Most of the year, I think, "This is nice. But it isn't exactly what I want." (Really, I like every month except January and February.)
But this time of the year, right now, is exactly what I want!
Sometimes I get frustrated that I don't have time to do everything I want. I want to pick grapes, pick apples, put up decorations, run among the leaves, watch spooky movies, go shopping for seasonal items, bake, etc. But instead of feeling frustrated that I can't do everything, I should tell myself, "Isn't it wonderful that I have so many options?"
On Monday, the Utah Department of Cultural & Community Engagement, which includes the Utah Historical Society, hosted a lunch for September birthdays, so I went. It was held at the State Library Division, which is apparently the largest collection of braille materials in the United States. They let us see the warehouse where all the braille books are kept. (When I was a young teenager, I wanted to learn braille. But braille is so much more than individual letters; there are special symbols for various combinations of letters, and of course punctuation. I learned the alphabet, but I think everything else overwhelmed me and I lost interest.)
On Tuesday, the Utah Historical Society had us employees give presentations about ourselves. As part of the festivities, my supervisor wanted to commemorate the new release of the eighteenth edition of The Chicago Manual of Style with cake. So she and another colleague brought themed cakes. (I didn't get a picture before people dug in.)
On Wednesday, I was able to pick grapes for another batch of juice. I enjoy doing that, but I can't handle as much juice as I used to.
Thursday evening, I headed up to join my parents at Wasatch Mountain State Park. But on the way, I stopped at Barnes and Noble in Sugar House so I could buy the eighteenth edition of the Chicago Manual of Style, which came out that day. The seventeenth edition came out in September 2017, and on that occasion I also went to Barnes and Noble, but they hadn't even put it on the shelf yet. And once again, they didn't have it on the shelf yet, so I had to ask about it.
CMOS is the guidebook for editors in the humanities, and I couldn't do my jobs without it. It's like the periodic table for chemists or the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders for psychologists. But I don't always agree with its prescriptive approach, and it's not as entertaining as Merriam-Webster, which is the other standard we use. I'll be interested to see the new updates. I am most excited that I no longer have to provide cities in citations. Cleaning up footnotes is the most time-consuming part of my job (as well as my pro bono Wayfare editing), and I'm relieved that I won't have to track down the cities. So now it will just be like this: "(Signature Books, 2024)" instead of "(Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2024)."
Anyway, I spent Thursday and Friday night with my parents in their trailer at Wasatch Mountain. We've been going there in the fall since 2018 (but skipped 2019 and 2022), and it really is lovely.
Part of my job duties for Utah Historical Quarterly is to write book notices, which are brief descriptions of new books. Various publishers send us books they want reviewed, but not all of them are worth full reviews, so we do notices instead. I have a stack of books for notices, so I arranged to take my books with me. That way I got to work while camping (well, more like glamping). I read outside most of the time, and it was fun to have acorns fall around me and have grasshoppers hop on my notebook (well, only one). I should read outside more often.
In the evening, I ran on a nearby trail. I went six miles, yet somehow I wasn't winded at all.
On Saturday morning, I went running again on a different nearby trail. There were lots of switchbacks, which meant it wasn't too steep, and there were lots of mountain bikes. Once I had gone 4.75 miles, there was a fork in the trail, and it seemed like a good time to turn around. Unfortunately, once I hit 5.8 miles, my knee started hurting, so I had to walk the rest of the way, almost four miles. It does this periodically, but usually on sidewalks, and usually after more miles. But I was wearing old shoes, and I had also gone six miles the night before. I'm just disappointed that I had the stamina for a longer run, but my knee didn't cooperate. As I was coming down, I learned why there were so many bikers. When bikers pass me, they usually tell me how many bikers in their group are behind them. A woman said to me, "There's like a hundred. There's a fundraising thing going on." If I had known, maybe I would have picked a different trail!
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| I ended up going farther on the trail than this map sign showed |
Then I headed home, and I had been invited with a group to see Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. I watched the original (which is old as I am) last month. (I used to watch it many weekends when I was in seventh grade, but then I became very scrupulous about movies, which lasted for fifteen years.) Like the original, the sequel is totally bonkers and a little unsettling. And like the original, it is fun to watch, despite its plot holes. I like that the sequel is actually set at Halloween, making it unquestionably a Halloween movie, unlike the merely spooky setting of the predecessor. But I don't know when or if I'll watch it again, since there are so many options and I prefer movies you can watch with your kids or your grandma.
Last night as I was unpacking from camping, Reggie hopped into my bag. I adore him.
And here are this week's AI dreams. (Actually a week and a half, since I didn't include them last week.)
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| Scott asks Mark to share his reusable sandwich bag |
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| Mark plays the wizard in an elementary school Christmas play, but he doesn't know the script. He is wearing camo pants, a tan shirt, and a cape. (This is actually one of my recurring dreams: being in a play without knowing the script.) |
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| Mark accompanies an elf in a Christmas store, but they aren't allowed to talk |
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| a group of college researchers waits their turn at a dump where people are looting, and a redneck tells them "it's all yours" |
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| The upstairs of a house is prohibited, and one of the stairs can fall off |
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| At the Utah gift shop where Mark is paying for taffy he ate, people tell him they like his dinosaur shirt and yellow shoes |
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| Mark sees a Vince Guaraldi cover band at the park |
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| Mark is annoyed that two guys stepped in a pink dessert with their shoes on because they were pretending to stomp grapes |
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| a criminal is imprisoned underneath a golf course, and he sends out a large hornet |
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| Mark sends a poor man on his way with $21 in his wallet |
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| Mark sees a shirt and shorts with sunflowers on them |
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| Allie buys Mark a toy covered wagon for tiny Squishmallows for his birthday |
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| people can pay to fight each other in a garage, but Mark thinks it is unsafe |
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| Mark puts three baby hippos in his apartment complex's hot tub |
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This week's pumpkinundation roundup! In the Pumpkin book I'm reading, I found this quote from a newspaper circa 1897: "The pumpkin pie is the embodiment, so to speak, of peace on earth and good will toward men. No man ever plotted treason or formulated dark damnable designs while filling his system with a genuine New England pumpkin pie."
By taste alone, I can tell that these are Brach's Candy Corn and Brach's Mellocreme Pumpkins, even though I didn't see the wrapper. Brach's is the best brand for candy corn. This week my colleagues were having a candy corn conversation, and one said Brach's is the only acceptable candy corn. But I didn't take a picture of the pumpkin I had that didn't have a green top. 8/10.
After Thanksgiving last year, I put the open bar of Dove Cinnamon Pumpkin Pie Soap in the drawer before bringing it out again this week. Again, I like the scent, but it's not really like pumpkin pie. 6/10.
Pumpkin Spice Cheerios are one of the best Cheerios flavors, but I find I don't love them like I used to. In 2016, I wrote that they had actual pumpkin, but now they don't, which is disappointing. 7/10.
Pumpkin Spice Red Vines are better than I expected. They have a vague spice flavor, and I like them better than the candy corn ones I reviewed in 2021. But Red Vines are not a great candy anyway. 6/10.
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