notes & things | 10/27/2026

As Octobers usually are, it's been a couple busy weeks, including a trip to Michigan for a wedding J was working and a mini-retreat for me. We wound up staying a couple days in this charming little vintage-ey cabin style motel, which while it lacked amenities like an ice machine, touched all points on woodland charm. It was like stepping back into the 1950s.  Not to mention the colors in Michigan were far richer and more advanced than we've yet seen here. This past weekend was another fun throwback with another trip to the drive-in out in McHenry for a horror triple feature (Nightmare, Friday the 13th, and Texas Chainsaw.) We also managed to make our way through the new Crystal Lake series in about two days while up in Michigan.  

I've been outlining and drafting something new, a script culled by my habits of late, which include listening to Lana del Rey on repeat and anxiously watching social media videos of beachfront homes falling into the surf. It's a ghost story where the set is slowly falling into the ocean during the course of the play.  The project has also involved research on midcentury Long Beach, Hollywood, and California ghost lore, so that's been fun to delve into. As soon as I have a solid draft on that, I plan to move into something else, though there are three new things knocking around my head, so we will see where they land.  Our movie nights have also been hopping, including an advance screening of Breeder last night and a premier at Facets of an indie witchy comedy film, Strega Nonna, that my mother-in-law made the spooky book for. We also saw the hilariousness that is Wicker. Apparently, yes indeed, usually when given the option between a human male and a basket from Home Goods, the basket is the better option. 

October always feels like a month that is perfect and perfectly fleeting. In a week, the trees will be nearly bare and we'll be on to November, always a treacherous month for me, full of barbs and ghosts.  Some of the best things in my life have happened in November, alongside some of the worst. I don't quite know where to dial in and the state of the world now hardly makes it easier. Perhaps I need a new creative project to keep my eyes on lest the monsters get me.

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