October was such an eventful month, that I’m ready for hibernation. 🙂 I spent as much time as I could gathering petition signatures in hopes of initiating a recall election in the Plattsmouth School District, while also balancing fun Halloween events, gaming sessions, and a little bit of time for myself. I have more to say about the ongoing situation with book banning in another post.

Reading

In October, I made the mistake of finishing House of Sky & Breath, which means now I have to wait until January for the next book. ARGH. The ending has a tie-in to the ACOTAR series, so… now I wait. Fortunately, I spent most of October reading Iron Widow by Xiran Jay  Zhao and wow! That book was fantastic. I absolutely loved it. I will definitely read the sequel, Heavenly Tyrant, when it releases next year.

Cross-stitching

During the month of October, I returned my attention to Stay Gothy, a pattern by Grandma Be Wildin. She’s an adorable goth rendition of the Morton’s Salt Girl. Ta da! She’s so cute! I may change one little aspect of the pattern, but other than that, I am stitching as called for.

The fabric is Picture this Plus 14 count Aida in Dawn and, I have to say, the pictures of it online make it look much more green. That was the whole reason I originally purchased it, because I thought it would be fantastic for the Ouija Board stitch. But, no, it’s much more blue in person and it’s pretty, but it just didn’t scream Ouija to me. However, it’s perfect for Stay Gothy. I intend to stitch until it’s complete, since I don’t have any Yule or Christmas patterns. I’m not really a “Christmas stitcher” anyway, as much as I am an autumn, Halloween, goth, pop culture, and witchy stitcher. That said, if the right pattern came along, I would certainly go for it.

Gaming

We had a character death in Cyberpunk Red and it was so sad. Our Medtech died. Honestly, I’m surprised the rest of us didn’t die, too, because we were on an extremely difficult mission. It was a hard loss because, besides the character being the one to patch us up after battle, he was just a good dude. Naturally, the player made another character for the next session, but when you have a character death, you don’t just carry on without acknowledging it. The end of the session and the following session are usually a time of mourning, tying up the deceased character’s loose ends, and informing next of kin, if any. A new character is usually introduced at the appropriate time, whether in the next session or another down the road.

Genesys is also going well, though I feel like we aren’t following the story threads all the way to their ends just yet. We got sidetracked by fae and those aren’t easy to deal with. 

My D&D campaign is moving ahead and I’m very excited to play tonight (since I’m finishing this post on a Saturday). Because, speaking of threads, it’s time to pull a few together and see how it all goes down!

Watching

I didn’t see anything new in October. However, I also had very little time to plop on the couch and watch TV or movies. On the last Saturday night in October, I carved pumpkins while my daughter watched the new Haunted Mansion. I only caught bits and pieces of it, but it was a nice balance of a little bit creepy and very sweet. Rowan really enjoyed it.

Exploring

We went to Bloom Where You’re Planted in Avoca with our Spiral Scouts circle. That is our family’s favorite pumpkin patch and, honestly, the only one I’ll visit. There is another one nearby, but it’s overpriced, crowded, and far too kitschy. Bloom Where You’re Planted has a more relaxed vibe to it, and I love the vintage aesthetic they cultivate, along with the pumpkins. It was a cool day, but the timing was perfect for some fall fun and picking pumpkins fresh from the patch!

I also have gotten involved in volunteering as a part of the PTO at my daughter’s school, which meant decorating for their Halloween event the last Friday of the month. In addition to the candy from that event, Rowan really enjoyed going trick or treat not once, but twice with friends. All in all, October went by too fast for me and I’m looking forward to a slower pace in November.