As I write this blog post on Monday afternoon, I’ve got my eye on the gulf. There’s a tropical depression trying to get its act together before it runs into the Texas coastline. While it’ll mostly be a non-starter here in Austin, I’m hoping we get some rain from it just to cool us down.
I shouldn’t complain because it’s been a nice summer, temperature wise, until we got to August and then Mother Nature decided to cram all the 100° days into one month. I hope at some point this month, we do get that first cold front of the year. Most years it doesn’t happen until October, but I’m crossing my fingers.
Most years in September, I have my last day at the pool, usually the weekend after Labor Day, while I could go later, as it gets darker earlier, it’s not worth it. But I’ve missed a lot of pool time this year, including all of August and I think that’s adding to my depression that I’ve carried all year. It’s too hot to do anything but go to the pool and even then, some days it’s been too hot for that.
So, I’m ready for fall. Ready for it to be nice outside. Ready for all the things that are warm and cozy but the crips in the air. But with that, I’m also hoping for a rest at least for the end of the year. It’s been such a shitty year in so many ways, and I really need a quarter to go well for me before we go to January. A lot of this is because of my day job, which is not a good fit for me but you can’t just quit your job in this economy, am I right?
I’ve got four months until the new year and I’m just going to focus on taking care of myself the best I can, physically, mentally, and creatively. All of those go together and when one is out of balance, especially the mental or creative selves, everything is out of balance. How I get it back into balance?
The hell if I know, but we’re going to start slow - or not slow - but focus on the things that do fill me up (or replenish me, if you will).
September Goals
Writing Goals
brainstorm and outline And She Hunts. I took a step back from my draft in mid-August, just feeling like I had no good grasp on the story, so we’re starting over.
Build out pages in Capacities for the book series - a reference page for And She Runs, character pages, and a page of links for quick access.
Reading Goals
read 12 books, or at least 10. I’ll share more about later this week, including what’s on my reading list
Update my Storygraph account for the year
order my 2027 reading planner
catch up on book reviews
Life Goals
decorate for fall
take a photo a day to document the good memories
quarterly planning week for Q4
Add some car information into Capacities - like the last time I replaced my car battery (which was last week)
Move my body every day
Apply for more jobs
One last pool day?
What I’m not going to do this month is spend hours and hours playing Stardew Valley. I’ll still play it, but the last two weeks, I have pretty much worked and played Stardew Valley. September is all about balance and that means balance in that, too.