The month of October has slipped by, and if I were organized or had children or planned to dress up like a slut, I would write something about Halloween. However, I actually forgot that today was Halloween until I saw the school bulletin decorated with fun bats, cats and witches. I have spent much of my time, the past few days, trying to finish up all of my letters of recommendation for my students as the November 1st deadline looms, so that has made me feel that I've been living in some sort of a time warp, thinking about last year and writing about my students' performance in the past tense.
I discovered the past few weeks that I've definitely been a 'weekend warrior' this month - living for the weekends, trying to make the most of them, and sometimes suffering during the week. This is not my typical modus operandi, and I think that I paid the price, getting sick for the second time in 2012! What frustrates me about this is that I was sick in August. I consider myself to be fairly robust, but catching a cold twice in the past two months makes me question my physical resilience these days. I could, perhaps, be getting older too!
On to other topics...
October has presented us with some perfectly wonderful autumnal days - last weekend (the 20th/21st), we enjoyed cool and wet mornings which even inspired me to make a huge vat of soup and bake some bread. But, after a few glorious days with highs in the low 70's, the mercury would rise again. This past weekend was a true Indian summer weekend - I couldn't believe how warm it was and I kept swearing at the weather gods. End of October, enough of this heat! I didn't feel it too much because I spent the weekend in La Jolla, CA with my mom, aunt and cousin. We agreed a few months ago to try to meet up for a 'ladies' weekend' (although my cousin and I definitely eschew the title, it still seems like an apt description of the getaway for all of us). They arrived on Thursday evening, and I headed south on Friday afternoon, traveling by train which was such an unexpected treat. First of all, not having to deal with Friday afternoon traffic - yes, please! And more importantly, once the train was south of Santa Ana, it hugged the coast and the trip offered up some gorgeous views. I planned to grade while traveling, but I spent most of the time staring out the window.
Being in San Diego/La Jolla was a lot of fun. Despite my 7 years in the Los Angeles area, I've rarely headed that far south, so this trip allowed me to get a better sense of the area. People rave about San Diego, and I can see why - a part of me would like to pick up and move now! Especially if we could somehow live close to the coast, preferably in La Jolla... I can't even say that we did much in the area, but that may be why it appealed so much to me - I was able to do almost nothing, yet I still came away with an appreciation for the area. Not that we did "nothing" - we ate at a great little restaurant on Friday night, Sea Rocket Bistro. A friend of mine recommended it, and we enjoyed the experience - it felt very local (translation: we were the only out-of-towners there), and my cousin and I really liked the focus on fresh, local and sustainable seafood. I also enjoyed the IPA that I had - San Diego might compete with the PNW for the 'beer nirvana' reputation. On Saturday, we spent the morning in La Jolla at the Museum of Contemporary Art which was a jewel of a museum. Not very large, we could easily get around it and see the collection. It offered up wonderful views of the coast, and the collection is excellent. The one downside for the weekend was that my aunt had a 24-hour bug, so she felt pretty terrible all day Saturday. My cold also flourished, but despite that, I managed to get in two short runs both Saturday and Sunday morning. Not only did I enjoy beautiful scenery but I also felt the power of the scientific community as I ran by UCSD and also the Salk Institute.
I did, however, eat and drink too much and sleep too little, so I'm ready for a weekend to catch up on sleep and to 'nest' a bit - lots of grading, a long run, and definitely a nap or two!
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