October is many things. It is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the month that the leaves change, the air turns crisp, and people seem to be generally happier before they go into hibernation for winter. October is also birthday month for me.
Usually I celebrate in style, treating myself to that ice cream cone because why not indulge when it’s my birthday (month)? I’ve been too broke to do much indulging this go ’round, which is fine. I have been crafting, though. Here is what has been keeping me entertained.
I’ve also fed my soul this month by getting a group of women together for my first ever book club meeting last Wednesday. It was pretty awesome, and none of them knew each other well so I think this will make everyone feel accountable for being present and participating. Book Club Version 1 was a complete failure and I think a large part of that was because we were all neighbors and people felt way too comfortable dragging their feet and not getting the books…ever. Kind of like rooming with a friend. Sometimes it doesn’t go as you thought it would, and things would have been much better had you paired up with a new person. (For the record, no one reading this fits under my disappointing roommate file).
In addition to the initiation of Book Club V. 2, I took my man on a date last week. I’m very equal-opportunity (except when spiders and other scary bugs are concerned- that’s a pretty gender-specific role in my book). I told the boyfriend to meet me by the one-armed statue on Franklin Street, trying to be mysterious but this translated to him as somewhat odd and instead he was thinking that I would need a ride home rather than to meet for a date. Good thing he was completely surprised then when food from the legendary Pepper’s Pizza was involved. Afterwards we went to another Chapel Hill staple – The Yogurt Pump. Delightful. The boyfriend is just so spectacular that I wanted to do something nice for him, but like most of America, we have been too pinched for cash to go out much. Plus, after dating a couple years and then shacking up, I think it’s easy to forget the last time you’ve gone out on a date. So anyways, date night was a success. Then we went back home and watched The Machinist on Netflix. It was good but disturbing, which was a compromise genre because he wanted horror and that I do not do well. Not unless it’s daytime and one of my girl friends are present (I don’t know why, but those are the rules I’ve come to live by as an adult).
Saturday was spent partially at the library where I picked up my first book club book (for free – plus I love the crinkly sound of the covers for library books). Afterwards I proceeded to get into a minor accident on 15-501, which is a major highway that everyone in Chapel Hill and most of Durham must travel regularly even though it is terrible. Lots of stop lights and heavy traffic make for the perfect situation to get rear-ended, just like I did. Oh well. After collaborating with the other driver to pull my bumper out of the wheel well so I could pull off to the side, I realized our cars didn’t look that bad except for some scratches and an exchange of paint where our cars made out. And an unhinged bumper. No big deal. I don’t even care so much that it happened to my car that I’ve only had less than 4 months. It could have been so much worse, and it wasn’t. Unfortunately I have a lil case of whiplash, which seems to be holding tight and not going anywhere. It’s probably nothing compared to the yelling that guy is getting from his wife who was dressed up to go see a movie at another Chapel Hill institution, The Varsity Theatre ($3 movies!). He has probably heard “I told you to slow down!” so many times that he’s hearing it in his sleep at this point.
Since my Uncle (or Oncle as they say in France) Ralph is bringing students here on a college tour next week (woo hoo- birthday week!) and staying directly across the street from where I live, I would remind him that while this area has so much worth checking out, and much of it being for the budget-conscious, watch out for Hwy 15-501. Lots of crazies out there on their way to the best that Chapel Hill has to offer.
