Forcing Fall

I know it's incredibly unoriginal, but - brace yourselves - I love fall. Shocking, right? To me, it feels like even more of a fresh start than the first of the year. I am sure that goes back to school days - freshly covered books, unblemished notebooks, new classes, and all of that.

If not for the appearance of the Pumpkin Spice Latte and the racks of Halloween costumes, it would be easy to miss fall around here because it doesn't look much like those back-to-school autumns that send the leaf-peepers flocking to New England. Still, if you squint (and ignore the thermometer), it's beginning to feel downright autumnal around here.

I've been ready for fall for a while now. Despite the fact that we still needed round-the-clock air conditioning at the time, I bought these as soon as we flipped the calendar to September.

{Fear not, I removed those hideous stickers immediately after taking this picture.}

A couple of weekends ago, the temperature finally dipped below 80, and I convinced my incredibly accommodating husband that spending two hours each way in the car to go to an apple orchard was a great way to spend a Saturday. 

To be honest, the cider donuts are the real draw. These things are well worth the year-long wait...

 

Despite my how much I miss the first fire of the season, the crispness, and the actual legitimate need for boots and sweaters, there is so much that I love about Southern California in the fall. The tourists clear out, the Santa Anas swing through, and citrus returns to the farmers market, but the absolute best thing about fall in Southern California is the beach - the beautifully empty beach.

So, point is, whatever it looks like, fall is the best. Now we begin the wonderful slide into the holidays...hurrah!
  

Happy Halloween!

I'm popping in for a belly bump update (Halloween edition) before the trick-or-treaters start rolling in...

{21 Weeks}

 

 

It's been quite a while since I was all that into Halloween, but it is the first official holiday of the season, and I do love a good pumpkin carving sesh.

{Carving pumpkins with Mom, just like the old days}

Boom!

Unrelated, I cannot get enough of this dog. She is pretty much perfection on four legs, so I bought her me this festive canine bandana as a special holiday treat.

 

Happy Halloween, witches!

19 Weeks

And this is why I try to do these pictures when Tom is otherwise occupied....

You'd think I'd  have been on alert after that one, but...slow learner, apparently. And now you get to see some outakes that should never see the light of day, but Tom was so pleased with his photobombing skills, that he insisted I share. I had no idea he was there...

 

Until he busted up laughing and revealed himself... Weirdo.

Music, Lately

"Lately" is kind of generous, but we've been to some fun concerts in the past few months, and I want a record to prove to Baby Boy Shackmano that we were cool, fun people before he came along. I mean, I assume that we will continue to be cool, fun people after he's here, but just in case...

Billy Joel at the Hollywood Bowl - I'm not sure that attendance at a Billy Joel concert really supports my claim that we are fun, cool people, but whatever.

 

Wynonna at The Annenberg - again, perhaps not the hippest artist, but free, outdoor concerts are always a good time. Also - I can't lie, The Judds' Greatest Hits album is my jam.

Jay-Z and Beyonce's On The Run tour - ok, I should get some points for this one. Thanks to the fact that Jay-Z's musical director is a Korg artist, Tom was able to get us passes to the On the Run show at the Rose Bowl. This was a spectacle like I have never seen before. 

I never get that worked up about going to shows, but this was pretty awesome. We had all-access wristbands, so we hung out backstage (and on stage!) beforehand, and then watched the show from the floor and side stage. If I weren't afraid of The Beygency, I might have tried to find Queen B's wig room... Forgive the amount of pictures I'm about to drop in here - I was really excited about this one.

 

 

 

 

 

 No Doubt - thanks again to Tom's connections, we got to go to the "friends and family" dress rehearsal for No Doubt's performance at the Global Citizen Festival in New York. The dress rehearsal was at The Forum, and because Tom is the coolest, we also had Forum Club passes where we got to enjoy snacks that included a cake with pictures of the band members on it.

{You will have to take my word for it that that is Gwen Stefani. You should also know that she seems to be aging backwards. Don't Speak!}

Jamestown Revival at Way Over Yonder - if you have not already had the pleasure, go buy this album now. So good. Perfect music for a fall Saturday on the pier in Santa Monica...

 

I shall leave you with this barely discernible photo of Gwynth Paltrow, GOOP herself, on stage with Holly Williams who was opening for Jason Isbell at The Roxy.

LA is weird.

18 Weeks

Dear Baby To Be (Hopefully) Named Later,
As soon as we found out that you were on your way, your dad instituted Wicket as a placeholder for whatever your real name turns out to be, but I can't bring myself to address you as that. I mean, as far as characters from Star Wars go, ewoks were pretty cute, and I think Wicket was the head ewok (maybe?), so there's that, but still... And, actually, I just now went to look for a picture of Wicket, and...not that cute.

Kind of terrifying, in fact. In any event...last week was a big one.

We found out with 100% certainty that you are a boy! Between that and the fact that my belly has really started to pop out, you are becoming more and more real to us every day. Now if we could just agree on an actual name for you... In fact, if you have any thoughts on that matter, I'd really appreciate it if you could send me some sort of trans-placenta mail. That would be incredibly helpful.

I await your input.

Love, 
Me