{"id":2747,"date":"2013-09-03T16:41:13","date_gmt":"2013-09-03T21:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ajaalto.com\/?p=2747"},"modified":"2013-09-03T16:41:13","modified_gmt":"2013-09-03T21:41:13","slug":"back-to-school-memory-lane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ajaalto.com\/?p=2747","title":{"rendered":"Back to School (Memory Lane)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today, the baboons I live with went back to school, and it was a triumphant day all around. I wasn’t able to relax enough to write, as I was staring at the clock waiting for a call. In case I haven’t mentioned, my daughter suffers from major depression with anxiety disorder and panic attacks. She’s thirteen, and doing much better, but I was worried to death about how her first day would go. She made it to 11:45 before she had to call home, which everyone is calling a major victory considering she hasn’t able to go to school since April of last year. VERY happy. Most importantly, SHE considers it a major victory, and is proud of herself. Tomorrow, her goal is to stay at least to 12:30, and then ask herself if she really<\/em> needs to get out, or if she can brave it longer. \u00a0 Baby steps.<\/p>\n

I was talking about this worry last night to a writer friend of mine, who offered this thought. “She’s strong like you, she’ll do well.” Well, the fact of the matter is, although you might think it from the horror I write, I am not brave or strong. I LOVE being scared, and like to act like I eat terror for breakfast, but growing up, I was just like my daughter. I spent a decade in my bedroom. This was where I developed my writing habits, so I don’t regret it, but I missed out on a lot.<\/p>\n

All this reminiscing about my own school days came to a head when I took the kids to Bulk Barn to get some Back To School ~YAY!~<\/em> Candy. There, by the cash desk, I saw these:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>These are all the candies of my childhood! Anyone else remember these? I scooped one of each, much to my kid’s shock (“But, Mom, that’s a LOT of candy…”) and intend to enjoy them as my kids run me through all the Back To School hoops. \u00a0Some more good news: THE HALLOWE’EN CANDY HAS ARRIVED!! OH SWEET HOLY FUCKBALLS, I’m so excited! Check this out:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Those are candy butcher knives, red cookie icing, and skull cupcake papers. Stabby cupcakes? Yes, please! That’s my project for end of September. HOW HAPPY IS WRITERGHOULIE?? Soooooo soooooo happy. Cool weather, pumpkin-scented candles are back, Hallowe’en candy, grim skies… *SQUEEEEE!* Do you have plans for fall? A favourite Hallowe’en tradition, habits, candy? As the kids ease back into school, my days are going to be ripe for a return to my writing. It’s going to start getting dark earlier in the evening, and the haunted spots I’m needing to research are going to be shadowy. The next few months are just going to rock. *happy dance*<\/p>\n

What’s your favourite thing about this season?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>(Editor’s note: Pop by AJ’s Amazon page<\/a> and download Cold Company<\/em> free for your Kindle, or scoop up books one and two of the Marnie Baranuik Files, Touched<\/em> and Death Rejoices<\/em>. This fall, AJ will be plugging away at the third installment of the MB Files, entitled Last Impressions<\/em>, which takes place in Niagara, in and around the Welland Canal.)<\/p>\n

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Today, the baboons I live with went back to school, and it was a triumphant day all around. I wasn’t able to relax enough to write, as I was staring at the clock waiting for a call. In case I haven’t mentioned, my daughter suffers from major depression with anxiety disorder and panic attacks. She’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinions"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ajaalto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2747"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ajaalto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ajaalto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ajaalto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ajaalto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2747"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.ajaalto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2758,"href":"http:\/\/www.ajaalto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2747\/revisions\/2758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ajaalto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ajaalto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ajaalto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}