(Or, Fall Into Fall)
It’s fall! I’ve written in the past about feeling weird and restless during this season, because for a big portion of my life it always meant a time of change and new things. Until it didn’t, and things were more stable for me, and then the restlessness began! This year I’m noticing in myself that the itch for change is a lot quieter; I actually think what might be helping is having kids and living vicariously through them.
Anyway, this year I decided to compile a Spotify playlist to try and capture some fall vibes. My main criteria when selecting songs was whether it would feel appropriate while walking among autumn leaves. I set a target of 20 songs and also had a soft rule that the song couldn’t mention Fall in any way — I think I mostly achieved that.
No idea what, if anything, the list says about me and my relationship to autumn. But I think it’s nice and I’m enjoying it myself. Here!
In other news:
In just a few weeks I’ll be performing in Flatlands Theatre Company’s production of Back to the 80s, a broad parody of Back to the Future that includes a zillion walk-on cameos by your favorite 1980s pop culture artifacts. Think Ready Player One but silly on purpose.
Rehearsals have been loads of fun and a big boost to my mental health in these past few weeks. I do hope people enjoy it when it premieres, but the most important thing to me has been putting the thing together.
Also, I’ll be 41 in a couple of weeks! It looks like I didn’t write about my experience with my 40th birthday party last year: the short version is that it was cancelled at the last second because everybody in my household got super sick, starting with my boy. A huge disappointment because we had food, venue, and people ready to go; I ended up driving around and distributing bits of food and drink (while masked) to various friends.
This year we’re going to try again, and the way it’s gone it’ll probably be the last party I try to plan for myself. Not that planning the thing has been that terrible, but my personal anxiety levels have been way up and down, and I’ve been totally sure that I was going to cancel the entire thing at least twice.
I want to do a PowerPoint party! This is an idea that took off during the pandemic, where everybody invited brings a short (like, 2-3 minutes) presentation on something they’re excited or passionate about. We’re renting a boardroom at a local hotel and bringing in food and drink. Invites are out and a few friends have responded very positively to the idea, which is encouraging. But even so, this is probably the last time I’m going to try and have a birthday party; watch this space next year to see if I stick to my promise.
Thing I Saw: A Field In England, a film I can’t really recommend but made me feel nice and nostalgic for a time in my life when I had the space to watch movies I didn’t love. Does that make sense? I used to have time to watch a lot more, and now that I have less time, I’m more likely to zero in on things I’m really interested in or am sure I’ll like.
Thing I Learned: Well, I’m learning about Numbers Stations for one of my PowerPoint party presentation ideas. Because of this, I’ve discovered that the Conet Project is on Spotify as well! If you’ve ever wanted to listen to haunting, scratchy recordings of people reading cryptic sequences of numbers, now’s your chance!
I’m Grateful For: My Super Nt and a couple of wireless controllers, so I can play Donkey Kong Country on cold October nights.