really patient Darcy.
• a bottle of wine
• beer for the people in my house who drink beer, not me.
• small cans of v8.  to be healthy or something.
• camping lantern
• clean bedsheets, blankets and lots of pillows for all our fort-building needs
• lots of treats to pacify Max who is afraid of storms and will likely spend the entire hurricane whimpering under our bed.

Clearly, I’m set.

On a more serious note, lest you worry about my situation (or sanity) – I did actually take some actual precautions for emergency.  We have a few gallons of water, a water filter thingie if we need more. Non-perishable food. A cooler to take things out of the fridge that we might need or want so that we can keep it closed if the power goes out.  Flashlights, garbage bags, clothesline. We are filling the tub for extra water and flushing. A place to go if we have to evacuate and a jeep to evacuate in.  Plenty of dog and cat food and a plan of how we’d evacuate them too.

I’m very, very lucky to have the means to be this prepared and live somewhere relatively safe (as much as I can be living right next to the ocean).

I wish the best for everyone on the East Coast dealing with this right now.  I know there are a lot of areas that will need help cleaning up from damages and flooding and people who will need their communities to step up.  Let’s all prepare and be there for that too.