November Already?

     How is it already early November? (Guess that's what happens when you don't do much that's all that exciting.) On the other hand, I don't have to feel bad about playing my Christmas playlists on Pandora and Spotify.

     RSU had a staged reading of two Agatha Christie radio plays last weekend, so of course I was all over that. They did great, and it was great to see Andrew and Kessiah again. Also saw David, but didn't have a chance to say hi.
     Hadn't been back in Claremore since the production of Texaco Mornings last year. Of course had the nasty "I haven't prepared enough" feeling being in the audience, since it was held in the Baird Performance Studio AND it was a theater performance, but it was kind of comforting that I still had that reaction. I didn't fit with Claremore at all, but in that context and on that campus, I belong. 

     The Okmulgee Public Library's annual book sale in September went pretty well, it raised around two thousand dollars, and either through customers, volunteers or reselling at Gardner's, around six thousand books were properly moved or disposed of.

      The NASCAR season is almost over, thank goodness. (FAR TOO LONG, far too predictable.) I'm not going to be covering it at Frontstretch next season, since I'm kind of burned out. But they've been great people to work with, and maybe in 2021 I'll be back. I don't know, we'll see.
     I know a lot about sports, but I don't care enough about them to invest so much time and energy into covering them regularly. So somewhere like Grantland or Deadspin, which does a mix of sports and pop culture, would probably be a good fit. (Oh, wait - neither of those sites exist anymore. Dang it.)
     On the other hand, hockey season is in full swing, and the Thunder are off to a surprisingly solid start the post-Russell Westbrook era.

     Currently reading a bunch of nonfiction - in the middle of Chesterton's Heretics (the precursor to Orthodoxy), a book of Walter Cronkite's WWII letters to his wife, and several nonfiction works about dogs to review for Dog O'Day.

     FINALLY watched Seabiscuit, which was extremely well-made, I liked it just as much as I figured I would. Cautiously curious about Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker in December, but since the future Star Wars plans seem to be Disney Plus TV shows, those seem like they would work much better.

     Been meeting with Steven over coffee to discuss 1 Thessalonians, that's been going okay, lot less awkward than I expected a "Hey, let's do a Bible study!" to be.

July

     Trevor, Mom and Amy are in Minnesota for the Junior Nationals competition. It takes a while to feed all the animals (there IS a point where there are too many cats and dogs). Caleb and I are doing okay.

     Camp will be next week, on Monday, and then Caleb leaves for New Mexico on Thursday. It hurts not being able to be there. Wish I knew why.

     The oven is broken, and the dishwasher isn't working, either. Handwashing everything takes a lot of energy and effort, far more so than you'd imagine. This comes on top of the clothes washer semi-working and the van having an awful week (Dad did something to it all day yesterday, working okay for now.)

     Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s sixth season is disappointing so far, though it's cool that I get to review it each week for Bam Smack Pow, and daily bring smiles to people's faces with cute fluffy dog stories for Dog O'Day. But at the same time, it feels a little pointless, not to mention frustrating, holed up away on my laptop all the time.

     Interaction with people is necessary sometimes, too. Are they sometimes hard to deal with? Sure, but variety is important as well.

     Relient K's "Be My Escape" and Avril Lavigne's "Head Above Water" have been stuck in my head the last few days.
   

Today's Events

     According to Facebook, six years ago on this day I X-rayed Robbie's elderly cat Tigger after the dogs roughed her up. That was a strange night.

     Two years ago on this day in Pop Market we wrote inclass flashfiction plays and cold-read our way through them. In mine, a couple finally had to put down their sick dog. In another, I played a grandmother with dementia. (That was kinda fun.)

     Last year on this day, my play Texaco Mornings was being performed by RSU Theater, and Ashland came down to see it. That was a good weekend.

     Today Mom and I went to go see Captain Marvel, which was very good. Maybe the best origin story the MCU has had, Carol Danvers is now one of my favorite MCU characters.