Oh the weather outside is frightful...

When I woke up this morning (at 6 am) I realized it was RAINING outside! When I lived in Florida I took the rain for granted, and I took hearing it for granted. The roof here is made somehow that I can't hear the rain pitter-patter on it, which I find very sad.

But anyway, I was so excited I bounced out of bed and stood at my door in the rainy chill for a few minutes, until I got too cold and went back into bed until 9 am, luxuriating in the fact that I COULD stay in bed that late.

Then I got up, showered, and started studying for my remote sensing test this afternoon. I read my notecards on the way to class, and took the test...I'm not sure how I did. I really didn't study enough for it - between everything that went down Friday, and all the hours at work on Saturday and Sunday, plus all the AGSA stuff I had to get done, the test kind of got pushed to the bottom of the pile.

I have another test tomorrow, in Dr. Lipo's Native American cultures class, so I'll have to stop writing soon and get back to studying for that, but I wanted a little break.

The morning was very gray and cloudy, which I liked, it makes me think of England. It cleared up some and got sunny in the afternoon, so it was warm walking to and from class. When I got home I opened my windows to air out the apartment (something STILL smells funny, no matter how much I febreeze everything), and now the tall windows facing the street are open, but the rest are closed, except my kitchen window which I keep open all day.

Now it's very dark and chilly outside, with a few clouds scudding along the skyline; the traffic noises outside are familiar now, and I can see the tree branches waving in the wind through my kitchen window. It's the sort of night where a copper moon should rise above the trees, and a witch should whisk by on her broom, where goblins should peep from their caves, and black cats with great golden eyes should slink silently among the shadows.

Did I mention that I LOVE Halloween? And Thanksgiving? And holidays in general? I love cooking, and family celebrations, and parties and casual gatherings with friends...something about nutmeg and cloves and the warm smells of baking and roasting...

Speaking of, it's time for me to start thinking about what I'm doing for Thanksgiving dinner. Mom wants me to invite people over, but my table is for two so I don't know how that would work unless I bought a second table and some extra chairs...goodwill?
Anyway, we'll see about that.

But planning my menu is one of my favorite things to do all year...it's so much fun, even if I don't do one hundreth of all the recipes I look at! I think this year I really have to make bread. Do I make Ovo's recipe? Do I make cornbread? Do I make muffins? Do I make a baguette and make my own garlic bread? Or maybe I should do garlic rolls?

I love cooking! I love holidays!

But for now, it's time to get my butt back to work...le sigh.