October Recap: Writing, Spooky Time, & WeHo
This month was PACKED with happenings and in such a good way. There was also so much going on that it teetered on overwhelming, but luckily most of it was fun. I imagine it's full speed ahead from this point on.
I thought it would be fun to start sharing monthly recaps of my shenanigans, where my brain is at, my writing progress, etc. So, I hope this isn't too long winded. I'm still trying to figure out a good format for these sudo-diary blog posts.
Thanks for reading!
Are you writing?
Yes! For too long, I’ve been swamped by the idea of deadlines and word counts. It made writing such a drag. I felt suffocated creatively. So, I ditched it all. I wanted to re-ignite my love of writing again and just started writing for the sake of writing.
I started a story that's been in my head for awhile, and dove into writing the words--whether it's bad, good or amazing. Just spilling my guts. I want to write for fun. I'm putting no pressure or intent on this new story. Will I publish it? Maybe, but maybe not? (I probably will). But the goal is to reignite my love for writing without pressure. I want to get back to the point in my life when I wrote because I loved it.
It’s complicated. Someday I'll tell the story of the moment the passion for writing flitted away and it had me feeling terrified, alone, and lost. I felt abandoned by someone who was supposed to champion me. Anyway...
I think I'm finding my way back, but sometimes it's one step forward, two steps back. I keep churning forward though, and I'm feeling good about all these words and this spicy, friends-with-benefits couple I'm writing.
For right now, I love-love-LOVE this story and I have nearly 10,000 words written to it already. It feels like bliss. It’s Fast and the Furious meets Just Friends with the aesthetic of Initial D but set in Southern California. The female lead is flawed and bad ass, the hot hero is damaged and trying to reconnect with a girl he left hanging. It’s a brothers-best-friend trope with enemies-to-lovers vibes. I’m in loveeeee with it. Until next month's update, you can check out my Pinterest mood board for the story, tentatively titled, DRIFT.
State of Mind
I feel like I start to shine in August, my birthday month. It’s sunny and exuberant, and hot... I start what feels like, “Alex Season” and it’s always the best time. But what’s even better is the excitement and anticipation as it fades into fall. October might be my most favorite month of the year, and it’s the first time in a long time (for obvious pandemic reasons) that it treated me so well.
Good
October felt like a breath of fresh air for my favorite things.
I always joke that I’m a “Corporate Goth” and that October is my month to shine, where I can let my inner creep loose—and this particular month I did not hold back. I let my spook flag fly.
As the weather cools and spook is at its peak, I can honestly say I felt really good in October. The month was like a big hug for my soul, and it has me eager for the holiday’s , but also signifies that we’re closing out the year.
Bad
So, is it fair to say that while beginning-to-mid October I’m stoked, and then as we near November 1st, I get eagerly excited for the holidays while also panicking that I have too much to do and not enough time?
It's the state of things that has me unable to shake this looming anxious feeling that the pandemic built inside me and every one I know. Everything feels like it can change on a whim--whether that's the health of the ones around us or if we'll continue to live as freely as we have been as the holidays near. I have this doomsday mentality that I try to kill with near obnoxious optimism as if trying to manifest good times, and in the hope that my unwavering optimism helps the people around me, that it reduces their stress even if it's a distraction. We can't just wallow together all the time, but we can lean on each other in times of need. But it's all theoretical, isn't it? The bad times. All we can do is keep the momentum. The pandemic has really fucked us up mentally, and I'm gonna fake my way through it if I need to. Everything is fine.
For Now
I’m going to try and bask in it all--the good stuff, that is. But for now, I can admit that October felt like the most ‘normal’ month in a while, and it was amazing. I felt spoiled with good feels, great friends, and favorite things.
It’s nice to be able to say that. Screw you pandemic, but at least I’m vaccinated.
WHAT
I READ
Okay, so I went on a whirlwind reading binge and read the entire Filthy Rich American Series by Nikki Sloane (except the most recent book that came out, The Temptation #5) and wow! I really want to do a BookTube review on this series because I have so many thoughts! All in all I loved this series, it's taboo-ness, the characters and the fact I couldn't put these books down.
If you want to ready my full book review of The Filthy Rich American Series, subscribe to my newsletter. I’ll send it right over! Plus, you’ll get to read my monthly book reviews!
Spooky Month Shenanigans
The revival of spooky month! I hate that last year Halloween was essentially cancelled so I was SUPER excited to do ALL of the things, like going to my favorite haunts, and it did not disappoint in spooky month shenanigans. And I don't think I even took a breath between it all, ha.
Also, for the first time ever, I decided to get nail art done and did a spooky month themed dip set. I have ZERO regrets. Look how cute they came out!
626 NIGHT MARKET: OC FOODIE HEAVEN
We started the month off stuffing our faces at the 626 Night Market in Orange County. My brother invited me and my boyfriend to meet him out there, and although I ate my weight in food, I have no regrets. I was thinking of writing a blog post all its own on the experience because we tried so much food, and it's worth the breakdown, but overall consensus:
It runs all day and into the night, but since we arrived just for the night experience, it was really crowded and lines for food were LONG. You had to be patient and strategic to snag some of the most popular foodie finds. But was the food good? YES! Was it mostly asian-inspired food? Also yes!
Obviously from the photo below, I was the most excited about potatoes, lol. But we tried a little bit of everything: Argentinian sandwiches, dumplings, the garlic bread Pouffle, mini pancakes, and dick shaped treats? lol. There was only so much time and I only had so much money, but I wish I was able to try the giant fried squid.
It was fun and I hope to come back again. I'm glad we got to catch it while it was in town because I think it's only here for a month every a year.
Thanks to my baby bro for the invite and getting to hang out. It makes happy to see him in his natural habitat with friends lol.
Universal Studios
Hollywood Horror Nights
Horror Nights will forever be my favorite haunt of the season. Who doesn’t love haunted mazes based on scary movies!
I was so bummed that I couldn’t go to Horror Nights last year because it’s seriously one of the things I looked forward to the most each year. I was so excited to restart this tradition. I felt lucky to go with my closest friends. Something I think I took for granted before and really wanted to cherish this year.
If anything, the past year has taught me to never take anything for granted.
Even though the park is open during the day, we arrived only for the haunts. And due to inevitable LA traffic we didn’t arrive until 10pm. The event is open until 2am, so although we were kind of anxious we were arriving late, we realized it was a good time to get there. It looked like some people were leaving when we arrived, which meant less people and less kids in theory, and there was no long line to enter the park, either. Normally, you'd spend a lot of time entering going through security if you arrive right at 6-7pm.
The park itself was in fact still pretty busy, but we cycled with the shortest lines we could get for haunted mazes, and also rode some rides.
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter was also open, so we snagged some Butter Beer, because YES. Although, the older we get we realize it's so fricken sweet and could really use a bit of booze in it. Missed opportunity to have an alcoholic butter in my opinion #IMO.
Since it was LA County, we had to wear masks during this time because of COVID precautions. Luckily is was a pretty chilly night, so it wasn’t too big a deal to wear the mask in the crowds. And when I was in wide open spaces, I took it off for a breather. What was nice though is everyone was seemingly following the mask mandate, which was a relief.
Some lines were easily over an hour, but I don’t think we actually waited longer than 30-45 minutes for anything. For mazes we did: Bride of Frankenstein which was scarier than we expected (super good timing/jump out scares), Pandora’s Box which was another surprisingly good scare with their epic use of black light paint and high production value, and lastly, Texas Chainsaw Massacre which is classic—chainsaws will never not terrify me. Lol.
We could even see the construction for Super Nintendo World! Looks like the entrance is going to be a giant pipe you walk through, like in Mario games.
Pro tip: if you’re thinking of going to Horror Nights next year: it’s cheaper earlier in the month or midweek
Also, be prepared to pay $25-$30 parking and wait in lots of lines. Comfy shoes are a must! I wore my Dr. Martens and was feeling it at the end of the night. I think my step counter was about 20,000 steps by 2am.
KNOTTS SCARY FARM
Since Knotts Berry (Scary) Farm is pretty close to our house, me and my boyfriend decided to make a Friday date night out of it.
It was incredibly crowded—like even more than Universal, and with it being Orange County (rather than LA), there was no mask mandate, so pretty much no one was wearing a mask. Since it’s an outdoor event, I wouldn’t normally care since I’m vaccinated, but it was shoulder-to-shoulder with people. It’s not as spread out as Universal Studios, so it felt much more tightly packed (like sardines), and lines were even longer than Horror Nights (some as long as 150 minutes!). Although the mazes we did make it into (Pumpkin Head and Into the Depths) were really well done and fun, we just didn’t feel comfortable, so we didn’t stay too long.
It was kind of a bummer, but the crowds sucked the fun out of the experience for us. When you’re crammed in the middle of a line almost touching the people around you and a few of them start hacking—you don’t feel safe during a global pandemic. Yeah, no thanks. An unfortunate result, but I think we made the right choice. At least its cheaper than going to Universal so I didn't feel like it was a total loss since we did make into a couple mazes.
Not a Halloween Party
We had big plans to throw an epic Halloween party, but it didn’t feel right to invite a ton of people to our house. So, in the theme of being COVID safe, we did a Halloween Movie Night with our closest friends. It was a blast. Costumes were optional and it was a chill, hilarious night. We had about 8-10 people over for drinks, and I attempted this Nightmare Before Christmas charcuterie board. I think it turned out pretty good! Let me know if you want more info on how to make it!
We ordered a bunch of pizzas and supplied bowls of candy and snacks. I was stunned to see all the candy disappear, including candy corn! I thought everyone hated that candy? Lol.
After a chaotic attempt to wrangle a bunch of buzzed adults to pick a scary movie, we finally decided on Cabin in the Woods, which is one of my favorites. It’s the perfect mix of horror, hilarity, and wtf, that’s it’s awesome to watch with friends.
I’m sad I didn’t dress up for Halloween this year, but there’s always next year. This movie night was so fun and having only our closest friends over made it even better. I haven't laughed that hard in a while.
West Hollywood (WeHo) with Friends
This might have been one of my favorite weekends of the YEAR. I just miss my friends, ya know? We got a hotel room down the street from the Hollywood Bowl, which seemed like an amazing idea at the time since it was close to where we’d be going out. Unfortunately, on a Friday and Saturday night we encountered Hollywood Bowl traffic chaos that even Ubering was troublesome. But the chaos is always more hilarious with your best friends.
Saturday, we headed out for drinks, music and dancing in WeHo and it was just a blast. Since we Ubered, no one had to worry about driving, and it made the night so fun and carefree. We danced and laughed the night away. It was much needed and felt so good for the soul.
Ya ever just have comfort in going, 'these are my people'? Yeah, that's how this night felt. You can tell (and I can tell) when I look at the photo below on the bottom right. Such a happy memory/night.
When stumbling to leave at 1am, we were starving. We had the amazing idea to time our uber ride with a DoorDash order, finding a 24hour Thai food place (Crispy Pork Gang). However, as we faced another onslaught of traffic in the early hours of the LA morn in our Uber, getting back to the hotel room at 2am, our Door Dasher was still waiting for the food...and waiting. It hit 3am and although we were buzzed and starving, we canceled the order in favor of sleep over food.
We woke up the next morning and my friend turned to me and said, "Do you think the front desk has our Thai food?" lol
As we packed up to head back home, we couldn’t leave LA without brunch, and snagged some amazing food and drinks, including this amazing charcuterie board at The Abbey before leaving town. It was heaven and it made us all wanting the weekend to last longer. We weren't ready to leave.
It was a rejuvenating weekend with friends (we did Halloween Horror Nights Friday night and WeHo on Saturday, and brunch on Sunday).
I can’t stop smiling whenever I think of the memories of this weekend. This is your sign to reconnect with friends over a fun staycation getaway.
Here's a fun reel I created about the weekend.
Favorite Outfits of October
You know I had to bring out all my favorite spook-themed gear and then some...
Top Left:
Maybe my favorite fit of October was this red plaid shirt. I dressed it with everything. It's by Cakeworthy and it's their Beetlejuice, "I Myself am Strange and Unusual' flannel. It's so comfy and I get so many compliments on it whenever I wear it. I love wearing fandom things. It gives you the opportunity to bond with strangers.
Black ripped jeggings are from Amazon and I have so many pairs of these.
Skelton hair clips to complete the look.
Top Right:
Paired my "Serial Killer Documentaries and Chill" tee shirt from Wicked Clothes with a jean jacket. Loved this color combo.
Bottom Left:
If you follow TikTok trends you just know I had to jump in on the Ghost Photoshoot trend. You can see my TikTok/Reel I made at the top of this blog. lol. All you need is a white sheet and some sunglasses! Way too much fun.
Bottom Right:
I rarely get excuses to wear short dresses and drip in bad-assery. So, I felt like I need to mention this outfit. Little black dress from H&M paired with a DKNY leather jacket I rarely wear, with some platform Dr. Martens boots (which I think I wore with every one of these outfits). Classic and perfect for a night out in WeHo. I don't think they sell some of these items anymore, so here's a leather jacket dupe from Free People as another option, and some black skater dresses from LuLus.
So, did I bore you to death? I hope not! Let me know if there's anything you want to read about or to to include in these posts! I kind of like this diary format and will try to post these monthly. It feels cathartic and I like the ability to look back on good memories and where my heads at. But I'd definitely like to know what you find the most interesting to read about. Leave a comment to let me know :)
How was your October? Do you have a favorite moment of the month?
Thanks for hanging out. If no one has told you yet today: you're amazing.
