Thursday Ten: Just Give Me All Your Snickers And No One Gets Hurt Edition

1. So, yeah it’s nearly Halloween and the school Halloween parties are beginning this afternoon and I’m somewhat underwhelmed because I don’t dig Halloween. If I had to choose whether or not I’d celebrate Halloween or Flag Day – I’d choose Flag Day. I’m not sure what it is about Halloween that makes me so scroogey, but I don’t love it. I do love Snickers, though. And Peanut Butter cups. And Twix. Also: Skittles, Starburst, Peanut M&Ms. You can keep your Smarties, Whoppers, and assorted suckers.

2. Speaking of Halloween… What’s up with Trick-Or-Treating on Saturday? Not only is that NOT Halloween, but… The Michigan game comes on at 8. T-or-T should be over at 8, but those straggler kids interrupting the game? Not a good thing. (Who am I kidding? I’ll have turned our porch light off by 7 after dumping the last half of the candy bowl in some kid’s bag just for the sole purpose of being “done” with it all!)

3. I still love my green purse. It’s pretty. Lots of hugs and virtual love after that last post and I appreciate it so much. Thank you.

4. Trying to decide what song to learn next in guitar – looking for things in the Key of E to correspond with the chords I’ve been trying to learn. I think the winner may be Eve 6’s “Inside Out” (aka “the heart in a blender” song).

5. I bought some dry shampoo at Sephora the other day – the point is to somewhat extend the life of your blown out hair without being dirty and greasy. Well, the stuff I bought smells like old ladies. It works. But it reeks. DO. NOT. RECOMMEND. I’ll have to keep trying to find something else.

6. I started Christmas shopping over the weekend. Oh yes. I started with some clothes for the girls from Old Navy – they had some decent sales — particularly on pajama pants. So, I guess I’ve started shopping. With Christmas less than two months away, I figured it was time to get started. I hate feeling rushed.

7. Right now, my iPod has shuffled me to Bon Jovi. I haven’t skipped forward to the next song. Don’t judge.

8. Some new (to me) music I’m listening to this week: “Just a Dream” by Nelly and “Killing Me” by Graham Colton Band. And since I said last week that I was not a fan of Eminem and Lil Wayne and “No Love”… it’s grown on me. I woke up at 3:45 with it stuck in my head.

9. Yes. I’ve basically been up since 3:45. With Eminem in my head. No, I’m not tired… YET. Boy, I can’t wait for the exhaustion to kick in. THAT IS GOING TO BE SUPER FUN!

10. I arrived at the restaurant for book club fifteen minutes early last night. I sat in my car for awhile, and then went into the restaurant for awhile to wait for the rest of the ladies. And waited. I sat in the bar watching ESPN in Spanish and waited some more. Finally, when everyone was ten minutes late, I checked the location in my email. And realized I was at the wrong restaurant. Awesome. I finally met up with everyone – and didn’t even miss any of the book chat. (Next month’s book: “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” – I’ve already read it, but I’m game for hanging out and talking about Lisbeth while eating breadsticks).

Thursday Ten: Thinking Pink Edition

1. Today, my girls are dressed in pink from head to toe for a breast cancer awareness day at school – and in that spirit, we made some pink ribbon cookies yesterday (these are some of the prettier ones). In the spirit of all things pink, my goal is to raise $150 towards my Avon Walk goal by the end of the week. It’s a small goal – and any donation helps. If you would like to donate – even a dollar – please click HERE. I may just send you a cookie for donating.

2. While I type this, I have hair dye working its magic to (hopefully) eradicate the gray hairs that have become so obnoxious since all this stressful stuff going on with my stepson. It’s true – in times of stress, the gray hairs really seem to multiply for me. I hate this vanity about gray hair. I really dig my natural hair color – and hate covering it up because I don’t want gray hair.

3. In guitar class this week, my teacher brought up another Kansas song – “Carry On My Wayward Son” because she likes the riffs at the beginning. The last Kansas song she stuck me with was “Dust in the Wind” – and they are harder for me to learn because I’m not TOTALLY familiar with the songs (except the chorus of “Wayward Son” – but I think that’s the only part anyone really knows).

4. Did you wear purple yesterday? I loved the prevalence of purple on Facebook and Twitter – and while I know that there are always going to be bullies, I think a great step we can take, particularly those of us who are parents, is to let our kids know that bullying isn’t okay – and that our differences is what makes the world a pretty freakin’ cool place. I may be an idealistic hippy-dippy idiot (Okay, I probably am) – but I think just embracing those things about us which make us who we are is a great start.

5. In a fit of nostalgia the other day, I picked up a bottle of Mr. Bubble for Pumpkin who loves taking bubble baths. I love the smell of Mr Bubble. I’ve given serious consideration to swiping her bottle and using it for myself!

6. Last week’s Project Runway somewhat boggled my mind – given the direction to find inspiration in NYC, the remaining designers took off. Two sought inspiration from The Brooklyn Bridge, one from the Lower East Side, one from Lady Liberty and one from Central Park. The Central Park design? It was black and edgy and what-the-what? That doesn’t say CENTRAL PARK. Not to me, anyway. CP was my favorite part of my trip to NYC in April and I find it kind of mind boggling that someone spent any time there and came up with … that.

7. I finally finished reading Little Bee. Fabulously crafted, well done. I really enjoyed it… far more than I thought I would. Check it out.

8. This week’s new music…I’ve just added “Gotta Have You” by the Weepies to my music library, as well as that new Cee Lo Green “F*ck You” song (can’t help but love it). I also downloaded “No Love”, the Eminem/Lil Wayne collaboration and realized… I don’t love Lil Wayne.  And the folks at MuseBox have hit me up with a link to some new music to check out. You can give it a listen Here.

9. Finally saw “The Social Network” last weekend. Hm. You know, I have mixed feelings about the movie and haven’t read much of the press to determine how true they were to representing Mark Zuckerberg. Frankly, he was TIRING.  I don’t know how Jesse Eisenberg managed to spit out dialogue like he did – but sheesh.

10. My hair ended up kind of dark (Oh yes. I took a three hour break in writing this post, btw.) It’s alright. It’s darker than I wanted, but… I don’t see any stupid gray hair. Which is good.