Hello, friends!

I hope everyone had a fun October and safe Halloween. My post is a little late this month because, honestly, the end of the month really snuck up on me. I kept thinking of October 31st being Halloween but not processing it as time for a new post. Also, November 1st was the beginning of Christmas season in my household so everything else has been lower on the priority list.

to create

I finally did it. I finished rereading my novel. I had a day off work and nothing to do but create. Now that I’ve finished reading it, I’m going through and adding my notes and edits to the digital document so I can see them all when I start to work on the second draft, without having to flip through the pages of my manuscript for every edit.

My goal is to write for NaNoWriMo this November, the first National Novel Writing Month where I’m not in school. I’ve started a group on the website for me and my writing friends to share our progress and motivate each other. You can check out my NaNo profile here.

This month, I have my September reflection and Stories of August and September posts to share. No video, but I’m hoping to have some fun ones up on my second channel next month. And hopefully some writing ones, too.

to work

For 2 weeks this month, I ended up subbing a middle school class. One of the teachers at the school ended up leaving, so another teacher took over her classes. Which meant someone else (me) had to oversee the other teacher’s classes. It was quite a learning experience of getting to know how to interact with middle schoolers and how to manage a classroom. I also learned a lot about hybrid classrooms of both virtual and face-to-face students. It’s definitely made me think more about what it would be like to be a teacher.

This month also marked the end of the first quarter and start of the second, which brought many virtual students back to school. Since all of the classes on my regular schedule started out virtual, they all became hybrid. I got to meet many of my students in-person for the first time, which was really exciting. The way those classrooms are structured has also changed since the students’ return, since the classes are all hybrid. Again, a very interesting learning experience.

At the end of the month, we had a Storybook Parade, where students could dress up as characters from a book and collect candy from teachers and staff. I dressed as Nancy Drew, particularly in The Secret of Shadow Ranch, because she wears jeans on the cover and it was the only outfit I could replicate last minute.

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to live

October 17: Mini golfing

In the spirit of spookiness, Ray and I went with her family to play mini golf at Universal City Walk. Turns out, I’m still terrible at it. It was a very fun course themed with aliens. Almost no one was there, and we were also super spaced out from the few parties that were playing so it felt pretty safe. We also got a fun picture courteous of the group behind us.

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October 22 : Rebecca screening

My best friend Sara and I did a WatchParty of Rebecca, the new movie on Netflix, so we could watch it and chat together. We both read it in high school and were obsessed with it. Both of us really enjoyed the movie, and even though we couldn’t remember the book super well, we slowly began remembering things as they happened. The plot twists were still great because we’d forgotten them! I’ve never seen the Hitchcock film that came before so I didn’t have anything to compare it to, but I really enjoyed the movie for what it was.

October 25: Pumpkin patching

In true October spirit, Ray and I visited a pumpkin patch, primarily for picture opportunities. We each ended up picking out a small pumpkin and even got a tiny gourd to represent Pi.

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October 30: S’mores weather

We’ve had about 1 week of chilliness in Florida this fall, but that meant it was the perfect time to put our fire pit to use and enjoy s’mores. We had a friend over, munched on treats, and I even shivered a few times. It was the perfect evening.

October 31: Halloween!

Due to the whole pandemic thing, we didn’t really celebrate Halloween in traditional fashion: i.e. a party with friends. However, I did get to dress up for school the day before. On Halloween, we watched Beetlejuice and The Lost Boys, and I watched Twitches after Ray fell asleep. We even set out a table for any trick-or-treaters that might come by, since it was our first year in our own home. Not the most exciting Halloween, but still enjoyable in its own way.

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So that’s all for October. I hope everyone is hanging in there this first week of November. I know I’m barely clinging to reality.

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading!