This may have been my most adult Halloween.

If adult Halloween means not dressing up, and wearing glasses and pajamas, and passing out candy to tiny trick-or-treaters ringing the doorbell of my suburban home.

At least I had this little lion man to keep me company for part of the night.

Happy thoughts.

(from the last week alone)

• a friend who gifts plane tickets for a (very) early birthday present.
• direct West to East Coast flights.
• DC in the fall.
• the best bed.
• the best sleeping imaginable in said bed.
• little East Coast houses.
• late night talks with Nate including the phrase, "... will help cultivate your Russian soul."
• banana oatmeal cookies.
• ordering exactly the right thing at dinner.
• five year friendship reunions.
• eating pie in bookshop cafes.
• a red tree that was green the day before.
• dresses with pockets.
• hugging Lauren Richey in church parking lots.
• long drives through fall foliage.
• passing the Potomac.
• picnics in parks.
• watching planes fly overhead with Daniel and Brei.
• (everything concerning Daniel and Brei.)
• reading children's books out loud.
• Sunday dinner with Chris and Becca.
• hearing their three year old speak French.
• late night talks with Kristina.
• H picking me up from LAX.  
• being welcomed West with a Persian feast at P's grandma.
• kisses from that grandma.
• a lovely, surprise package from one K.W.
• and so forth.

2010 Halloween Costume Ideas

French existentialist/cliche poet?
Princess Leia
Cowgirl
Cleopatra
Sailor
Amelia Earhart

W-A-S-H-I-N-G-T-O-N, baby, D.C.

Washington, D.C., it's paradise to me

It's not the greenery turning gold in fall

The scenery circling the mall

It's just that's where Kristina lives, that's all

This time tomorrow, I will be there. Hallelujah.

The beauty of the rain is how it falls.

How it falls, how it falls.

Pumpkin Brewster.

I like Sunday nights in October with P. (Her's is on the left. Mine on the right.)

A movie script ending.

Hyrum advised me not to say/fbook/blog too much about it, for fear of jinxing future possibilities, but I will say this: the best screenwriters in the world could not have written a better day for me if they had sat around and asked, "How could we give Rachel Hunt the most awesome day imaginable?"

It was that good.

"and... he was a beautiful butterfly!"

There are few things more beautiful to me than hearing a mother read to her child. I had that privilege quite often when I lived with Lia and Eden, and now have it again with Pegah and Henry. It is precious.

Books that were read to me as a child:

• The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Carle
• There is a Monster at the End of This Book, Stone, Smallin
• Goodnight Moon, Wise Brown
• Where the Wild Things Are, Sendak
• Pierre: A cautionary tale in five chapters and a prologue, Sendak
• Chicken Soup With Rice: a book of months, Sendak
• Mrs. Wishy Washy, Cowley, Fuller
• Amelia Bedelia books, Parish
• The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush, DePaola
• The Polar Express, Van Allsburg
• I Love You Forever, Munsch, McGraw
• Green Eggs and Ham, Seuss
• The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, Seuss
• If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, Joffe Numeroff, Bond
• Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, Barrett, Barrett
• Miss Nelson is Missing, Allard, Marshall
• Paddington Bear, Bond
• More.

Books that I want to read to my children (in addition to the ones read to me):

• The Little Prince, Saint Exupery
• How Hungry Are you?, Napoli
• Harold and the Purple Crayon, Johnson
• Hope For the Flowers, Paulus
• You Are Special, Lucado
• The Three Questions, Muth
• Love That Dog, Creech.
• I Like You, Chwast
• Dear World, Noda.
• Click Clack Moo, Cronin
• Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, Willems
• Fancy Nancy books, O'Connor, Preiss Glasser
• Flotsam,Wiesner
• Winnie The Pooh, Milne
• House at Pooh Corner, Milne
• Spoon, Krouse Rosenthal, Magoon
• Alice the Fairy, Shannon
• More.

What books am I missing?

Obsessions.

From the last week alone: Mumford and Sons, The Tallest Man on Earth, the little prince song I posted below, Gabe and Sonya's current musical project, Simply brand juices, particularly orange, checking my temperature, rereading things I have written, writing, unsubscribing to email lists, sleeping.

Le Petit Prince.

In learning my love for The Little Prince, a new friend sent me this video, which he helped make years ago. The song's lyrics are about the prince whose home was on a planet, scarcely as large as a house, and a fox he made for a friend. It is sincerely darling, and I enjoyed watching it immensely.



While there are several lines I like, including, "You could count the flowers here, we've got no time for drinking beer," and, "Like a fox outside the sand, I tame your heart with a quiet hand," I think my favorite line comes from the chorus, "I won't forget to remember I know you," which I imagine is inspired from a line in the book: "It is a sad thing to forget a friend."

The fox is also very beautiful.

Still sick.

+ Hyrum to me this morning, "You sound terrible. I love you, but you sound terrible."

+ Earlier this week to his boss, "My sister looks like she is going to die," which also is to say "terrible," and it was true.

+ My head feels like it weighs one hundred pounds.

+ Each time I try to stand up I feel like I'm going to fall down.

+ I don't have the energy to do even normal things.

+ I just ate chicken for the first time in two years, because it was there, and I was hungry, and couldn't bother making anything.

+ I am out of juice.

+ I was out of kleenex.

+ When I sneeze blood comes out.

When it is October,

I want it to be November.

Not because I am tired of pizza, but because my mom will be here, and baby Jagger will be here.

Today P. had her shower. It was lovely.

Pizza Month: the most wonderful time of year.

As spoken by Mrs. Elizabeth Bevington-Seawright, and as agreed to by me.

For the third year in a row, October will find me eating pizza every day (or nearly every day), as per a combination of National Pizza Month and friend traditions (however East to West coast spread those friendships may be).

First pizza was CPK in Palo Alto with the Gallaghers. Second pizza was at a cheap, nondescript hole near Abby's San Francisco abode. Third pizza was sadly nonexistent as it was Sunday and I was a. unprepared and b. on the road for a majority of the day/night. Fourth, fifth, and sixth pizzas were homemade in Rich family fashion: fresh mozzarella, fresh basil, spinach, tomatos, sauteed onions and garlic, oregeno, already prepared dough, etc. When in line at Trader Joe's purchasing said items, the cashier smiled and asked, "Pizza night?" to which I smiled and answered, "Pizza month." He laughed, but I wasn't joking.

Seventh pizza will likely be from one of the places recommended to me by a new friend, by way of this list:

Happy Pizza!!

On relationship endings.

I am not fond of them. This is true concerning any relationship. Not merely romantic ones.

What I am least fond of is the stark contrast in communication lines—when you go from seeing someone every day, talking to someone every day, to nothing, to silence. You still know things about the other person's life, that are about to happen. You still wonder. You still care. Yet almost aren't allowed to somehow.

Did he get the job he interviewed for? The one you drove him to? Maybe you won't ever find out. So instead you lay in bed watching his favorite movie, and reading the novel he wrote, that has previously been sitting in your inbox, barely opened.

This was me, pretty much all day today.

Chug. Chug. Chug.

(Please sickness, please go away.)

Top 5 movies I have watched recently, that I should have already watched.

1. High Fidelity
2. About a Boy
3. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
4. Rushmore
5. Bottle Rocket

On conference week(end).

It was a strange week. And an adventurous one.

I left my Valencia home Wednesday morning to travel north on I-5—first to Oakland, then to Palo Alto, with trips to San Francisco spread throughout. There were moments (including whole days) that were not quite what I expected them to be, or hoped they could be, but then there were other, subsequent moments (and days), that were more beautiful and inspiring than anything I could have constructed.

In Oakland I watched the movie Hook and played four square in parking lots. In Palo Alto Meg's little brother fed me pizza, and pie, and macaroons, and her mom hugged me and said, "I am happy to see you, whatever the reason." The next day we made guacamole.

I also went to the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival with Ash and Emma, which festival was freezing, but filled with free, beautiful music—including my love Conor Oberst and Gillian Welch—and throngs of equally beautiful concert goers. That evening was pizza, Abby, The Social Network, running into a friend I've had since I was 17, and hanging out at his apartment afterward to say hi to his new roommate, Ruel, whom I also know (though from a different time period).

Sunday morning was conference, brunch with nearly a hundred Stanford kids, and hugs adieu before heading back home. I am mighty glad to be here.

I found myself in San Fran.

I've got nothing to say.