Today’s word is: storm

I don’t feel like dressing up this year, but I still love Halloween.

I hope the bad weather doesn’t keep my three expected trick-or-treaters away.

today’s word is: mill

After escaping the crowds at Bridge Day (I love watching the BASE jumpers, but then, so does everyone else), we went to Babcock State Park.

Amusingly, many many other people had the same idea, so by the time we left, the parking lot was overflowing.

Babcock State Park is famous for its grist mill–you’ve probably seen a picture of it.

You had a wait quite awhile to get a picture without people.
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One week after our last visit, we were back at the New River Gorge, this time for Bridge Day.

The skies were overcast and grey, but there were still BASE jumpers to watch.

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Part of the reason we wanted to drive, is so we could see parts of the country we hadn’t before. Which is why we came back through the Great Smoky Mountains. It was an amazingly beautiful day, which made the drive all the nicer.

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The special exhibit at the Georgia Aquarium was frogs.

I can’t say frogs are a personal favorite, but my friend Susan loves them, so I paid close attention and took lots of pictures, because they made me think of her.

They had Poison Dar Frogs, which are Susan’s favorite. I didn’t get many good pictures of them.

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I love aquariums. Every time we visit Cincinnati, we have to visit Newport Aquarium. And we used to visit at least once a year. So I was looking forward to seeing the Georgia Aquarium.

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This week was Michael’s conference, and this year it was in Atlanta. Michael convinced his work to let us drive (everyone else flew), so we drove down via Charlotte, where we got to meet Eric and Kat.

This was the sunrise Tuesday morning, from our hotel room on the 40th floor of the Marriott.

Saturday is Bridge Day!

Today’s word is: oldest

For those of you not from WV, this coming Saturday is Bridge Day. We went last year–and hope to go this year, but were in the area on Saturday so took a brief tour of the area without all the crowds and insanity.

The New River Gorge area is gorgeous, but with the leaves changing, it’s extra pretty.

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labile
: readily or frequently changing: as
a : readily or continually undergoing chemical, physical, or biological change or breakdown
b : characterized by wide fluctuations (as in blood pressure or glucose tolerance)
c : emotionally unstable

And that pretty much sums up Michelle these days.

Over the course of the day I go from feeling like I can do anything to wondering why I bother because I fuck up everything I put my hands on.

Every day is like this: Up. Down. Down. Up. Down. Up. Down.

I’ve been through a fair amount of upheaval in the past several months, so–as usual–I am having a hard time separating what is from what should be.

I had two emergency dental appointments in an 8 day period of time for broken and cracked teeth, almost certainly because I have been gritting and grinding my teeth. And of course, broken teeth are–quite literally–one of my worst nightmares: the dreams from which I wake up in a cold sweat and am freaked out for hours afterwards.

(Yes, I have a mouth guard for sleeping. Yes, I am trying to be aware of when I grind and grit my teeth when I am awake.)

I’m trying to exercise regularly, and typically have a minimum of 10k steps–that’s five to six miles–a day because I know that exercise helps regulate my mood.

I get a massage every three weeks because I know that helps me deal with stress.

I’m eating well.

But still, the mood swings.

Yet, I’m functional. I go to work every day and do my job (a job which most of the time I enjoy). I do laundry and occasionally cook and bake and clean the house (which is normal).

So I am trying to figure out of these moods are coming from my brain trying to adjust to events from the summer or if something has changed in my brain chemistry and I’ve shifted from Dysthymia to Cyclothymic (Please, no.) and I have no answer. Or, maybe I’ve just become a psychological hypochondriac. Wouldn’t THAT be fun? (Next up: self diagnosis of schizophrenia followed by a self-diagnosis of borderline personality disorder! Wheeee!)

I’ve got more than a month until my next doctor appointment. I believe I should continue “Give it time,” and “Let things continue to settle out.” But a teeny voice in the back of my head wonders if this is going to be the start of a downward spiral.

I don’t know. I really don’t. All I can say is that I’m trying. Every day I get up and I keep going and try to take joy from everything around me and I think that should be ok for now.

io9 today has a list of The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Novels to Cheer You the Frak Up which, of course, made me want to compile my own list.

I don’t agree with everything on there–I tend to find the DEATH books in Discworld more cheerful than the Watch books, and I’ll take the Hobbit over TLOTR any day, but all in all it’s a pretty good list, that I mostly agree with.

These the books that I pick up, time and again, when I’m depressed or anxious and need to escape (in no particular order):

Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agness Nutter, Witch by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett – this is possibly one of my all-time favorite books.

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein – The Hobbit has always been comfort reading for me. The Lord of the Rings much less so.

The Phoenix Guards & Five Hundred Years After and Jhereg by Steven Brust – Same world, same author, but completely different feels. I love them both equally, even though they are very different books.

Thieves’ World edited by Robert Asprin and Lynn Abbey – In tone, I can’t think of anything LESS cheerful than Thieves’ World, but when I read them, they take me completely away from myself.

Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner – I love and adore this story. I own it in paperback, ebook, and audiobook.

The Belgariad by David Eddings – I think it’s because, even now, I can still lose myself completely in the story.

And then I have Sean Russell and Guy Gavriel Kay. They write books that draw me out of myself and into whatever world they have created. For Sean Russell, I’d say my favorites are The Initiate Brother & Gatherer of Clouds, but with Guy Gavriel Kay, I simply can’t pick. Anything of his I read is going to pull me deeply into the world he has crafted.

And lastly, almost anything by Charles de Lint. He has a lot of anthologies, and I’m a huge fan of short stories, but there’s something else about his writing–even though many of his stories can be dark, I still finish the stories with a tremendous sense of hope.

It finally feels like fall! Leaves are changing! Temperatures are cool! I love this time of year!

Today’s word is: scarf