MONTHLY WRAP-UP: OCTOBER

surprisingly, this is not about halloween

my oh my october has flown by! when i bought my plane tickets for thanksgiving, the holiday felt so far away, and now i’m prepping for my time off. yikes.

i love making these monthly wrap-up posts because even when the time seems to fly by, i am lucky enough to have amazing experiences which stand out to me every month. october was a whirlwind. first, i traveled to scottsdale with adam and my family for a wedding. the following weekend i took a few days off to bounce around dc with my best friends. in the remaining weeks that i spent in denver, adam and i placed the finishing touches on our house and soaked in some much-needed quality time together.

here are some of my standout moments from october:

• cole and katherine picked me up from the airport and welcomed me with this beautiful handcrafted sign. i cried immediately.

  

  it is now being displayed on my fridge

• i went to meow wolf for the first time with my family. if you don’t know, meow wolf is an interactive art exhibit/museum and each location has a different theme. in denver, the theme is convergence station, and it theorizes that four alien worlds converged in a rare cosmic event and denver is the gateway point. the museum offers an opportunity to really flex your imagination. there were close to one hundred rooms, all with unique, alien decorations, neon lights, and a specific purpose. my favorite room was the library, which housed memories of the convergence as well as ancient myths (leave it to me to obsess over the lore). in the three hours that i spent lost in what felt like an endless maze, i reconnected with my childlike wonder. entering the real world again was a shock, but definitely made the $45 admission worth it.

  

  

  i get why people do shrooms here now

• my bestie cole gifted me these beautiful dangly larimar earrings from the dominican republic, where she has lived since her peace corps service began in 2023. for a bit of context, i’m a big crystal girl. i have been since i was in high school when my mom began growing her own collection. in the summer after my senior year of high school, i was sexually assaulted in the dominican republic (i promise my mention of this has a point). ever since that experience, i’ve been on the hunt for authentic larimar, a stone associated with the throat chakra that is sourced exclusively from the dominican. long story short, i never found any within my price point and i gave up on my hunt after a few years. i had all but forgotten about the stone when i received cole’s package in the mail. i am once again in awe of the universe’s perfect timing.

• my little brother max had a sleepover at our place (on the famous daybed) and the next morning he and i walked around sloan’s lake and ate a delicious lunch of poke bowls and ramen. it was a gorgeous fall day, with many crunchy leaves to step on and beautiful colors to soak in.

  

  obsessed with our street

• my dad taught adam and i how to make his famous brisket, and matzo ball soup. he also stocked our freezer so i feel really prepared for the winter blues.

• the four days we spent in scottsdale were hot as hell but also soooo relaxing. i did nothing but eat good food, drink my weight in pineapple high noons, read by the pool, and giggle with my family.

• a ladybug landed on adam during the wedding ceremony.

• adam and i drove out to nederland (a tiny mountain town roughly an hour outside of denver) for the afternoon where we waited out the rain in a crystal shop and cafe. we sipped espresso and snacked on a delicious pumpkin cheesecake bar while we watched the rain fall on the ground. at the shop, i bought three rings: a jade ring and carnelian ring for myself and a titanium ring for adam.

  

  is there anything better than a yummy treat with a mountain view?

• while on my annual dc trip, i smothered my friend’s cats with affection, which they hated but i loved.

  

  

  how to piss off zuko the cat: a series in four parts

• i became besties with the girl who gave me a mani-pedi after i absolutely butchered painting my toenails because the bottle of polish got really clumpy in the arizona heat (shoutout brie).

• i finally got tsa pre check so i don’t need to be abandoned in the general security line on our next family outing.

• we ate in-n-out on the back of the car before our meow wolf experience.

  

  rip to this car which was stolen from our street literally this morning lol

• the barista at the capital one cafe remembered my name.

• i wore my favorite shirt to a nice italian dinner and ate the most amazing truffle mushroom pasta.

  

  tell me i'm cute or else

• i voted!!!

• i renewed my health insurance (big girl shit)

• i figured out how to wire thousands of dollars internationally to the manufacturers of my journals (and decided that there is no reason why canada should be considered international because it’s literally right there??)

i hope you enjoyed this monthly wrap-up, and if you didn’t, i hope it at least distracted you from the fact that we’re going to have a new president like really soon and that could either be the best or the worst thing ever!! okay i love you!! here’s the november collage!!

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xx,

rachel