We skip from late summer to early winter overnight and I find myself running in below-forty-degree weather on a gray and rainy afternoon. The colors up here though — they’re stunning. This weekend must be the peak of autumn vibrancy.
Arthur, still a traumatized baby, kept me up crying in the middle of the night so it’s a small miracle I pull myself outside to run at all. But I’m glad I do even though I am firmly in my “slow three miles” season which is a little infuriating when I just want to be strong enough to go faster and longer as I have in the past. But it’s better than nothing.
I listen to “Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World” and let the stories of work and military and communication wash over me. More books arrive in the mail today, ones I forgot I ordered: the Red, White, & Royal Blue Collector’s Edition, Rick Riordan’s Daughter of the Deep, and Selling to Big Companies (another book for work, I’ve been knocking them out lately). But I still have Stephen King’s It to get through and Self-Made Boys: A Great Gatsy Remix waiting for me at the library. Not to mention the stack of unread fiction by my bed.
I clock a lot of weekly hours on My Hero Academia fanfiction instead. Always worth it.
This afternoon I get the itch to rewatch 10 Things I Hate About You and curl up after my run and shower to enjoy the classic. The aftermath has me listening to nostalgic late 90s / early aughts music and mourning the loss of Heath Ledger all over again. I’m older than he was when he died now.
Avril Lavigne is playing now. “Complicated”, “Sk8ter Boi”, “My Happy Ending”. It’s amazing how I can go years without hearing a song and the lyrics are imprinted in my brain.
I light a warm apple pie candle. I’ll heat up leftovers and spend virtual time with friends. It feels very midwest somehow. Very in season. Nowhere to be but here and nowhere else I’d want to be.
Send prayers for Arthur to calm the fuck down tonight. He’s still hiding in the closet.
With Love,
Natalie