Musings-31oct99

Sunday, October 31, 1999

Halloween

Ho-hum! I've never really been all that excited about Halloween as a "holiday". I think its a bit over-rated. Part of my lack of excitement comes from having been raised in the world of Christian Reformed ettiquette: there are only two "real" holidays: Christmas and Easter. The rest were just religious celebrations. Valentine's Day was "Foundation Day" and Halloween was "Reformation Day"-- robbery, I swear! I never went to a Halloween party (or a Valentine's party) until I was an adult. By then, the magic was gone.

I do tend to get a bit more excited about seeing the neighborhood kids come up to the door in their costumes now than I did in past years. Some of them are cute (and for some of those, its the only time they are cute) and the others are the teenaged ghouligans that you only see once a year (thankfully!).

Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving Day is the START of the ChristmasSeason-- now that's a holiday I can get my arms around!

Last year, we went to Brian's sister's house for the Thanksgiving Day celebration and meal and I was able to meet her in-laws (Mike's mother and sister and her husband and two children). Since, as you may recall this year Barbara has a new baby, my mother-in-law has suggested that she'll probably have Thanksgiving Day dinner at their home in Orinda. I'm sure, as always, it will be a lovely dinner and a day spent in warm, glowing love and comfort.

The day after Thanksgiving Day is my favorite day, however-- No, no, not because of the Christmas Sale that inevitably starts at Macy's but because it is the day that I decorate the Christmas Tree and the rest of the apartment!! This is the best day of the year-- Sometimes, I almost think, better than Christmas itself! This is the day that Brian gets to roll his eyes everytime I tell him to move the tree to the left or right by two or three inches and then remind him that I'm actually referring to the other left . . . what fun we have, eh, dear? ;>)

Usually we have a number of new ornaments to add to the tree: the first year we were married, we probably added 20 or so new ornaments because we traveled so much--Trips are best memorialized with a Christmas ornament, don'tcha know? This year, although we camped a bit and traveled a little, only one or two of the places we went to sold Christmas ornaments (the Barbarians!) so we only have one or two new ornaments to add to our tree.

But, I am getting ahead of myself (even if only by three weeks).

4-Day Weekend

This is a four-day weekend for Brian and I and so far, we've done our best to ignore the outside world and do what we, as individuals and as a couple, wanted to do. Brian's been at the computer computing and I've been crafting. I did speak with my sister, Sue, in Michigan who seems to be home for a bit (except for some Sunday trips)-- her daughter is having a birthday tomorrow (Happy Birthday, Natali!!). Natali is 20 this year . . . which doesn't make sense since, according to Brian, I'm only 27 . . . when will she catch up to me? Nope, I don't think so, Tim!

Short-Lived

Well, the "Follow-Up Comments" that Brian had referred to on his website were short-lived, weren't they? That lasted at least an hour. I'm going to follow-up with a copyright attorney I know (there is an advantage to being involved in contracts in Silicon Valley) and will see if I can repost my "Play" page at a later date.

Software

Since this is somewhat connected to my husband's platform of the "Daynotes Gang", I thought I'd mention that I bought a new software this week that works with Word 97 for screenplay writing formats. Its made by ScreenStyle and, although the formats aren't "different" from what I'm used to working with, they are official which is much of the problem in the "industry". It was easy to load but we had to look for the "secret file" to start the program and, Brian was his usually brilliant self to figure it out-- thanks, sweetie.

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