Holy cow. Fewer than 20 days until Thanksgiving! That means fewer than 20 days until dressing and gravy and mac&cheese and homemade cranberry sauce and all sorts of delicious noms.

The past few days have been super chilly. Temps in the 30s when I walk out in the morning, not making it out of the 40s for the high. I hate it. Me and the cold? Not good friends. That’s probably why I have so many coats and hats and gloves and scarves. Now that my hair is really curly and sticky-outtie, I am not sure how to keep my head warm during the winter. Hats don’t really fit over my hair, and earmuffs and head wraps won’t be enough for long. I suppose I’ll just have to smash my hair down, and fluff it back up when I take my hat off. I’m all about comfort over style. I don’t play when it comes to keeping warm.

I’ve started seriously thinking about Christmas shopping, but haven’t actually DONE any yet. I already know one thing I am getting Adam, one thing I’m getting my mom, and a few things I’m getting Aidan. I’ll probably get to work on that stuff soon. I enjoy going out to the stores to shop, but I got another Amazon Prime membership, so I imagine I’ll be ordering quite a bit as well.

I’ll probably put the tree up… early December or so. I enjoy decorating for Christmas–it’s about the only time I’m any good at it, but I don’t like to do it too early. A lot of stores around are already doing so. Macy’s windows are done. I plan to look at them Monday during my lunch. I’ll post pictures, probably on my Flickr. 🙂

Work is still really crazy. I clocked 47.75 hours this week. That’s nothing compared to some people. But I did NOT have to go in last Sunday, thank goodness. They keep reassuring me that Schawk is not like this all year! Just a few weeks left of fourth quarter, but I’ll be sad because one of the temps will most likely be leaving (I hope they keep extending her contract if not hiring her altogether) because she makes work a *lot* of fun.

I dream of the Sears ads. I often find myself waking up and seeing a page, wondering how to make it better. That’s madness. I wonder if that will ever go away. I certainly hope it does.

I can tell Helena misses me. I don’t get to spend a lot of time with her these days. When I was home all the time, I’d lie on the couch and she’d lie on my feet or legs and purr and purr and purr. If I was sitting up, she’d butt up against me (like she’s doing now!) and just sleep. I’m gone all day, and when I get home, I hop on the computer, work, gobble down some dinner, take my bath/shower, prepare for work and go to bed. Yesterday morning, I took my time getting in (cause um, hello, it was Saturday), and she was sitting on the couch in her spot. I just pet her and cuddled her and she purred like crazy. She didn’t even try to bite me when I rubbed her tummy.

I love my little Helena.

Friday evening, I took a Fall Detox Vinyasa class. It certainly was not what I was expecting. There was amazing music which I loved, and oil. Lots of oil. Asanas. Some hard stuff. Some easy stuff. Some stuff I love like pigeon and double pigeon. I’m definitely getting stronger when it comes to plank and chattaranga, but those first down dogs are always so hard for me for some reason. When class was over, I felt happily yoga drunk, chatting with people, eating fruit, and drinking dandelion tea. There’s another detox right after Thanksgiving. I wonder if I’ll be ready for that. Especially for those hard moves…it’s for intermediate to advanced students, so maybe I’ll hold off until next year. I’m still pretty new to yoga.

I could be telling myself this because I know parts of it is hard and I have trouble keeping up. And I might be too scared/lazy to take the challenge.

But here was the funny thing. Friday evening was the first time I’d been to a yoga class since Amber’s class not last week, but the week before. It’s amazing how quickly the fast pace of downtown was in my blood. I keep mentally yelling at people to HURRY UP and GET OUT OF MY WAY and wondering why they were all moving.so.darn.slowly. But then I realized that *I* was the one not centering. My mind was in a million directions, and my body was following suit. I was impatient and irritable and fidgety. But then class started and I felt better once the Sun Salutes started.

It’s so hard to do make yoga a priority these days, when work/chores/responsibilities is taking up what feels like every free moment. But I HAVE to do it, for my sake.

So, I’m planning on attending a couple of workshops in January, the kirtan on November 20th, and some weekend practices. My friend Cassandra, whom I met at Moksha, is now a certified teacher at P.S. Yoga and she personally invited me to take her Monday night class. So I’ll have to make sure I do that sooner than later. I love her teaching. She has such great energy, too. I watched her grow over the summer when she was teaching her karma classes; I attended one of her workshops. She said that she had a lot to teach me, and I’m eager to see how much more she’s grown, and what she wants to show me. 🙂

As a gift to myself for getting a job, I ordered an Ellowyne Wilde doll. I’d been looking at her for months, and I got a free shipping code from an email, plus the one I wanted is and end of edition doll (meaning she’s about to be sold out and retired), so she was marked down! Here is my newest girl!

I am in love with her. Absolutely smitten with this doll. Her clothes–the fabric is really good quality, and she comes with jewelry. But my favorite is her beautiful red curls and green eyes. I don’t plan on buying any more. She’s special, and I don’t want to overwhelm myself. (Says the girl with 12 American Girl dolls, all but four of the Monster High dolls, many Doctor Who and other assorted action figures, Barbie dolls, and more.)

So, I know she comes with the name Ellowyne, but I feel like I should give her a name that I choose. I haven’t decided on one yet, though. I know it’ll come to me. Or maybe it won’t and she’ll stay Ellowyne. We’ll see what happens.

At any rate, I’m tired. I’m going to head to bed with my ARC of Afterlife by Claudia Gray (ooo, aren’t you jealous?) and hope it doesn’t scare me awake! (I was reading it while taking a short break in the cafeteria Saturday, and the ice machine did its thang where it drops ice and makes lots of noise–yeah, startled me. I was all on edge b/c of this book!)

Anyway. *rubs eyes* Good night! I plan to sleep in big time. We’ll see if the cats/neighbors/weather will let me!

P.S. Oooh YAY extra hour! 😀