In My Fall Feelings

Plus this week's music picks!

A few weeks ago, I was complaining about how it still felt like summer and I just wanted fall to be here. And now it’s finally here! I’m so excited by the little things like being able to enjoy a warm beverage without feeling like I’m burning up.

But I also forget there are things I don’t like, mainly allergies and the sun being out less and less, resulting in me wanting nothing more than to sit on my couch and consume an entire bag of chips.

This year, I thought maybe I wouldn’t feel this way since I started taking megadoses of vitamin D — and suffering some weird side effects as a result.

But alas, I had no such luck and this first week of fall was actually kind of rough for me. I felt tired most days, even after getting better sleep since we got an auto-feeder for our sweet kitty Juno.

The only thing that really helped me keep going was my weekly workout routines that kept me more alert — that and having to go to work so I can afford to pay for rent and all the other things I need to prevent my untimely demise.

Aside from being motivated by needing to be a good little cog in the machine of capitalism, I did have more exciting things to look forward to last weekend. Jenn and I went to a Halloween-themed event where you got to go through a garden lit up with all sorts of pretty lights and eat s’mores that composed of chocolate cookies and very stale marshmallows (they were rock hard, but they tasted fine once you heated them up!)

We also got to celebrate one of my sister’s birthdays up in Mishicot. She rented a cute little place up there where we got together to eat some pizza, watch her open presents, and eat some cake and ice cream — you know, the usual birthday stuff.

So while fall is off to a sleepy start, I know it’s going to be a good one once my body catches up to the changing seasons!

What I’ve been listening to this week

• Supertramp - Breakfast in America

  • Supertramp came a long way from their prog rock origins to put out this pop album. In that time, they had two poorly received albums and almost quit. Thankfully, they came out with their hit album Crime of the Century, sold a lot of records, and eventually came up with this gem of an album. The songs on this project are all really fun and just always put me in a silly goofy mood. Shout out to my mom for introducing me to this band all those decades ago (PS: she got to see them in eighth grade!)

• Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here

  • Ironically this album got lost in the mail and I found myself chuckling to myself, saying “wish you were here.” Fortunately, the CD was only missing for a brief period of time and made it to my mail the very next day. I listened to this album on the way home from Mishicot, talking way too much about prog rock to Jenn while she sat in the passenger seat, a victim of my info dumping. The album is both a tribute to founding member Syd Barrett — who had to quit the band due to his deteriorating mental health — and a critique of the music industry.

• Steely Dan - Can’t Buy A Thrill

  • Since I turned 30, I found myself with a sudden urge to collect all the Steely Dan CDs I can. I’m almost done collecting all of their studio albums, but this one stood out to me because of the wide array of genres found in the album. From pop to jazz to all kinds of rock, they cover a lot of ground and do justice for each genre. My first time listening to this album I was pleasantly surprised with the trajectory of it!

• Led Zeppelin - Presence

  • Jenn broke the taillight of one of her parents’ cars while listening to “Achilles Last Stand” and didn’t even notice until she got home later that day. The track is over 10 minutes long though and rocks, so can you blame her though? While this was their least commercially successful album, I still enjoyed it. I definitely wouldn’t call it their best, but when you realize they had to rush this project out the door while Robert Plant was recovering from a recent car accident, it makes you appreciate how much work they had to put in to make the show go on.