Day 3: Picture Your October

There is this picture I have next to my reading chair that brings me great joy. I colored it in kindergarten and no matter where I have lived that picture has gone with me. For years it hung on the closet door in my childhood bedroom. The white paper backing slowly turned yellow. The paper curled and ripped in places. One day I discovered the magic that is “The Laminator” and I preserved this piece of my childhood in melted plastic.

I still remember the day I colored it. It is a standard size piece of paper. On it there is a rainbow with a happy sunshine in the mostly middle. There are two puffy clouds one either end of the rainbow and the whole thing is stretched across a half moon section of a town. We had to cut out each of these components and glue them to our paper and then color them. I was not a very good cutter outer so it took me some time. Then I had to select just the right colors for my rainbow. Some genius decided that this rainbow only had 4 bands instead of 6, so I had to decide which ones got the ax (sorry orange and purple). Next I decided that if the sunshine was happy then my clouds had to be happy too. So I drew faces on them. Frankly they both look like they are angry napping but what can you do?

Next came the town. There is a school, stores, fire station, apartment buildings, regular houses, a park, roads, parking lots and a pool. I painstakingly selected just the right brown for the roads. I decided that it was fall in my tiny town (of course) and all the trees needed to be a different fall color. I chose a grey for the roofs and I bartered, begged and pleaded with another kid to use his super fabulous florescent orange. It was a magic crayon I tell you. I still think about it. So there I was happily coloring along and the teacher said, ok, time to finish up. I had about 90% of my town left to color. I raised my hand and explained my dilemma. My teacher who was normally the sweetest woman on the face of the earth was a little perturbed that I wasn’t further along and said that I needed to hurry up and finish because (I think) we were putting them up for parent’s night that night and an unfinished paper was unacceptable. Sooooo, I decided that my town had boroughs, like in New York. To show this I picked a crayon at random and just started coloring the rest of the blank sections in large swaths. There is the blue zone, the florescent orange zone, a whole lot of red and a tiny bit of green. I was rather proud of my solution to the problem.

My teacher came by again, looked at my paper and was not enamored with my quick fix. My parents weren’t all that impressed either. I was told I should have colored things individually and taken my time because it just looked messy. 35 years later I’m still mad about it. Oh the injustice of it all. But at least I got to use the florescent crayon.

So what does my childhood coloring trauma have to do with October? Welllll, when you looked at all the pictures from everyone in my class, they all looked different. They were the same picture. Everyone had the same color pallet to choose from, but it showed our creativity. October is like that. We all have the same 31 days, but what we choose to do with them shows our individuality. Some people curl up and get cozy, some like to look for scares. Some like pumpkins some don’t. Some like candy, some really don’t care. Some people like to take one last trip before winter sets in, while others wait till Thanksgiving to go out and about. There is no wrong way to celebrate October. Decorate with pumpkins or bloody fangs, or don’t decorate at all. Wear orange and black pom poms on your head with a bee costume or put on a cozy sweater. Sip a pumpkin spice something, or find some apple butter. How you find your joy is up to you. How are you planning on celebrating October?

Day 31: HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Well, it’s finally here, the big day. The day we have been working toward all month. Hopefully pumpkins have been carved, candy stocked, and costumes planned. I was getting last minute candy on Monday and there were many, MANY people in the aisles with cranky children asking them what they wanted to be for Halloween. Last week there were options galore, this week there are T-shirts and onesies. It will be an interesting Halloween for some people. If they were really creative children they would pick a unicorn horn and tail, with panda paws, a cape (with a hole for the really cool tail), tiara, maybe a harlequin mask, a tutu, wacky patterned leggings and sparkly shoes. Ok, maybe the mask and cape are a bit much, but it would be kinda cool to make a totally wacky costume. Oooh, that should totally be a game-show. Contestants are given a set dollar amount and a cart and have to do a supermarket dash type thing but in the slim pickins aisle of the costume department. The person with the most creative costume wins. The only criteria is that it can’t look like anything we would recognize. Oooh, I’m trademarking this. I will make millions……or at least hundreds……maybe just enough to get me next year’s costume.

Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed the wonderful month of October. I hope you have drank or eaten your body weight in pumpkin spiced things. I hope you visited a corn maze or three. I hope you have fun plans for the evening or day or both. I hope these rambling have broadened your October horizons and given you some joy along the way. If not, I hope they made you seem saner in comparison to me ;) I have a host of plans for the day. Main plans, back up plans, plans for if those plans take a detour. I know at the end of the night, this Cinderella will kick off her glass slippers, find an easy chair and put her feet up. I will listen to my spooky Sounds of Halloween tape one last time before bed and then drift off to sweet candy corn colored dreams. In the morning will come the bleak November, but perhaps some of the bright lights and sweet treats from October will linger.

Happy Halloween everyone! Till next year.

Day 21: Plans Change for the Better

I had really grand plans for yesterday. I was going to get stuff Done, yes with a capital d. I had lists and everything. Funny I know. I was a productive person right up until noon when I had pumpkin waffles for lunch. Those waffles must have had some weird soporific effect on me because for the rest of the day I curled up with a blanket and the puppy and read October books. Not one, not even two, but four and I am halfway through my fifth. I only paused long enough to eat dinner. Ok, I didn't pause so much as carry it back to my room and continue reading while I ate (it was monster cereal by the way). But it was so worth it. I read outside in the weak sunshine. I read in the garage amidst my holiday decor. I read in the living room, spare room and my room. I read on the floor, on couches, on concrete, on a chair and on my feet, and you know what, it was wonderful.

October is like that. I can plan my day one way and have it take an unexpected turn and love the new plan even better. I have oodles of stuff on my plate for today, but something tells me I will be staying up to finish my newest book. After all, that's why God made pumpkin spice lattes. He made it expressly for people who stay up all night reading.

So thank you October for such a beautiful day. It was peaceful and unexpected and wonderful. Just like my favorite month.