Physical Comics Read: 12 (49/267)
Digital Comics Read: 0 (471/471)
Trades/Graphic Novels Read: 0 (3/16)
Books Read: 4 (108/126)
Movies Watched: 1 (165/194)
TV Series Watched: 0 (55/58)
TV Seasons Watched: 0 (99/105)
Podcast episodes remaining: 196

October is always its own kind of hell.

Smet people reading this want to know what I’m talking about while others know exactly what I mean. Teaching–and having a school-aged kid of my own–has meant that October is the first big “grind” month of the school year. You’re working your way through an enormous pile of stuff while also searching for the ever-elusive work-life balance. And around here that means the beginning of fall, so there’s also all sorts of excursions and entertainment that you’re trying to squeeze in.

The result is both feeling like you are enjoying yourself while also feeling completely fried. I managed to have some real fun this month with my family, but I also spent a lot of time feeling buried and overwhelmed. I hate to say that it’s kind of par for the course, because I feel like I should be able to change that.

When it gets like this, I find that actually setting aside time to purposely read or watch something helps. I managed to finish a couple of books (mostly for podcasting purposes) and while the time to make my way through the unwatched movies continues to elude me, I’d say the comics are making progress. THen again, m numbers are off because I have a bunch of books that I still need to “catalogue.” But #HorrorComicsMonth proved fruitful and I’ve got a hearty stack of war comics for November.

Productivity will drive you nuts, by the way. There are times when the fall fun feels like boxes being checked, even when I am enjoying it in the moment. And I can’t tell if that is a mental health thing or if I simply have stretched myself too thin. Then again, that’s always been my problem–a fear of not doing enough. I mean, I have literally been telling my therapist about how I seem to be constantly afraid as if someone is going to give me a bad performance valuation. And that’s really messed up when you stop and think about it.

In the coming weeks, I am going to release the next episode of Required Reading, where Stella and I talk about Walden. Without getting too much into it, I am and always have been fascinated by Thoreau’s concept of “living deliberately.” Of course, he had a different set of circumstances in his life than I do, but as i make my way through this long-term purse, I wonder if that is what I’m trying to avhiece, even if he’s giving me the allegory of the cave in some ways (way to mix my philosophical metaphors, by the way).

At any rate, I really want to do what I saw I plan to do around this time every year, which is slow. the. hell. down. To get the work down to the manageable. To walk away from the excessive noise. To enjoy what I’ve got in front of me. And even to uncollect.