October has been knockout lovely, which is super because it's otherwise been a bit of a rollercoaster. I've been down in Boxboro this weekend hanging out with my Mom who is home, but not supposed to drive or get in a car for the next month or so. Hanging out with her coincided nicely with my strong need to get/stay out of the house, so it was an extra good time: going for walks, taking insect pictures, eating all the food people brought over, sleeping til 10, running errands, feeling useful. My favorite part was staying out on the porch after everyone else had gone to sleep -- my princess-and-the-pea need to be the last person awake is part of my current troubles -- and listen to the acorns slowly drop off of the trees and bump bump bump down to the ground.

I've made some deals with myself to make sure that all my couch surfing and guestroom hopping doesn't detatch me entirely from my nice little life in Vermont. The specific problem, which I may not have mentioned, is this. There is a new roommate at the house who is going to help with bills once Ola joins the Peace Corps. He's nice, tidy and a little noisy having never lived in the country before. Once Ola leaves (before Thanksgiving is the current date) it will be the two of us. For now, it's the three of us -- one early riser (5 am) one late-to-bed-er (1 am) and one person who has a very hard time sleeping when other people are awake, especially in stressful times like these. I also do a lot of my work from home and the adjustments are a little hard to make. I'd rather be someplace that is guaranteed quiet at night rather than have ongoing conversations/discussions/talks/arguments about how much noise is too much noise and how can I possibly be kept awake by such tiny noises. I don't like being a light sleeper, but the times at which it's a problem are the worst possible times to work on it.

So, the wealth of guestrooms I've been staying in -- nice and quiet all of them -- has really given me the downtime I need to deal with all the other new and not-as-new stuff going on in my life lately. My deals are to swim whenever I'm near the pool, to try to keep the eating regimen pretty on track, to change out of PJs before noon and to not write any of my talks last minute. Starting in the end of October, I'll be on the road for work more than I'll be home and it may be just superstition, but I think that overplanning for some of this can't hurt.