The Arrival of Fall (and Wendy) to Wisconsin

You know it's fall in Wisconsin when all of the Hortons begin getting excited about the Gaysmills Apple Festival. This year was different in that Arlo and I were among them. We all met up on the first day in the small town you see in the beginning of the blog. There the kids had fun on carnival rides, we all ate a so-so lunch and then looked at the local arts and crafts wares for sale. I don't know about you, but I can just NEVER have too many kitchen towels with Packer logos on them! From there, we went to the flea market, which was HUGE, and wandered through isles and isles of stuff. Arlo and I found an axe, which made Arlo very happy as he can now chop stuff for our fire pit, and for the rest of the day, he kept pointing stuff out that he could chop, if I wanted him to. I declined, as I would think that the vendors wouldn't like it if he chopped up their vintage baby cradles. As the kids grew sleepier, crankier, and louder, we knew it was time to wrap it up and get to the important part of Apple Festival- The Apples!! So, we headed to Arlo's favorite orchard and (to my dismay) we didn't have to pick the apples, they were all ready for us in huge bags. We left with not just one bag of apples, but three. This is very different from my usual 5-6 apples when I go to the grocery store, one for each day, bit. I'm immediately thinking of all of the things I should do to "use up" these apples before they go bad, pies, apple sauce, more pies. Funny enough, I tend to just keep doing what I have been doing all along, one apple a day. Suddenly, three bags don't seem to be an absurd idea. We ended the weekend with a pancake breakfast held in the town church. It was delicious, but some of us (Arlo) couldn't use self-restraint and ended up with a stomachache. Oh, yeah, and to explain the picture of the goat, on the way out of town we stopped at Peck's, a produce place that has a petting zoo out back with goats, potbellied pigs, a camel, a miniature horse, ducks, etc. As you can imagine, this was one of my favorite parts of the entire trip.

Since then, October has started, our fall shows are in full swing, including Pushing Daisies, How I Met Your Mother, and Arlo's recent find, which you should check out if you have BBC, Gavin and Stacey. We have had some really fun times, including when Arlo made me a super awesome suprise dinner of crab legs, asparagus, and corn on the cob. It was delicious! As you can see, I am enjoying it! We have also been having some fun dates, like going out for mini-bowling at Koz's, a local bar, playing trivia at Nomad, another bar, and checking out the local scene at Robert's, up the street from us. I haven't been keeping track of my Live Music Tally, but we went to see some live music too, Cory Chisel and the Traveling Sons (I think that's the name anyway). Cool band. For more detail than that, check out Arlo's blog.

So, other than that, what else? Hmmm...there was my VISIT FROM WENDY!!! Wendy came and stayed with us on her way to Seattle this past weekend and it was AWESOME! It was so great to have someone her who knows me and has been my friend for quite some time. After picking her up at the airport it seemed like she's been here the whole time, we just picked right up. We spent the weekend doing what we did best as friends, talking (a lot), crafting, watching tv, eating, thrift shopping, and drinking wine. In addition, we did two things that we haven't done in the past- sing kareoke and search for a bronz statue of The Fonz from Happy Days. Both were successful endeavors. The singing took place at Robert's. We originally went there to see the Neill Diamond impersonator (don't judge, it's our local bar!), but they were doing kareoke instead, for Sweetest Day (like Valentine's Day, don't ask). As I have always wanted to try it and never had the courage, and Wendy was feeling the same way, we decided that now would be the perfect time, as there were about 10 people in the bar, including us, and the average age was 51. I sang Copacobana, and Wendy did Blister in the Sun. Both were huge hits! It was a wonderful weekend, but it had to come to an end. I dropped Wendy off at the airport at the butt-crack of dawn on Monday morning and then headed back to bed, sleepy and sad after the send-off. Now, it's back to the job search, waiting tables, and perhaps a renewed quest for a new female friend. Not that Arlo doesn't make a fabulous boyfriend and friend, but no one can be someone's everything. Wow, that was a mouthful. Alright, need to be going. Time to exercise and do all of the other things on my list of things that need to get done today. Oh, before I go though, one more thing. Marley's been doing some strange things lately and we are wondering if he's having an identity crisis after living in a house with two cats. Is this weird? Peace out to Bill (and everyone else).

Tired Jen

This is tired Jen. She's home alone, it's 10:18, and all she wants to do is crawl into bed and sleep. However, as it's been a long time since last posting, and since I recently took Marley out of his room and it would be cruel to put him back so soon, I decided to stay up, post, think about what I can possibly say in the job interview tomorrow, and then scoop cat litter, brush teeth and hit the hay. Arlo's bartending right now. He got a job in Racine at one of the bars he's been going to with his dad since he was a wee tot. I think, as tonight is Wednesday night, he should be listening to live music right now, and I'm sure he's probably happy about that. Excuse me. I just had to go play intermediary between cat and dog. Right now, we exist within a complex system of individual bedrooms and baby-gates, all intended to keep the animals from harming each other. I just completed a routine intended for behavior modification, called "When I See Him, I Get Treats!" While the animals stare each other down from either side of the baby-gates, I throw treats to each, praising each for not hissing, whining, or barking. It's quite amusing, and so far seems to be working. The other night Sidd went Kamikazi, jumping over the gate, but Marley was on the chair, and by the time he noticed, I had his leash. For the next hour, Marley slept on the one side of the gate, and Sidd stared at him from the other.
I do realize that sharing all of this animal information makes me sound A.)like there's nothing else going on right now and B.) like the kind of woman who talks about her pets like they're her kids. These statements are indeed partially true, no doubt, but a bigger reason for all of this is that I'm freakin exhausted, not thinking straight, and my mind is drawing a blank. So, let's get organized, shall we? What's been happening since last we spoke?
1. Arlo and I have been to one movie and one concert. Movie, Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist, Concert, Ray Lamontagne. Guess which I liked more. For those of you who guessed movie, you're WRONG! The movie was good, it was cute, sweet, and everything I love about a good chick-flick rom-com. 'Cause that's definitely what it was, despite having funny lines from Michael Cera and cool music. Definitely still a chick flick. It's funny, it makes me realize that I'm getting older, as rom-coms are now appearing with seemingly younger and younger casts. Weird. Anyway, the other event was the Ray Lamontagne concert http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddX1FOD1Yx4&feature=related. For those of you not familiar, he's a fantastic singer/song-writer/hetero-sensitivo with a gorgeous voice, who looks surprisingly like a combo of Zach Galifianakis, Iron and Wine, and some woodsy forest ranger. BTW, check out Zach here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JeUTEtP1lE&feature=related, he's a hilarious comedian, and he looks a lot like Ray Lamontagne. Anyway, it was a stirring, beautiful concert, and it made me jealous of his kids/future kids to have a dad who could sign the pants off any lullaby. Damn.
2. I have been working steadily at my new job at Louise's Trattoria. It's not exactly steady pay, however, as I am finding mostly famine with a couple of feasts. The people who work there are cool, however, and I'm enjoying trying to remember all of the Spanish I learned in high-school (as the cooks are mostly Latino).
3. I have been hired as a substitute teacher. This is another temporary job as I am continuing to look for gainful employment as a social worker. No dice on that, though there's an interview tomorrow, so we'll see what happens. I haven't done any gigs as a teacher yet, but I do have an orientation Friday morning, so let's see what happens next week. Who'd thunk that I would be back in the classroom after all of these years?!?! I feel like I'm repeating the last 10 years of my life, waiting tables, then teaching.
4. I've created a compost bin and started composting. Believe it or not, this is very exciting to me. It feels really good to be able to recycle even more of our waste. I don't have much in there yet, but it's a start!
5. Not really about me, but I wanted to share and to invite everyone on my list to go and check it out- Arlo started a blog!!! http://arlosbloggitybloggyblog-blog.blogspot.com/ It's meant as a more interactive blog about all aspects of pop culture, music, movies, television, etc. Give it a go. I have to say it's way funnier and more clever than mine, with less animal adventure stories, so you will probably enjoy it.

Alright I'm out. I really want to get a good night's sleep tonight so I can get up butt early and get ready for the interview/interrogation (depending on how you see it.)

Miss my peeps on the East Coast. Keepin' it real, yo.