32 and still growing up now

 One of my favorite parts of September is making juice from our own grapes. But you can't pick the grapes too early, or there is little flavor.

Last Sunday, I noticed that a few bunches of grapes had died, so I knew I had to pick the grapes before the rest of them were gone.

Well, I picked all the grapes I could find, and I was shocked at how few there were! I had used some for grape bread, but I thought there would be more.

After a while of cooking, a negligible amount of juice came out. I thought, "I want to keep this cooking for a long time, so I can get the maximum amount of juice out." But that was a mistake. Since there was so little juice, it burned. So when I poured out the rest of the juice, it was all burned and spoiled the little bit that was good. But it wasn't that big of a waste of juice: it only made half a cup or less!

If I had known, I would have used the grapes for some other purpose. Oh well. This year's drought has been terrible. Our tomatoes haven't been nearly as abundant, and our apricot tree, which we have had my whole life, died.

Sometimes, I write my blog and then come up with a title. And sometimes, I know the title I want to use and then let it tell me what to write. I only have two and a half more weeks for the Taylor Swift lyric to be relevant to me, which is why I picked this week's title. And here is the story of how it applies.

A few years ago, my nephews became obsessed with Squishmallows, which they call Fluffies. In order to bond indirectly with my nephews, I have been buying the holiday ones, and the Halloween ones are the best. A few years ago, Squishmallows and Disney partnered up. This year, there were new Nightmare before Christmas ones, and of course that's my favorite movie. But I knew they would be wildly popular and hard to find this year.

Wednesday evening, I had a class meeting with my fellow grad students, and then I went to the Smith's Marketplace in Salt Lake. There were stickers on the shelves where the Nightmare Squishmallows would go, but they weren't out.

On Thursday, I went to the Bountiful location, and got Lock, the very last Nightmare one they had. Then I went back to Salt Lake. They had Jack, Sally, Zero, and Barrel. I grabbed all of them, but then I saw a sign saying only one per customer.

So I decided I just wanted to get Zero. Then I saw some girls (probably in high school) grabbing all the rest. I went up to them and told them it was only one per person. They hesitated. But then I saw them buying all of them. Jerks! I hope their consciences eat away at them. 

And when I got home, I discovered that my niece, Allie, had bought me Jack for an early birthday present! So I was glad I didn't get that one on my own. I would like to have more (especially the Mayor), but since they sell out so fast (including to predatory scalpers), I'm happy with what I have.

When you have the mind of a child and the income of an adult

Since we just replaced the floor, we have been in the process of getting our house back in order. I didn't think it made sense to put up the regular decorations so soon before we put out the Halloween/Thanksgiving/Christmas decor, but my mom was anxious to get things settled again, so on Saturday I just put up the indoor Halloween stuff early. Is it too early? Possibly, but I always decorate early anyway, so it was only four days earlier than my arbitrary date of September 15.

I also attended the state fair, 'cause that's what you do in September. I know it really doesn't make sense to spend money just to walk around and eat overpriced food, but it's just one of those things.

Of course, yesterday was the twentieth anniversary of 9/11. I did a write-up on this blog ten years ago. But this year, for some reason I find myself less engaged in the remembrances. This is probably mostly because I have a lot going on right now, with full-time school, working one day a week, and cleaning up after all the remodeling. Maybe it's also because twenty years is much more removed from the event than ten years. I have thought about reading some of the articles and reminiscences. But I find I'm really not in the mood to bring back all those feelings of tragedy and despair. Maybe, again, that's because I have a lot on my mind. But this year is hard enough already, with the delta variant, people not caring about the virus, the drought, a bleak future for the Great Salt Lake, people excusing insurrectionists, etc.

Also, one concern about anniversary reminiscences is that sometimes they can become distasteful. I haven't really seen any so far this year, and generally I think they are an admirable thing. But they can become trivialized, commercialized, or even celebrated. I'm just not in a mindset to deal with that right now.