Snapshot from Along the Broken Road: October 2012

A photo of me:

Feeling silly on Halloween!

1) Candle scents this month:
Farmers Market. Apple Cider. Candy Corn. Harvest. Red Apple Wreath. Autumn Wreath. Cranberry and Mandarin.

2) What I am reading this month:
Knuckler: My Life with Baseball's Most Confounding Pitch (Tim Wakefield with Tony Massarotti) is still on my night stand, but I've been giving my attention to some library books. I finished Ghost of a Chance (Amy Patricia Meade) and enjoyed it from beginning to end. It's a great series. If Books Could Kill (Kate Carlisle) was another book from a series I've been liking. The characters are engaging and the plot twists are entertaining. I checked another Mary Higgins Clark mystery off my list, While My Pretty One Sleeps, which was an older one I'd not yet read. I was on a roll with books I liked this month, because this was another! In fact, add on another book from a series I just tried, Murder in the White House (Margaret Truman). I just picked up a Danielle Steel book, Ransom, and I'm about three or four chapters in right now. It's off to a slow start as it introduces the characters. There are four of them and each of them need to be established before the story can be told, so I'm being patient.

3) Top three songs I was drawn to:
I actually craved peace and quiet. Every so often, I have to turn off the music and let my ears rest.

4) Movies I saw:
For the first time in I can't even say how long, there are movies coming out that I would like to see: Atlas Shrugged Part 2. Lincoln (technically comes out in November). Taken 2. I didn't even see one movie though and Atlas Shrugged is already out of the theaters. ::sigh::

5) Favorite tv episodes of the month:
"Masquerade," Person of Interest - Mr Reese's smile is on par with the equally disturbing humor of Big Bang Theory's Sheldon Cooper smile. I laughed til I cried.
"Code Blue Plate Special," CSI - With so many crime dramas, it's difficult to come up with a story that feels entirely new. This episode sucked me right in, the way the story was told and the various twists.
"White Hat's Off," Scandal - This show plays a twist with the best of them. Every time I think I know what to expect, bam! Sharp left turn. I started this episode with a burning question--"Who is Quinn Perkins?"--and finished it with my jaw on the carpet.
"It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" - Traditions are awesome. And two of my favorite quotes come from this holiday special: "Never jump into a pile of leaves with a wet sucker." and "There's three things I've learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics and the Great Pumpkin."

6) New recipe tried this month OR Something yummy I made:
Apple Crisp. Mmmmm...

7) Restaurants where I ate:
Ling's. Arby's. Michele's (in Union City, PA - and ummmm...general consensus is we could all live without eating there again).

8) Five things I am loving this month:
1. Food and Wine Fest!!
2. Seeing T's wedding ring on his hand.
3. Finally having a dining room table. After six years of eating on the couch, using either a coffee table or a tv tray as an eating surface, it is most excellent to sit down at a real table again for meals.
4. Baseball playoffs.
5. These guys:


9) A goal I had for this month:
Make some kind of order out of the disaster area known (loosely) as The Guest Room - it's a far sight better, but it's not what I ultimately want for that room. At least we can move around in there now that most of the wedding gifts are put away.

10) This month I looked forward to:
All the deliciousness of Food and Wine Fest. It's kind of ridiculous how much I look forward to this event.

11) Something I want to remember about this month:
I don't need to feel guilty about being so happy. I worked *hard* to get back to this place, darn it. I went through some really crappy lows, all the way down to rock bottom, and this happiness and optimism I show now is genuine and hard-won. I work hard to maintain it--yes, it's work, but the good kind, the effort made for something worth it--and I choose it, every day, sometimes many times a day. I remember well what the "other side" feels like and it is important to me not to fall back into shadows. I will not be shamed, because I have examined my world on a deeply personal level and done the work to fix what was broken. Judge me if you will. Question if I'm hiding the "real me" behind a smile. Roll your eyes in exasperation or disbelief. Protest my almost-ever-cheerful disposition, loudly or passive-aggressively.. But I will not allow your baggage to weigh me down. Not when I've come back from battling my own and stand victorious. I am happy. My life is so good.

12) A photo I took this month:

I got to enjoy the end of autumn when I visited Pennsylvania with T, to meet the rest of his family.