Grab a snack, this one's a doozie

I missed an entire month of blogging. Not just any month, but THE month. October. The month where weather is completely awesome and euphoric for a blink before the yucks set in. Let's pretend I spent the entire month outside, not near a laptop, ok?

Starting where I left off... It starts on a low, but gets better from there. I won't Debbie Downer for too long.

The day after my last post, my boss had a heart attack and died during work. I had been in a meeting with him that morning, he and I were poking fun of each other, completely normal cheerful behavior. Thirty minutes later he is dead. He did his regular run with his boss during lunch at the newly opened gym, and had a massive heart attack with the first mile. This was a man who ran close to everyday for 20 years. Needless to say, our group was in shock, and I will never forget that day, or the feeling of panic and complete helplessness. It is still strange with out him, and I feel for the guys in my group who worked with him for years. I have never confronted mortality in such a sudden way. So abrupt and without warning. It makes you look at moments, minutes, seconds differently. I can't help thinking, what if I knew I wasn't going to be make it to next week? Would I still be doing the same thing? The last thing he said to me was "we'll talk about it after lunch." Or not.

October was a whirlwind of weekend activities, the weeks crammed in between used to prepare for the weekends. Which seems to be a lot harder to accomplish with two working adults and a child in school. But we're managing well overall. I was a volunteer co-chair for our local Fall Fiesta, and the event was a big success. I met many people from the community, and had a good time doing it. That being said, I was glad it was over! So many people come out to say hi and support me - thanks for making my day behind the booth go by faster! Andrew and Lilly were there all day with me, the troopers, but they found some time to have fun as well.

The following week was Kristi's 30th birthday, and her husband kindly organized [read: delegated coordination to Megan] a surprise shin-dig at the Gold Class Theater. I drove up by myself for a tiny trip to Austin to join them, and we really had a good time. I think Kristi was actually surprised! I had never been to a Gold Class Theater, but wow, does that experience spoil you. Every movie theater should have personal recliner chairs, blankets, pillows and waiter call-buttons. Sir, I'm going to need 6 more glasses of champagne (P.S. thank you Gem's boyfriend for driving us home). We saw The Social Network (i.e. the Facebook movie) and I really liked it. I doubt FB liked it though. Who knows, any publicity is good publicity right?

On my way back, after the traditional stop at Taco Deli, I swung by Kasia's temporary abode for a visit. In usual Kasia fashion, the house was beyond what I could imagine. There were chickens in the backyard. Who eat corn tortillas. and lay GREEN EGGS. (For real y'all.) (Yes, I just used Wikipedia for reference. SUE ME.)

That following Thursday, I took off on a plane to DC to visit Emily for HER triple-X birthday. Ok, my flight was late, but there was absolute pandemonium in order to get me the 15 minute drive from the airport to her pad at 1:30am. Dear God, you put us women together and our brain cells split instead of multiply. Emily rented a cabin in the Shenandoah Mountains, and we joined the festivities with her east-coast friends and family. It was R&R to the MAX: hiking, reading, crunching leaves, amazing scenery, hot-tubbing, bonfires, the works. I can't thank the girls enough for that trip, it was everything Mama needed at that exact moment. Below is Emily's digs in the posh Capitol Hill. You should just know that what city quadrant you tell a cabbie for an address is SUPERLY AMAZINGLY IMPORTANT. Got that?

And the amazing cabin that slept all 17 of us. Hello Luray...

I drive back on Sunday morning to spring a flight home in order to make it in time for trick-or-treating. A group of friends rounded up 10 children under 3 years old to go door-to-door, old-school-style in the Heights. It. Was. Awesome. Total chaos. A complete range of reactions from the group of kiddos. You could hear us coming for blocks. Lilly got the hang of the drill after the first couple of houses, and started marching right up to the porches and holding out her basket. For what candy, who knows, she wasn't going to eat any of it. But she liked the idea of her bucket being filled. This was the first year we tried this, and she obviously doesn't understand what the deal is, but it was great to experience Halloween through children's eyes again. At some point, I forgot about the scary, child-like part of Halloween. Over the course of growing up, college, adulthood, it became all about the costume. Usually let's face it, the slutty costume. Not that I was working any of those moves. This year was a good reminder of what Halloween was about before the trashcan punch and devil-red fishnet hose [hoes! OOH!!].

That brings us to November, in all it's celebratory glory. Today is our 3 year wedding anniversary, and I can't believe how fast it went. How did life evolve this fast?? I can't believe it was that long ago, and I still like that guy that stood at the alter with me while I tried not to think of the fact that everybody was looking at us. We haven't had a real chance to ever celebrate an anniversary in a big way, with what us getting all knocked up and schooled very soon afterwards, but it's nice just to reminisce anyways. And being that it's the leather anniversary, Andrew appropriately brought me home Fruit Leather. Way to be creative, Hubs.