Happy Sunday, friends! How is your weekend going? It’s another gorgeous day here in the Bay Area. I love autumn! I think I’m going to bake another pumpkin pie today, or maybe some gluten-free pumpkin chocolate-chip cookies … nothing says autumn to me quite like the smell of pumpkin and spices baking in the oven!

I can’t believe we’re approaching the end of October already! It’s got me thinking about Halloween costumes. I always try to dress up at least a little bit — something to get into the holiday spirit when I pass out candy to the trick-or-treaters. Last year’s costume was pretty simple: I just put on a striped shirt and vest and a pirate hat and called it a day! Ahoy, matey!

I’m trying to decide what I should dress up as this year. Any creative-yet-easy ideas? I’d love to hear ’em!

Now, moving on to the purpose of this post ….

Here’s how I did on my goals this past week:
– write 20 pages of new material
– submit two fellowship applications {not quite there yet, but made progress!}
– submit Ph.D. application {made good progress!}
– exercise at least three times

And here’s my goals for the week of 10/20:
– write 20 pages of new material
– respond to story for workshop
– submit one fellowship application
– submit Ph.D. application
– exercise at least three times
– mail Halloween cards

As for meal-planning, here are some recipes I’m hoping to try out this week:
– lentil and brown rice soup via Recipes Happen
– creamy broccoli and cheese soup via The Pajama Chef
– one of the recipes from Danica’s “go-to” list
– blueberry granola pancakes via Two Peas & Their Pod
– pumpkin cheesecake dip via Peanut Butter Fingers

I’m pretty excited because this week I get to hang out with two of my roommates from college, Celine and Jess! Speaking of Halloween and costumes, here’s an old picture I found of us from college — we were dressed up as Frenchmen for a France-themed “moustache bash” party, haha.

I haven’t seen either Celine or Jess in far too long and I can’t wait to catch up. Plus, the talented Jess is performing in a local run of The Producers, so Celine and I bought tickets to watch her shine onstage. So much fun!

Questions of the morning:

• What are your goals and plans for this week?
• Do you like dressing up for Halloween? What have been some of your favorite costumes?