Why does everything happen all at once?

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Whew, it was a busy week!

On Sunday evening last week, my parents gave me my birthday presents before they left. I got a giant secondhand spatula and also Super Mario Odyssey, even though Nintendo Switch is at the very bottom of my priorities. (I had listed it as one of many potential gifts, so it was perfectly reasonable.)

They had previously given me a little staircase so our aging Jimmy can climb on the furniture more easily. It is painful to watch him walk. He jumps on furniture, but he hesitates a lot before he finally makes the leap, and occasionally he doesn't make it. I have put it next to my bed (I miss when he would regularly come onto my bed when I woke up), but he doesn't use it. I have gotten him to climb onto my bed by putting treats on each step and having him follow the laser light up it, but the rest of the time he still jumps off and on the bed or couch. Sometimes he deliberately goes around the steps to jump. I guess it's good that he's still in a condition to jump, but it would be so much easier if he just used the stairs!

*Update*: While I was writing this post, Jimmy figured out how to use the stairs on his own! Yay!

Monday morning, my parents left on a cross-country trip for two and a half weeks. That means it's just me and Jimmy in the house. Jimmy spends a lot of time with my mom, so now he's been spending time with me, just like old times. I do adore him.

Monday morning, I opted to go on a North Canyon run. And the leaves were spectacular! I don't see how anyone can not like the fall. My mom wanted to go east to see their fall leaves, but Utah's leaves are wonderful in their own right. I was slow on my run, mostly because I spent so much time taking pictures of all the beauty. But most of my pictures don't do justice to reality.

Remember when I accidentally made a turkey out of piecrust on the Fourth of July? This week I found a gum wrapper on the floor that made a perfect cow.

I loved Monday's North Canyon run so much that I decided to go again after class on Tuesday, because autumn runs are even better in the evening. I think I encountered the same biking club I did last week on Wild Rose, which was a bit annoying, but at least this time they were going downhill, so it was one-and-done. 

(Forgive the photo dump, I just love this place so much!)

Wednesday was my birthday, and it was fairly boring. I had to finish some readings in the morning before class. I had considered inviting people over, but I have so many assignments due that I didn't want to commit to the extra time, and I don't even know who's still around after COVID. I have to tell myself that it's OK to have a boring birthday when I'm in grad school during a pandemic.

My three greatest loves right now are holidays, cats, and trail running. In the morning, Jimmy came up and sat on my lap for the first time in a while, so that was nice. But after class, I knew I wanted to go on a trail run, so to save time, I went on the nearby Woodbriar Trail and only ran for an hour (unlike North Canyon, which takes closer to two). 

Then I went to pick up my last present from my sister's house, which was a joint gift from her and my parents. It was an ice cream maker!

I am really excited for this! I have some ice cream and sorbet recipes I have wanted to try, but our only ice cream makers require a lot of patience and salt. As far as I can tell, this one requires neither. But I will have to wait until I have some time to use it.

And for the third love on my birthday, holidays, I bought a Halloween mp3 album and watched the audio commentary for Song of the Sea, a joint Halloween/St. Patrick's Day movie.

But the rest of the week was less fun. I had spent enough time lollygagging during the first half of the week that I had to catch up the second half.

See, everything is happening all at once for me. I have two big projects due this week, which also happens to be the week after my birthday, and work also asked me to work on Saturday this week because they are short staffed, which also happened to be general conference. Whew! And to top it all off, I came home from class on Thursday to find that FedEx had delivered some mysterious packages to our home. Each big box had a little sticker addressed to a Rick Beam at our address, but the bigger stickers were addressed to some business in "Lake Havasu, Utah," which I think is actually in Arizona. How did we end up with them?! I didn't have time to even think about them Thursday.

Friday I worked as usual, but I was scheduled at gold panning, and it is very hard to do any studying there, which is annoying. After work I took the packages to FedEx, because I don't trust contacting corporations. I thought it would be easier to take them to the store than to schedule a pickup online or to be put on hold forever on the phone. And that was easy, but driving to the FedEx store did take out of my valuable time. For my oral history class, I have to record a presentation. I recorded it on Friday night, but it was only eight minutes when it was supposed to be twenty. Ugh!

Saturday I had to work. It was Little Haunts, where kids can come and trick or treat at the different sites in the village. I was in the print shop. When people weren't there, I watched conference on my phone while also doing reading for my presentation that was too short.

The reason they asked me to work Saturday was because they needed someone to be Alice the dragon. I have to get inside this heavy costume and walk up and down the street. The worst part is the pressure on my shoulders. My shoulders are still sore! I could only control the head with one hand because I was using the other hand to release the pressure off my shoulders. They want me to be expressive while I'm in this dragon/dinosaur costume, but most of my mental energy is just going into surviving. It is harder than running uphill!

Here I am working on my second degree and I have to dress up as a dragon for work.

I came home and added more material to my presentation. It was only thirteen minutes. But I was done. I submitted it as it was. I feel bad that it's not my best work, but I can only do so much. Oh well. I think this professor is fairly lenient.

I'm enjoying my Sunday before I have to keep working hard the next few days. I have enjoyed what I have seen of general conference (I was a bit distracted with yesterday's sessions, though I did watch them all). I especially like that they sing hymns that are not in the hymnbook that are not "Come Thou Fount." I liked that this morning they sang "Let the Mountains Shout for Joy," which was often sung at Pioneer Day celebrations of the late nineteenth century.

Oh, and speaking of Pioneer Day, I received an email this week that the journal I submitted my article to wants me to revise and resubmit my article! I am pleased with that outcome. The suggestions are all reasonable; some of them are easy fixes, while others will be more work. I will be happy to revise—when I can spare a moment to work on it.

***

For the week of my birthday, I could eat whatever I wanted, so I reserved most of my calories for nonseasonal things that I don't have the rest of the year. So pumpkinundation roundup will be sparse this week.

Trader Joe's Pumpkin Empanadas have a pumpkin filling (similar to pumpkin pie, but more pumpkiny) in a pastry. I really enjoyed it, and I'm glad I still have three more in the freezer! 8/10.

This is not food. I have seen pumpkin spice "brooms" before, but I couldn't commit to them, since I'm not big on scented things. But I could commit to a mini version of the Gonesh Pumpkin Spice Scented Broom. Does it smell nice? Sure! It would be great if you're into scented stuff. I enjoy getting a whiff when I walk by it. But I think I like cinnamon pine cones better. 7/10.