Monday evening things

 * I think I'm dealing with fall (mold) allergies - have had headaches off and on, of the particular type caused by rotting leaves. (At least they're not migraines; I used to get migraines from leaf mold as a teenager). I was also really tired today and didn't get a lot done.

* I also think about how traditionally this time of year is thought of as one of the "thin places" where the spirit world and our world come close. Last night I dreamed I was trying to get airline tickets to go to Hawaii for my dad, who had to go there and give a talk. I struggled with it (a frequent theme in dreams for me is that I have one task, that is important to someone, and for some reason I cannot do it - either the technology doesn't work, or someone prevents me, or whatever). And I woke up a little sad.

I dream about my family a lot. I feel like I dream about them more than is normal for an adult and I can only imagine that it's that my adult life has had so few things in it - just mostly grinding away at work - that I don't really HAVE a lot of memories for my dreams to draw on.

* Also, it's Halloween. I did break down and buy some candy (individually wrapped York peppermint patties and little Hershey's nuggets - both things I like and can eat if I have leftovers; the store still had Snickers but I couldn't eat leftover Snickers and they might be harder to get rid of). I've had seven little kids (all of whom said "thank you") and two maybe-fourteen-year-old-boys (who didn't, but at least they were in costume). And it made me think of how in the past the late Charles Hill used to do "goblin reports" (I think that's what he called it) about how many trick or treaters he had come by, and some years we would compare (seeing we lived in the same state, but he in a city subdivision and me in an older neighborhood of a much smaller city). And it did make me a little sad again. 

* I guess officially All Saint's Day would be tomorrow? In the tradition I come from (Disciples of Christ), it's a time to think of the people you know and lost in the previous year, or also your "ancestors in the faith" - the people who came before you and shaped you. So for me, people like my maternal grandmother. And the minister who baptized me (though I suspect she's still alive), and some of the church members I've known - Mr. Freeman, and Chappy and Mecy. 

And yeah, I've lost a few people this year. A couple people I knew from church, and a long-time family friend, who had worked with my dad way back when he was the Coordinator of Research at his university, and C. and her family became friends of my family. She lost her husband back in early 2021; he had had leukemia and then contracted COVID while in the hospital. My mom had been writing to C. but hadn't gotten a response at one point, and then a mutual acquaintance of theirs told my mom C. had passed away. 

She was a nice woman, a very funny person too. 

* I don't know if we'll do anything to mark it next week at church. The current pastor is less liturgical than some we've had. Oh, he's a nice man and all, it's just his style is a little different and there are some things left out I'd prefer to have, and some things added in I'd prefer not to. But one thing I've learned as an adult: you don't get what you want all the time, or even much of the time. I guess I can mark it myself though - not sure if I have a piano arrangement of "For All The Saints" but I could look in my books and see. 

* One thing I've been making for myself as a hot drink (because it's chilly in my building these days, and I'm sometimes cold when I get home). Tea is out late in the afternoon; I react enough to caffeine that I don't sleep well with tea. So, taking an inspiration from the "Unofficial Studio Ghibli Cookbook" (I think that's what it's called, I don't feel like getting up to go look), I made hot milk with honey a la the movie Ponyo - you heat milk with a piece of cinnamon stick (I do it in the microwave, though you really probably should do it on the stove top, more slowly, to steep out more flavor) and then add somewhere between a teaspoon and tablespoon of honey at the end (I usually go with more) and then stir it up. It's good, it's a little more special than just plain hot milk (or worse, as I've seen some people do: plain hot water) but it doesn't have caffeine. And while it has sugar, I suspect it  has less than the typical hot cocoa does.