I’ve been kind of introspective lately, and it’s not the kind of introspection that lends itself to journaling. You may have noticed that a lot of my record-keeping lately has been of the ‘we did this today’ genre, and that’s okay by me. I use my online journal as a way to check back and see what we were doing when a lot. But I haven’t felt moved to write down what I’m feeling. Maybe it has to do with that fact that I can’t quite define how I’m feeling – it’s not bad, it’s not wonderful, it’s just me. These days I’m better at releasing or rejecting unnecessary stress, which is miraculous. I don’t feel like I’m trying to keep up with anything or cram everything into my life for once. I’ve been spending a lot of time just being. I’m not trying to fill my days (although it happens more often than not). I’m trying not to overdose on internet-related things, and I find that there’s more to my day as a result of the less-cluttered headspace.

It’s fall, and I love fall. And as usual, thoughts begin to turn inwards during this season. Samhain is only three weeks away. This year I’ve realized it early: it’s coming, I’m slowing down, I’m looking inward, and I’m not having periodic fits wondering what’s going wrong with me. It’s dark when we wake up, which is depressing; what’s more depressing is that it’s still dark by seven AM. Right now it’s sunny outside, which is a blessed break as it’s supposed to be drizzly all week. I love sunny fall days; they make me feel wonderful no matter what. It can be three degrees outside and sunny, I don’t care. Things feel somewhat as if they’re reaching a still point for me. (Of course, this means part of me is looking around for the piano about to fall.)

We visited my parents over Thanksgiving weekend and had a good time mingling with family. It poured with cloudy intervals, and was alarmingly hot for the time of year. Liam is now capable of racing up and down their stairs on his own, which is both a relief and a worry as he chases the cats who really need some time and space to themselves when he’s there. My cousin and his wife came over for Thanksgiving dinner with their little daughter who is about nine months younger than Liam, and it was priceless to see the two of them careening around together, actually having little toddler conversations between all the giggling and crowing. My mother brought some lovely things back from Greece and I got her old olive green pashmina wrap to add to my collection of wraps that I don’t wear anywhere near often enough. I really should just get rid of everything normal in my clothing collection and embrace eccentricity. The good thing is I’ve worn it several times in the past five days, so maybe I’m getting somewhere. There’s a lovely stacked-heel strapped moss green suede shoe coming out in the Hush Puppies November collection that would fit right into the eccentric category too. Sometimes I wonder why I ever buy suede shoes, because I rarely wear them for fear of ruining the suede in the Montreal rain that falls with no warning and no regard for forecast. (Why do I buy shoes at all? I never wear them out. I have a pair of black shoes I’ve worn for the past nineteen years. I hate going shoe shopping, but over the past four years I’ve randomly spied one pair a year that I love. My Buster Brown owly clogs were one such purchase. I’ll look at these Hush Puppies when they come out, but I’ll probably end up nixing them for the height of the heel.)

I got my anniversary gift from HRH over the weekend as well. I ended up buying HRH a DeWalt rotary saw, with which he was thrilled. In turn, he gave me a choice between a pair of Doc Marten boots I’d seen online and loved, and a crimson DS Lite. As Docs are traditionally way, way too wide for my feet and I don’t have enough reason to wear the boots I already own, and the chances of finding the style I wanted still available was next to nil, we went with the DS. (Which in turn means he inherited my original large DS. There is method to our madness.) So I am now the owner of a lovely crimson DS Lite with a snazzy little snap-close case. It’s shiny, and weighs so much less; my wrists don’t hurt from holding it up after I’ve played.

I should be getting rewrites and copy-edits on the pregnancy book around the end of the month. The revised projected release date is August 2008.

See? Here we are, back to a ‘this is what we did’ post. Not a bad thing.