"And the giant Snoopy balloon!"

          I applied for a secretarial job at the local college. I'll hear back about it by the end of October. And apparently there's a full time position at a public library near here, too. Gonna apply for that.
          Okay, so for some reason lately, it's felt like Christmas. I have no idea why. But sitting in my house in the evening, walking around outside in the morning, I can't shake the feeling that there should be a Christmas tree up in the family room, that I should be wrapping presents and watching A Muppet Christmas Carol and baking Christmas cookies.
          Weeeeeird.
          I think maybe part of the reason is that I've started my Christmas shopping already. Mostly this is an effort to spread out the spending over the next couple months so my December bill isn't too painful. And also I really like finding gifts for people.

          This weekend is Becky's Mary Shelley/Halloween storytelling party. I'm excited. It should be fun. I have yet to write my story, but I think I'll do that in the next couple days. Something to keep me from succumbing to boredom and impatience. Nick's coming to visit on Friday! Which is super exciting. Seriously, it's been intruding in on all my thoughts. It makes it kinda difficult to concentrate on other things.

          Oh, this past weekend was Becky's fall break, and she invited Ha Yan, an exchange student from South Korea, home with her. We carved pumpkins and made s'mores. It was very American. Ha Yan's pumpkin was one of those classic jack-o-lanterns - triangular eyes, square-toothed grin. It was a lot of fun - I haven't carved a pumpkin in a couple years. We roasted the seeds, too. It was also really interesting to talk to Ha Yan about the differences between Seoul and midwestern suburbs.
          At one point, as we were sitting in Becky's family room (which has a lot of windows and backs up to a small woods), a woodpecker flew up to a tree by the house. Ha Yan was excited because she says there aren't any of those in Korea anymore. "I've only seen them in the movies!" she said. She took a picture of it.
          It was fun to try to explain Thanksgiving and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and how Americans go crazy for Christmas. Making s'mores and playing Scrabble and carving pumpkins made me appreciate our weird American traditions.

          Have I mentioned that I'm super excited for this weekend? Because I am. Super excited!