Pumpkinhead!

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(Clockwise from top left): The ghost pumpkin M carved into sugar skull goodness doing double-duty as my noggin; soontofu chigae and all the fixings from Kimch'i in the Exchange with my friend Perry after a morning of postering for UMP's Grassy Narrows event; still-life with slippers, specifically, M's and mine on the floor in front of our bed this morning; Kirsten Wurrman introducing Cheryl Miki and I at an Imagining Winnipeg event at Westwood Library,

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Is it just me, or has this fall been particularly pumpkinhead-y? (By which I mean chock full of deadlines and events...)

But in amidst the tearing around and the bleeding eyes (and that cold that lasted three weeks), there was lots of good stuff that I sort of wanted to acknowledge for myself, if no one else.

Like dressing up Aa in a sugar skull costume that involved an involved face painting and watching M apply all his small/precise skills to the ghost pumpkin he'd picked up.

Like unearthing my slippers and noting ruefully the wear pattern in the rabbit fur that edges it. I hate the idea of being predictable, but apparently I cross my ankles the exact same way every night, when sitting on the couch watching TV with M.

Like all the events, some for UMP and some on my own behalf. I sometimes forget, in the midst of planning and promoting said events, how necessary they are, not for selling books (or not only) but also for connecting, as people, with audiences. 

For instance, I spent an hour or so on election night in the basement of Westwood Library. I was there because I was doing a slideshow/talk from UMP's Imagining Winnipeg photo book with my smart-as-a-whip colleague Cheryl Miki. And I couldn't help but notice how everyone was made just a little bit happier by sitting in the dark, looking at photos and talking about bad old Winnipeg.

But after the outward push of effort out in the world this fall, I'm greatly looking forward to the blank slate that is the winter. I have one last deadline and then my writing days are ALL MINE.

Which is such a goddamn relief.

Has your fall ALSO been a great and marvelous gongshow? I'm curious...