I’m struggling to remember where I last left off … I think the day before a 40th birthday celebration with paint-and-sip, a bookstore, a vintage candy shop, and a German beer hall where I had three entire sips of beer + some potato pancakes. Philadelphia doth provide!
And hey, the Philly Inquirer says we are the most fashionable!
Then, over the next four weeks, I attended two weddings (and was in one of them), and a Bachelorette weekend (which I did some planning for).
It was a social season, with a level of busyness I had not experienced since I gave birth.
First adventure: Family wedding in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It was baby’s first road trip, first time sleeping outside our own house overnight, and first time eating food that we didn’t puree for him at home.
September birthday picnic at Laurel Hill East for a poet friend:
I took pride in designing a Bach Weekend in Deep South Jersey, culminating in a movie at NJ’s last drive-in movie theater.
Some people get it: the vintage feeling of the drive-in, the social aspect of chatting with friends in your car while the movie plays. We were celebrating a friend who was once in a local cast of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, and dressed up to reenact the same beloved campy film every Friday night.
And sometimes people told us we were nuts for celebrating the bachelorette in Vineland, NJ. Ah well.
September ended and it was time for my dear friend’s wedding! Nate had my phone for 100% of the ceremony and 95% of the reception so sadly, my pics don’t do it justice. But it was a special night that will always make me smile to remember. Playing arcade games in my yellow suit RULED.
All around us, fall arrived! I tried to observe it:
Proud of this wreath, made of pieces of the crummiest Goodwill wreath I could find and some dried out corn from my very own garden, two summers ago:
Work gardens continued to bloom: the one at the office, and two at community centers:
Since I last posted, my little one started walking and talking. He loves pictures of other babies, on the diaper box, on baby yogurt containers. Everywhere!
Halloween has always been my favorite holiday … this year it fell within a wave of daycare illness passed between my baby, my spouse, myself, and both sets of grands. We did the best we could.
Is it weird that I take photos of other people’s houses? I’m obsessed with the scenes staged by my neighbors. Pics are taken with the deepest admiration!
Accidentally discovered Croft Farm on a family walk in the autumn air. We will be back lots!
Also a blur: Work trip to Baltimore. I lost half the trip because I was sick with Daycare Plague. But I rallied and I am proud of our team’s roundtable presentation.
Then I was in Baltimore with time to kill before my train home. Went to the Museum of Art and walked Johns Hopkins campus.
Equally as majestic: first hoagie since surgery.
I’m still cooking seasonally, and low-fat, for the most part. This is the first year I did the Fall CSA option with the farm and it has been wonderful.
But yeah the farmers market sells these too. I had a single bite. WOW.
And, OK, I tried Dubai Chocolate and it is incredible. I can only eat a limited amount but WOW.
And I think you should take a walk through Mullica Hill with your bestie on a sunny October day. 10/10 stars.
Took a quick stroll with baby through the Collingswood Book Fest:
In writing news: Made another pilgrimage to Valley Forge, PA, where a scene in my novel is set. Finished the most recent rewrite, too.
There it is: Two months of life, but it feels like a lot more life squeezed in there.
Laura Eppinger 