Sorry for the seriousness of this one. I was watching an episode of Hoarders before I went to bed Monday morning, and it really got me thinking. The episode was about a man who filled his house after the death of his longtime partner. The death happened six years earlier, but it was as fresh for him as if it had happened just last week! He had clearly not taken the time or gotten the help to deal with his grief.

My point is this is something we must do for ourselves. As a personal note, in the coming months, I will lose my dad to cancer. I am dealing fine right now. Will I need counseling after the fact? Who knows? If I do, I will not hesitate to seek that out because I know I will feel much better. As I have mentioned before I suffered severe depression in college. Yes, at times I was suicidal. Luckily I got counseling and began feeling better between that and medication. 

Any time I feel I need help, I have always been one to seek it out. If you are someone who tends to hide emotions or pain, I urge you to talk to someone on a professional basis. Just give it a try. You will be able to then deal with the issues, loss, pain, etc in a much healthier way. I know it worked for me.

My weekend was simple and relaxing. On Friday, I had dinner with my brother and my mom - that's really about it. On Saturday, I went shopping for food at the pet store and went to the grocery store to get food for myself. Early on Sunday, I played with Buttercup for a bit and caught up on some TV. I watched a few episodes of Family Guy, a couple Hoarders episodes, and a little The Price is Right too. In the evening, I had dinner again with my mom and then came into work. 

Pretty simple and quiet. Every now and then it's nice to have a weekend like that. I'd also say the weather cooperated as well ;) lol.

The CMA Awards were Wednesday night, and there were a lot of big winners - especially Luke Combs, Cody Jonson, and Lainey Wilson! They each won two of the major awards. Below is the list of the big winners from the night:

Entertainer of the Year - Luke Combs

Female Vocalist of the Year - Lainey Wilson

Male Vocalist of the Year - Chris Stapleton

Vocal Group of the Year - Old Dominion

Vocal Duo of the Year - Brothers Osborne

Single of the Year - "Til You Can't" by Cody Johnson

Song of the Year - "Buy Dirt" by Jordan Davis/Luke Bryan

Album of the Year - "Growin' Up" by Luke Combs

New Artist of the Year - Lainey Wilson

Music Video of the Year - "Til You Can't" by Cody Johnson

Congratulations to all of the winners!

The 5th season of "The Crown" was released on Netflix today! I'm not normally one to get into a TV series like this anymore...except I LOVED "Schitt's Creek"! This drama about the British royal family is another exception for me. Now I'm usually not even that big into following them either - I don't get up early for the weddings, hang on every word or action of theirs, etc.

I do find this series interesting in that it's a fictionalized version of real events. It has had a way to show the members of the family as real people and as a family unit. This has been an interesting look into historical events through the lens of a fictionalized piece of entertainment.

I'm excited to get back into the series!

Tuesday was another Jubilee Donut Tuesday with WQMX. Every Tuesday in November, stop by for some of their DELICIOUS donuts and support NEOPAT at the same time! A portion of every sale goes to support military families in Northeast Ohio. 

They brought some into the station today, and I'm about to go have one right now :).

Thank you Jubilee Donuts!!!

Growing up, I was a kid who enjoyed jumping in the pile of raked leaves instead of helping to get them to the curb. I guess as an adult not much has changed. Thankfully at my house, I really only have one tree in my front yard - that's it. There are some leaves in my backyard, but not many. 

I still have to get them all together. However, since my yard is tiny, I plan to just use my lawnmower to bag them and put them in my backyard to use for mulch later on. Nice and easy. No hours of raking to the curb and watching them blow EVERYWHERE!!

Did you remember to change your clocks on Saturday night or Sunday morning? I changed mine after I got home from dinner on Saturday so I wouldn't forget. 

I'm someone that can't stand the time change. I see it as an annoyance. I enjoy the extra daylight in the evening...especially this time of year, that can really help. I would like to get the clocks on Daylight Savings Time and leave them there - no more changing. With my schedule, I didn't benefit from the extra hour of sleep. All I got was an extra hour overnight to watch TV or surf the internet! LOL 

Luckily, no matter how you look at it the days will start to get longer again in just over one month!!!! Come on December 21st!!!

This weekend, I am planning to go to one of my favorite places when the weather is nice - The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. I want to go see the baby gorilla (who just turned a year old btw). The zoo has always been a favorite of mine since I was little. My family has been members of the Akron Zoo for years, and we put those memberships to good use! When I was young we even did at least two regional vacations where we just went city to city going to the various zoos.

The weather is supposed to be very nice this weekend...warm and at least some sun. We have VERY few of these left. Enjoy the weekend, and I'll try to get a few pictures to share next week :).

Generally, I can only listen to a certain amount of Christmas music at one time before I start going crazy. Don't get me wrong, there are some songs that are just CLASSICS! Both traditional and pop music. As I'm sure it may be foir you, it's just not Christmas until you hear those songs.

NOW. The question of WHEN to start. I am a VERY FIRM believer that ANYTIME before Black Friday is too early. I like each holiday to have it's own time. October is for Halloween, November is for Thanksgiving, and December is for Christmas (among others). I believe these shall never cross - lol. 

When we hit Black Friday, Thanksgiving is over and it's officially Christmas shopping season. That is the next major holiday, which is why I think this is the best time to start playing Christmas music.

No matter what your thoughts are on this, we are officially into the holiday season. Have a happy one :)

An update from Monday - I DID make it to the grocery store Tuesday afternoon!!! I'm so happy that I did not procrastinate another day :).

If you are a procrastinator like me, you know the daily struggle of telling yourself you'll stop it but that never seems to happen.I guess all we can do is continue pushing ourselves...like how I need to get in a continuous habit of going to the gym on my way home from work.

First world problems, huh? haha.