I set that last post to private fairly quickly. Because true as the stories all were, I questioned if parts of them were mine to share more widely than within my own family and those my sister knows and would choose to share. As a collector of people's stories, which ones to tell when and to whom is always something I rather struggle with finding the balance on. Also, I don't know how my sister would feel about me sharing pictures of the kiddos, some parents like to control that online so I try to respect that whenever I spend time with family/friends with littles unless I have their permission.

It's all still true, whether I share it with n'importe qui or keep the audience small and private. Even the stories I hold most private within myself are true. But what good is any story, true or not, if it's never shared? Isn't the point, the raison d'être of a story to be told? Even if you dress it up in myth and allegory until it's barely recognizable, a story exists to be told and retold until it has nothing more to teach in the retellings.

Anyway, I'm going to go back to finishing my book I'm reading, it's the second in a duology. The first was better written, but the second is still quite good. It is rare for a book to be as good as the hype or to live up to my expectations of it, especially when I have saved them for months til the perfect season when the veil is thin and the monsters come out to play at the midpoint between the equinox and the longest night. 

The first one I devoured in a single day, pausing only to answer texts and make myself some more tea/coffee when my cup was empty. (And often when I went to answer the texts, I would use the forced pause at the chapter break to make more tea/coffee and use the bathroom and consider it an opportunity to replenish my apple/Reese's Halloween candy supplies)  The second one is easier to set aside and pause and do the things.

My aunts are in town now for the weekend (Aunt Kath & Aunt Geeta who live in Charlottesville now) and the South East Asian conference doesn't start until tomorrow (well today now) so they hung out with us had some drinks and then we went to dinner before taking them back to their hotel. Since tonight (well last now now) was Diwali as well as Halloween/Samhain we went to try Rajni, a newly opened South Indian restaurant which is an area of Indian cuisine Geeta loves but doesn't cook and she can't get in Charlottesville area. As far back as I can remember, both she and Kath get giddy when they find an Indian restaurant stateside that makes proper dhosas. We let Geeta order whatever she wanted for us all to try family style, and it was so good and she had so many things they wanted to try that she and Kath decided they want to go back there on Sta night dinner for Kathy's birthday. Also, I have a LOT of leftovers right now from everything she ordered. I'm planning to have rice and the vegie curry for breakfast/lunch as well as the remaining masala dhosa and chile garlic naan. I will probably have the appetizer leftovers late Fri night after I get back from opera if I go in to work. But I likely won't get to the lamb curry dish until Sunday -- and on Sat night I will end up with more leftovers, lol. We will see them again on Saturday -- Aunt Kath will join us for the day since it's her birthday and then Aunt Geeta will join us for dinner and then they're staying the night at my parents house. Sunday they fly back home but I'll head over to my parents house spend the morning with them before they head to the airport and then in the afternoon/evening watch the Packers game with my mum and the dogs and my sister's family will watch at the same time with us.

And then tomorrow (today now) I have to call to reschedule my eye appointment yet AGAIN because they called then texted me that they have a company wide training on the day it was scheduled so are rescheduling all appointments. And then in the afternoon I'm taking my grandma to an appointment (dentist) and then in the evening heading downtown to meet up with Crissy (and maybe Denis) for dinner then the three of us are heading to see Madison Opera's production of Barber of Seville.

And that's pretty well my entire weekend. On Thursday at the Kamala Harris rally and concert (we had Mumford & Sons, two of the members of The National, Gracie Abrams, and Remi Wolf each playing 3-4 songs for their concert portions. And then everyone was Wisconsin Democrats, mostly currently serving, and then Kamala last) they were trying to get people to volunteer to canvass and it was like, "I can't, I have family in from out of town and Monday I have to work and rest because Tuesday I'm an election official from 6am until close." 

It's been a bit busy in my life recently... I had my longest break without anything until next year in there, but even with the optometry appointment needing to be moved AGAIN, I still have two different vet appointments (just to the lab, the dog for her remaining vaccines and the cat for his bloodwork to figure out the stage of his CKD, Chronic Kidney Disease. I also still need to tkae my dang car in for the overdue oil change, tire rotation, alignment check AND my passenger side headlight went out over the weekend. Because of course it did. I may have someone to change it for me if I pick up the bulb instead of having to pay a mechanic $100 labor for under 20mins of their time -- the Scion is much easier than when I drove a Prius to be able to replace the bulb.

I also need to order online heartgard and nexgard for my dog because the vet office wanted $470 for a year's worth of both and only offered a $60 rebate from the company to buy from the vet.... It's under $100 for 6 months, under $200 for a year, online or from Petsmart for the same damn thing.... I just need to order it. My mum said I can give Waffles one of Sophie's doses for her November dose and just give my mum back one from Waffles box once it arrives.

O and I need to order my LizzyKate tea advent refill since they JUST put that up to order int he last couple days. And form Churchill's I need to order more pink tea to bring Monroe when I fly out west. (I'm not ordering the Churchill's tea advent calendar this year because they increased the price to $65 for it and that's just too much.....

O!! And also! Things to look forward next year (after I'm back from my three weeks of December in Seattle area visiting my sister and her family)!  It's already been announced by all three of them that Dave Howley will be back up here in Wisconsin area with more shows in February (maybe early March), Seo Linn will be back in the states in March and are building the tour now beyond the new York show that booked them bringing them in, AND just yesterday Onoir announced that they will be back stateside with shows on the East Coast and Midwest  in March! So in February/March I'll get to see Dave, Keith, and Diarmaid! Hopefully they won't be conflicting shows on the same nights so hard choices will need to be made. But anyway, that's very exciting news to me! I'm sad spooky season is past again -- but I am looking forward to visiting my sister's family again for Christmas and then looking forward to having some of my favorite Irish boys around for Irish season.