After all my preparation for my parents’ visit last night, I got a phone call yesterday morning. It was my Mom, telling me that one of the dogs woke up very sick and was…let’s just say, making messes all over the house. There was no way they could come. ARG!
That threatened to spiral me into a depression that would have put me in a funk all night. I had food, and plans, and everything.
But, no. After half an hour or so, I decided that I would not let myself spiral into a funk. Instead of focusing on what might have been, I focused on what I had: a movie to watch, a book to read,
![[Bread]](/graphics/journal/bread.jpg)
A fresh loaf of bread for dinner
My Halloween dinner, a ham and cheese sandwich with caramel popcorn
So, it was a good night. I got thirty
“…What?” I replied.
“Now that I’m here, you have to move out!”
“…Huh?”
Then she explained that she used to live here, and I said (quote), “Ohhhhhhhhhhh,” and she looked at my bowl and exclaimed, “OOOH!
Oh-kay.
The movie was Nosferatu. Compared to Halloween, which just gets better each time I watch it, Nosferatu gets more boring. It’s a good film, and certainly a classic, and it does some amazing things—the shot of Dracula rising out of his coffin is still genuinely horrifying—but the shots last a bit too long, the acting (Max Shreck excepted) is embarrassingly
Anyvay. The book was October Dreams, a beautiful anthology of horror and thriller stories and remembrances, all focused on Halloween. (I use the term “thriller” as opposed to “horror” because a lot of these bits aren’t meant to horrify as much as to spook and thrill). Great reading, and I’ve made it a habit to read it every October. Some of the stories don’t hold up to frequent
In other news, I’ve been reading a lot about energy and productivity and time and focus, and I plan to write quite a bit about them in the near future. As such, this blog might become a bit more screedy than usual; I’m going to try my hand at provocation. I’m very much not a pushy person, but I’m feeling and thinking some things that I want to challenge the world about.
I’ll start you thinking with a quote from Tom Peters: