Confession: I LOVE Halloween. Love it. I’d like to share with you what I’m sure will be the first of several costumes. I wore this one tonight (Friday night), to the Halloween a capella concert and the afterparty. I was dressed as zombie Marina Abromavic, or Marina Azombavic, if you will. Art history puns are perhaps the only thing I feel naturally talented at. Everything else has come through arduous labor and probably after a lot of time lying on the floor of the Lusty Cup complaining loudly to the longsuffering and supportive patrons of said Cup.

Other than going to the a capella concert, I also went to the Self-Love Open Mic hosted by the Body Image Council and co-sponsored by Fem-Co and Sisterhood. I’ve been trying to do things every day that scare me a little bit, respecting my boundaries while pushing to expand my comfort zone. In the spirit of this effort, I read a poem at the open mic that I’d like to share here:

The Things I Carried

for three days during which i did not shower

i carried a rose petal in my ill-fitting Target brassiere

the rose was significant, i had thought, i can’t tell you why now

for a full minute i carried a cherry pit

wedged between my left breast and my underwire

i spent this minute digging through flesh, blushing,

wishing that cherry pit hadn’t been so slippery

i carried a seething mass of expanding and shrinking flesh,

infected like a tiny planet

carried it in my face for a full year until

a man replaced it with dead gold

every day i carry tube after tube of

fire and ice

cherries in the snow

siren

and i carry it alone

Fall Break is amazing so far. Often I feel like I build up my breaks and vacations and I end up being disappointed by them because my expectations are unrealistic, but somehow this one is hitting all the right notes. I’m managing to achieve all my goals so far, which have included:

– a road trip to Montreal with my wonderful friend Isabel (projected to include poutine, art, and blasting girl power tunes on the drive)

– a night on the way back at a cabin belonging to a family friend of Isabel’s in the mountains of Vermont

– extreme makeover: dorm room edition, because I am extremely messy and my room has not been entirely habitable lately

– a good healthy Call the Midwife marathon

– a weekend in Pittsburgh to enjoy PowerShift, a youth activist conference of epic scale, hopefully with a few art breaks incorporated

and, a very important goal I try to maintain during spring and fall break:

– no homework allowed (boundaries, breaks, and self-care are important!)

I ship out to Pittsburgh in the morning, but other than that I’ve hit all my other goals:

My Midwife marathoning has been more than satisfactory (season 2 is finally on Netflix) and has been especially fruitful on the bed that I made extra cozy with fresh clean sheets, another comforter, and an extra layer of foam over the mattress. Honestly, sometimes all I want is to be a nun who delivers babies.

Three long suffering friends took breaks from their thesising to come by and take shifts keeping me company, eating cold pizza, sitting on my extra cozy bed and providing good conversation that got me through my extensive tidying.

I am secretly yearning to look over readings for my Native Studies course again, but I’ve reserved Sunday afternoon to start gearing up for the week of work. Other than that, I’m quite successful in my commitment to really take a break.

The drive through Vermont was really wonderful. I absolutely adore any chance to drive somewhere beautiful, and the autumn leaves in the mountains were truly breathtaking. We listened to Tina Fey’s Bossypants, which translates beautifully to audiobook.

As for Montreal, I believe a picture says 1,000 words.