#1947 sugar skulls and books and

The thing about writing a post every day is that I have to come into it with an idea of what I want to write about. If I don't, it's easy for me to spin out and write about nothing, which is irritating to me. Sometimes, though, I have little snippets of thoughts, and that's when I go with my "3 things" posts. Why three? Three is the magic number; it just feels right.

The reason I went into the explanation was to give myself a minute to sort out my thoughts. I don't have three things today; I can only think of two things and they are not really related, although I think I could tie them together, come to think of it. Let's try it.

Today is November 2, the final day of the Mexican holiday Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). According to tradition, the portals of the heavens open at midnight on November 1 and close on November 2. The spirits of the dearly departed are welcome back to earth with altars of treats and candles and flowers  etc. Dia de los Muertos is not a tradition in my family. We are not Mexican or Central American. My fascination with the tradition can be culled down to one thing in particular: sugar skulls. I think they are beautiful. I like the colors and the sparkles. I think they look amazing. When we were in Isla Mujeres, Mexico, I bought a little sugar skull that is painted with little flowers and has glitter in some areas. It is on my desk at work and I look at it every day.

Have you ever seen a sugar skull? Here's a cool pic I found online:

Sugar skulls. Remember that.

The second topic for the night is books. I like to read. Going to the library, either in person or on my computer is the best and worst thing because there are so many books that I would like to read that picking out one or two is really hard! I have over 50 books on my wish list at the elibrary, and I have a growing list of books to read on my Goodreads app. Whenever I hear of a book that I'd like to read, I look it up on Goodreads and mark it as Want-To-Read. Then, when I'm at the physical library, I'll open the app and see if I can find a book that I randomly select from the list. Today alone I bet I added around 20 books to my Goodreads list. Why? Because Goodreads has come out with their Choice Awards 2017. I mostly like to read fiction and young adult fiction, and I think I marked every book in those categories as something I wanted to read. By the way, in the fiction category, I had read one book (which I really liked) and in the young adult category, I'd read three that were nominated (all good, with two of them being very good).

Books. Remember that.

Here's where I tie these two seemingly unrelated thoughts together.

After my birthday this year, I had a bit of a mid-life crisis, in thought anyway. I wanted to get a new house, a new car and a nose piercing or a tattoo. I haven't actually done any of those things, but I still want three of those things. I abandoned the nose piercing. I have allergies and blow my nose constantly. I don't think a nose piercing would work out for me. MT is on board with getting a different house, but again, we haven't done anything to move along with that. I really want a new car. I've been hankering for a Subaru Cross Trek for over a year now. I just don't have the money for a down payment and I still owe on my Ford, probably more than I could get as trade-in value.

That leaves me with the tattoo. A tattoo is a permanent thing, right, so I have to be thoughtful about what I mark myself with. It should have meaning and since it's forever, it should be something I want to look at for the rest of my days. Unless I get it on a place where I can't actually see it, I guess, but I don't think I would do that. I would probably get my (first) tattoo on the inside of my wrist/forearm.

I have lots of ideas about what my (first) tattoo would be. I made a list, of course. Two of the tattoo ideas on my list are in this post. Can you guess? Yep! Sugar skull or books. I've been looking through Pinterest to get ideas. I don't want anything too big or too complicated , so the sugar skull probably wouldn't work out, but it's fun to look. Check out these designs:

Not all of them at once of course - just one. I like the one on the bottom right.

A cute colorful little stack of books. This looks like it's on a forearm.

This little pile of books looks like it's on an ankle.

I'm just thinking about it. Like I said, I have a list of  six to eight ideas. Maybe if I can't think of anything to write about one day this month, I'll hit you with another tattoo idea. It could happen, but then again, it might not.

That's all I've got for tonight. Back at you tomorrow!