All Hallow's Eve

October comes to a close with rain and sinus congestion. I've spent this past week battling a sore throat/cough/runny nose, and unfortunately I'm still dressing up as "Under the Weather" today. This is the cold that won't end, unlike this month and Daylight Savings Time, which are both just about finished. I don't particularly like October--my tan fades, seasonal allergies lurk everywhere, and it's just not summer anymore--but I do like scary movies, candy, seasonal foods like squash and pumpkin, and sweaters. This month's How to be Happy wasn't bad either:

1. Contribute to your favorite cause. My favorite cause is food. My contribution is researching food vendors, trying to stay local, and avoiding processed food-like things. Also eating.
2. Spend a prolonged period of time with someone while doing different things. Most weekends I can be found watching football/reading while Brit does homework/works out and Jesus plays video games/reads Internet articles.
3. Have a conversation with a foreigner. I'm sure this happens more often than I know.
4. Spend the night in a hotel where you live. I would love a stay-cation some day.
5. Role-play characters with someone. Don't we all play characters every day?
6. Start planning someone else's birthday. There are so many birthdays in October!
7. Follow a common stock. When should I start investing in the stock market? Am I old enough yet? Can I buy stock in ice cream?
8. Come up with a business idea. Edible pillows.
9. Watch a sporting event on TV on mute. We like to keep the volume low on football games we don't care about, then immediately fall asleep for the next three hours. 
10. Take a picture of the same tree for three weeks. I dropped the ball on this one. I have noticed that our neighbor's tree has grown considerably in the past two years, though. Its branches now curl up and rest on our porch. We get so many squirrels out there.
11. Fast for a day. I did this on Monday. I didn't plan it, I just had no appetite and felt like I might puke up anything I ate. I ate broth for dinner and NyQuil for dessert.
12. Think of the world as a global village. I have, though not recently.
13. Memorize a poem. I have...though not recently. What I have done recently is start writing down poems I enjoy into one journal. I've found that writing poems out by hand helps me think about wording and line breaks in a new way.
14. Play the trust game. I don't know what this is. Trust falls? I'm not a fan.
15. Conduct a spirited piece of music in your living room. Most recently I conducted Justin Timberlake's The 20/20 Experience, 2 of 2. As in the entire CD. Guilty pleasure.
16. Don't wear your glasses/contacts. I can do this for about two minutes before I a) get a headache, or b) walk into something.
17. Attend a talk on a topic of interest. I'm going to a storytelling thing next week!
18. Put away everything you use today. This is essentially my job: put things away. Usually it's not things I've used, but picking up after teenagers.
19. Go dancing. Check. Did this at a wedding a few weeks ago. Also check: laugh at other (old) people dancing.
20. Walk through fallen leaves. The leaves only just started falling, and now they're wet clumpy piles in the gutter.
21. Start an aquarium. Something like this perhaps?
22. Eat leftovers. Every day.
23. Babysit. Nearly every day.
24. Write down significant life moments. Ideally every day.
25. Practice hand-eye coordination. Does dreaming that I was a tennis player count? That happened last night.
26. Give someone a back scratch/rub. You scratch mine, I'll scratch yours.
27. Throw a food-tasting party. Do you mean DINNER, aka all events I've hosted?
28. Take a different route to work. I've played around a bit with my bike route, but I think I found the most efficient way. Of course, I have different routes depending on my after-work activities (library, bank, grocery store, Target).
29. Donate blood. The last time I tried, my iron was too low. :( I was also unemployed and in need of things to make me feel like a productive citizen.
30. Visualize yourself being more creative. I do/am.
31. Dress up as a character. Today I look kinda like this.