October

I certainly can't complain about the uneventfulness of my life. When I look back on the majority of my 20s (I'm now 29) and I'm more than a little disappointed in my lack of writing during that time. I spent too much time dreaming and too little time doing, spending more effort on my own long-running D&D campaign than on my would-be writing career. All of that changed between 2002 and 2003 thanks to WotC and its open calls. More about that another time—but for now it suffices to say that I'm not wanting for more projects; I'm fully enmeshed in a few and very happy for it.

On the non-writing front, Marisa and I have been taking some much-needed weekend trips recently. Last week we visited Amish country in the town of Paradise, Bird-in-Hand, and Intercourse in Pennsylvania (returning the day before the horrifying shooting). It isn't just farms and produce down there—we also played miniature golf (hadn't done that since I lived in California about half my life ago) and went to a local Halloween festival.

This coming weekend we've got plans to visit Salem, MA, because God forbid you dare to approach that place on Halloween. (You have to book more than a year advance and have tons of cash available to make that worthwhile, fehh!) We're staying at the Salem Waterfront Hotel (lucky on our part, since most of the hotels in the area are full) and taking part in various Halloween and historical events. I like a place that celebrates a non-Christmas holiday for a full month.

But October overall is a favorite month of mine. It means cooler weather (usually) and it culminates with my anniversary (aka Halloween). This year will be our second.