This week was about a month long, but it had some good things in it to go with all the busy-ness and the *waves hands at the world in general and my country in particular* absolute crap. So, 3 things:


1) Despite my not having found/made time to do any actual decorating, Halloween seems to be arriving this week anyway. Rude of it to not wait for me. This year I've been invited to a party in a new-to-me neighborhood of Oshkosh, where the party throwers have promised adult beverages and full-sized candy bars in their driveway. This means I can probably just go ahead and eat some of the candy I bought to give out, since I won't be here and who knows what will happen to the bowl I leave out by my own door, right?

2) My youngest niece, Magpie, is now 10 and she's a brain-on-fire sheer delight. She creates graphic novels, composes and choreograhs snuggler (stuffed animal)-performed musicals, develops small business ideas with her friends, takes 3 different dance classes, is up for any art or craft activity we offer her, and is in a community youth chorus and a community youth theater production of Newsies, Jr.. The way the middle schools and the particular academic program she's in work, next year she would have a choice of either staying in the choral music class, which is led by the absolute worst (and shadiest, but he somehow has the entire district admin conned) music teacher I have ever encountered, and boy HOWDY could I fill an entire month's worth of entries with this guy's shenanigans--

--where was I?-- okay, so Magpie either stays in chorus with Mr. Sussy, as she and JuneBug like to call him, or starts orchestra. To qualify for orchestra, she's decided to start cello lessons this year. Her kid-sized cello is as tall as she is. And she is head-over-heels in love with it. She practices without being prompted, unlike piano, where she had to be bribed to even sit at the keyboard. This week they were given their bows to hold and learn about for the first time and she jumped up in class and cheered. This child is a force and I don't know if the world is ready for her, but it desperately needs her. Though she be but little, she is fierce.

3) I pulled myself together enough to sign up for Yuletide. For my assignment, I matched on what is, as I said on Bluesky (I'm there! Hit me up if we haven't connected there already), the most unhinged offer I've ever made. But I went looking at letters this week, saw this prompt, and thought, huh, I could maybe do that. Now that it's my actual assignment and I've taken a close look at the recipient's sign up, letter, and some of their other posts? I just keep finding more things that spark ideas and align with my own interests, and I have madly giggled at least 3 times today thinking of ideas. *rubs hands* In a year when everything outside my little fandom bubble seems to be falling apart even harder than usual, I'm glad to have something so silly and fun to escape to.

And that's it for this time. As JuneBug used to say when he was 2ish, hope you all have a "Happy Day Ween!"