Every year I make a list of things that bring joy to my heart, specifically, my geeky heart. This year is a challenge, not because it wasn’t full of wonderful things but because my brain has turned into Swiss cheese and I have a hard time remembering what happened this year. Avengers: Endgame was THIS YEAR, people. It’s confusing.

Anyway, here are some things that made me happy – I hope you too found happiness in your own nerdy way. To qualify for my list, a nerdy item must be something I enjoyed in 2019, but not necessarily for the first time. Daughter wanted to watch a lot of Halloween fair in October so you’ll notice a certain predominance of those kinds of movies which are fresh in my mind. I don’t know what happened this summer or spring. Stuff, I guess.

Here’s the list:

1. Thomasin tells off her father (The Witch).
2. “We ARE the weirdos!” the first half of The Craft, which is still sublime. Let’s just all pretend the second half never happened.
3. The fashion sense of Practical Magic.
4. Midnight margaritas! (Practical Magic).
5. Every single thing about The Good Place.
6. Nicholas Hoult’s eyes in Warm Bodies.
7. Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir.
8. The Good Place panel at San Diego Comic Con, at which everyone cried and all the cosplayers took group selfies in the aisles.
9. The “nerd” conversation in Stranger Things.
10. Emily’s angry face in Corpse Bride.
11. The Back to the Future conversation in Stranger Things.
12. The Back to the Future conversation in Avengers: Endgame.
13. Goose and Lt. Trouble in Captain Marvel.
14. Captain Marvel!
15. Chuck Tingle’s facebook account.
16. My Life as a Background Slytherin and Bloodlust and Bonnets by Emily McGovern
17. Minor Characters by Joyce Johnson.
18. Re-reading the Sandman comics. FOR WORK!
19. The Cephalopod Tarot.
20. The Next World Tarot.
21. Into the Spiderverse! Spider-Ham!

I wish you and yours a nerdy and wonderful Thanksgiving. Eat all the pie! Watch all the things! Read all the stuff! Higher, further, faster, Baby!

Photo by Ana M. on Pexels.com

It is November ELEVENTH and I’m finally publishing something for the month! I was so fortunate to have a busy September and October: writing for Clarkesworld Magazine, leading Tarot workshops for teens, leading Arden Dimick Book Club and a writing workshop, writing for Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, and driving my daughter places. And driving. and driving. And driving. And, of course, falling behind here.

In the next couple of weeks I’ll talk about tarot and make my Geeky Gratitude list. For today I’ll leave you with germ-free thoughts (I have a cold) and a poem by Joseph Seamon Cotter, courtesy of PoemHunter.com. Cotter was an African-American poet from Kentucky who lived from 1861 – 1916. In addition to being a well-regarded poet, he was also an advocate of Civil Rights and of education.

Old November, sere and brown,
Clothes the country, haunts the town,
Sheds its cloak of withered leaves,
Brings its sighing, soughing breeze.
Prophet of the dying year,
Builder of its funeral bier,
Bring your message here to men;
Sound it forth that they may ken
What of Life and what of Death
Linger on your frosty breath.
Let men know to you are given
Days of thanks to God in heaven;
Thanks for things which we deem best,
Thanks, O God, for all the rest
That have taught us–(trouble, strife,
Bring thru Death a larger life)–
Death of our base self and fear–
(Even as the dying year,
Though through cold and frost, shall bring
Forth a new and glorious spring)–
Shall shed over us the sway
Of a new and brighter day,
With Hope, Faith and Love alway.