October Wrap-Up

October is not allowed to be over. I will not allow it. Unfortunately, no one asked me... 
(Actually, true story: I am sad that October is over buuuuuut I'm also REALLY excited for November!)

Pumpkins did kinda help it feel like Fall...

1. Real quick, before I get into other things that happened this month, let's be democratic and Chestertonian and talk about the weather! October weather in Illinois is WEIRD, y'all. It didn't start being consistently under 70 degrees until the end of the month, and it even got up to over 80 at least one of the days! AND the leaves didn't start turning until like halfway through the month. Oh, and there are a lot of oak trees whose leaves don't turn, they just...turn brown and drop. XD I didn't start wearing long-sleeved shirts until the 15th! WHAT IS THIS MADNESS? And, as it happened, THEN I had to go back to short sleeves because the second day I wore long-sleeves, it was warm again and I was sweating my tush off. As of the 27th, it's only started consistently feeling like Fall yesterday. There were also a few days where it did start feeling like Fall halfway through the month, and I got alllllll the dark-academia-Fall-college-student aesthetic vibes, and I was A Fan. But question: can we get that through...all of October next time?? I'm hoping November will feel like Fall throughout...

2. I joined a prolife group on campus! The group is called WeDignify ("WeDig" for short, which, yes, does sound kind of funny), and they are super cool! The focus is in education through small groups, as well as in mentoring and education. This is the prolife group that organizes March For Life Chicago! So we're kind of a big deal. XD 

I'm in one of the small groups, run by a friend of mine (Fia, if you remember from my August Wrap-Up), where we learn about dialogue, the biology/law/philosophy of abortion, special considerations, and so on! It's really interesting, and several of my friends are also in it, so that helps. :) 

One of the things I got to do this month was go on something called Daring Greatly where we went out in small groups and just walked up to people on the quad and talked to them about abortion. I was sweating, I can tell you! But I was in a group with Alphonsus (see last month's wrap-up!) and primarily supposed to be observing, so I got to watch him and another guy do their thing and join in a little bit, which was the perfect amount of involvement--and I'm excited to do it again!

One of the other things I got to do this month was watch Unplanned for the first time. Boy howdy guys, it was a lot harder than I expected. It...brought stuff home. There was a lot to think about and I learned a lot. But overall, it was a really beautiful story. I am not sorry I watched it, even if I wouldn't recommend it to everyone (specifically please don't show it to anyone under around fifteen!). I really enjoyed hearing and seeing Abby's journey and how her slow conversion happened. I especially loved the Forty Days For Life people, and how she really did have respect for them in dialogue, even while the director of the clinic. 

I made an apple cake! :) Apropos of nothing. XD

3. Quotes: In Class Edition

"For those who want to figure out where the four points they missed on the test came from--go away. You're amazing." --My Animal Science prof.

"Florida is like Swiss cheese." --My Natural Disasters prof (apropos of sinkholes)

"JoooooooooooOOOOOOOOooooooy! WooooOOOOOOOooo!" --The slightly crazy panelist on my last day of Fine & Applied Arts 101

"The only things we get from companion animals are poop and love." --My Animal Science guest lecturer

"The sinkhole also took the deep end of a swimming pool, which became a very deep end of a swimming pool." --My Natural Disasters prof

"Flatter than Champaign, Illinois: Houston, Texas." --My Natural Disasters prof 

4. I don't usually watch movies by myself--part of why I haven't watched many movies at college, period, but one week my friends watched Coco and I only got to see the beginning bit because I had to go to Bible Study, and so that Friday, I was really tired and needed to rest and get to be early, so I decided to watch the rest of Coco (in bed, with my computer on my stomach, almost falling asleep. I regret nothing) and boy, it was really beautiful and awesome.

And I almost cried at that end scene where the whole family is together, to be completely honest. As much as I put on the show of being completely self-sufficient and Doing Fine In College (which I am, for the record) I do miss my family sometimes.

Especially during the Fall, for some reason.

ANWAYS, Coco! It had been a really long time since I watched it, and I had forgotten a lot--not the important parts, but the in-between bits, and how overall Delightful it is. I love how one of the main themes is realizing how important family is, even more important than aspirations--but how also, if you family loves you and realizes how much you love your aspirations, they'll support you. 

I also like the theme of memory--how the memory of family members is important. Even though I don't believe in Dia de Muertos (or Dia de los Muertos, or however you want to see it) and all that is attached to that, I do think that remembering family history is incredibly important for identity, and I loved seeing that reflected. One of my favorite things to do with my grandmother on my mom's side is listen to her stories. She knows an incredible amount about our family history, and this reminded me of that. (I do have all the stories she could tell in several months worth of phone calls written down for posterity and saved to the Cloud, don't worry.)

Also, the aesthetic is simply gorgeous, even though I don't "do" Dia de Muertos, I love the colors, the lights, the spirit guides, the paper lace, the marigolds, the skulls! Everything! It's a visually fantastic movie.

And the little details! Incredible attention to detail. Like the way Miguel's mom is casually pregnant the whole time. I love that.

Pixar, you were amazing. Or you are amazing. Or whatever. (We watched Onward right after I came back from Bible Study, and that was also an amazing family movie which supported the idea that kids need both a mom and a dad, so...the case can be made that Pixar is still amazing. Or was as of 2020, anyway.) 

Goat. Bridge. *chef's kiss*

5. Despite the abysmally un-Fall-like weather, there was one perfect Fall day in the middle of this month! It was cool enough that the warm sun felt like a hug, and the cold breeze playfully tugging on my hair provided the perfect counterpoint. And what did I use this perfect Fall day for? Only the best things! I went to the farmer's market with some of my friends and bought goat cheese and apple jelly and tomatoes and an entire pumpkin, which, when deposited in my backpack, forced me to maintain excellent posture. (Half of said pumpkin, roasted, is currently sitting in said friends' refrigerator. XD) We then explored a very strange supply store that consists almost entirely of things that would seem to be useless but possibly aren't, and made a trip to the Urbana library, where I acquired two books that were not on my reading list BUT which made me very happy to find. (The Thief's Knot by Kate Milford and The Hollow Boy by Jonathan Stroud). We brought our newfound goodies plus some other food from the cafeteria out to the quad and ate lunch in the sun and breeze on a picnic blanket which leaked and got our tushes all wet, while surveying the trees which have just started to turn and hoping the boys over there wouldn't hit us with their football and frisbee. 
Later that day, a couple of the same friends and a couple of new ones and I all went to a local pumpkin patch, which actually had pumpkins growing in a field, and the light was golden, and it smelled like earth and slightly rotten apples and happiness. We acquired pumpkins (well, I didn't, but others did) and took pictures in a field of zinnias, and purchased apple-flavored things, and ran unto friends unexpectedly, and watched a goat go over an elevated goat bridge.
And it was good.

6. What have I not mentioned yet...hm. Books! But instead of my usual extra review...some thoughts on my reading life.

This month made me think about my reading life a bit more than I'm used to. I was getting the panicky feeling that comes with having a long list of things that I haven't done yet, apropos of my reading list on Goodreads. 

And it occurred to me. Why am I reading like this? I don't need to try to read the most books I ever have in a month--I'm never going to top what I did when I was a kid during the summer and had nothing else to do! Reading books like they're just something on my to do list is not a recipe for happiness in my reading life. I won't absorb said books, I won't enjoy said books, and I won't enjoy the time that I spend reading.

After all, why do I read? Because it's fun. Because I love to learn. Because diving into new worlds is one of my favorite things.
Not to reach a certain Goodreads total.
Not so I can say I read x books this year.
Not so I can say I've read "all" the classics.
Not so I can check books off my list.

Because you know what? I will always have a reading list. I like having a reading list--that way, it's easy to find a book to read next. And I need to just get used to it being pretty long, because I love to read, and I love books, and so there will be a lot of books on my list, always! 

And you know what else? I'll probably get through all the books on my list at some point! I've read over two hundred books this year, and I only have eighty on my reading list. Are some of them very long? Yes. *nervous glance at the 5-volume Summa* But are some of them also very short? Yes. *smiles at the thirteen-or-so Vatican II documents* So, do I need to worry about getting through them? No. Because they are there for me to have fun reading and learning. Not so I can finish the list. Not so I can get to zero. SO I CAN HAVE FUN. And that means I can be flexible and reread, and mood read, and get books from the library, as long as I don't ignore it completely. 

So.

That's where I'm at right now. 

7. As I said in my last post, I'm doing NaNo in November! I have a couple of updates on that...

A. It has an official code name! I'm calling this particular project Project Monday for now. That may change, but for now I like it. (It is, for those in the know, a Chesterton reference. If you can figure out to what it refers, please squeal with me in the comments. ;))

B. As you may be able to guess, I'm planning to take it a bit easy on the blog! I'm planning on doing some post a couple of weeks in, either a tag or a writing update, just to take a little break from the project, and then a wrap-up at the end of the month as usual. But we'll see. :)

How's your reading life been? Have you ever seen Unplanned? Are you doing NaNo? What is Fall weather like where you live?