Shew, it's almost November!

Obviously. And Happy Halloween to you too.

I actually kind of hate Halloween. Michael and I were just talking about it, and I think some of my bitterness about the day has its roots in my childhood. My parents only took us to their friends' houses who gave us boring "snacks" like fruit and nuts. I kid you not! Plus, I think they decided that when my older brothers were 10, they were too old to go, and if they were too old, then so were the rest of us. Totally unfair. It's obvious that I still haven't quite recovered from the scars.

These days, in addition to associating Halloween to the time of year that females of different ages and socio-economic backgrounds dress up as a prostitute, I find that it marks the beginning of the "Holiday Season". This, in turn, brings with it rampant spending (a negative) and vacation (a major positive). We experienced something of the rampant spending and holiday season buzz when we idiotically went to a craft store today to pick up some ribbon and wrapping paper. Such a mistake! Michael actually sent me out of the store to wait for him because he sensed that I was going to insult the cashier, a customer or maybe yell at one of the annoying children who were playing with noisy toys. Ahem, we did survive and managed to leave with the goods that we needed.

For me, October is a loooonnnggg month. While we did have a three-day weekend in there, the rest of the month was filled with meetings, social events and work-related commitments.

I can happily say that I survived:

• Back-to-school-night: Possibly the WORST night and longest day of the year for me; I really don't mind it when I'm engaged and actually talking to the parents about the classes that I teach, but it's the build-up to it and the fact that I teach a full day and then have to return for the 'dog-and-pony show', as I like to call it. Plus, I have to get dressed up in work clothes AFTER work, which seems like a great injustice to me.
• A friends' bachelorette evening and wedding: the bachelorette celebration could have been a lot worse, so I'll look on the bright side of that, and we had a very nice time at her wedding, which had good food, company and music. What else could you want? And it was in a very cool space. I usually don't talk much about decorations because I rarely notice them, but they used succulents and minimal decoration, which I really liked.
• College recommendations: the first round of college applications came and went, and I only had to write ONE recommendation for the November 1 deadline. Sweet! December 1 will be a different story.

And there were a few other events, obligations, and duties, such as Homecoming, that don't warrant too much of a mention. I always feel that if I make it through October, then I can make it through the rest of the school year. So, here's to the 2010-2011 Academic Year! It feels like it's almost over. HA!

Michael and I have also enjoyed spending time outside this month, weather permitting (we did endure a week of rain - GASP!). He came out and supported me last weekend when I ran a 5-mile run, placing first in my age group. Seriously! It was a very small race, obviously, and a flat course. And this morning we went on a nice 18-mile bike ride. I hadn't been in the saddle since September, he hadn't since July, maybe, so we took it easy. It was a great ride, however, as we were on PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) between Newport Beach and Huntington Beach, and could watch the waves in addition to watching the road. We even saw a few porpoises! We've now sworn that we'll return next week for another ride. Yee-haw.

On a different note, we've enjoyed our Netflix queu a ridiculous amount this month (okay, no more than usual). I wish I could say that we're watching all of the fabulous new releases but none of the new stuff interests me. So, we delve into other genres and decades. We've watched many movies/shows that we've enjoyed and a few that we've just LOVED. For instance, "State of Play" was great - the British version, not the Hollywood movie which was, of course, based on the BBC series, and not very good. The TV series - SO SO good! "The Ladykillers" falls into the category of dark humor and is well-worth watching. Also dark but not so humorous is "House of Cards", another BBC series. Finally, the series "Rome", also made in conjunction with BBC. We finished Season I which was great; I'm a bit tentative to start Season II because I have read that it is more of the 'just sex and violence' type of a show. Obviously it's been a bit of a British invasion at our house, but we did take a break and watched "Slap Shot" with Paul Newman. Can I say that I adore Paul Newman? Not the best show but quite entertaining, and I must admit that I do like movies that revolve around sports. Next up for our viewing pleasure - the final season of "The Tudors". Did I mention that we gravitate to darker movies and tv shows?