For all of you happy elves who flipped the switch on the Christmas season as soon as the last little Thanos or JoJo stepped off your front porch, or dumped your pumpkin spice latte down the drain in favor of a stout eggnog, I’d like to extend a kind invitation to join me in celebrating the understated glory of November.

I’ve been a school marm longer than I’d care to recall, teaching literature to young’uns in the Deep South.  So, what I’m about to say is definitely about to ruffle a few feathers, especially amongst my English teacher friends.  

I have a litany of gripes about what people post on Facebook, but I suddenly realized that it would lead to nothing but a bickering battle much like those days when my kid brother and I went toe-to-toe on everything from who was the better athlete to who had the most hotdogs in their SpaghettiOs.

It’s hard to think Halloween when it’s hot as Hades Anne Shirley once said that she couldn’t imagine a world without Octobers. Well, that’s just dandy if you live far enough north for October to be autumnal.

Nothing says hope like a homecoming parade. It’s a visible, noisy, joyous celebration of past, present, and future stretched along the heart of the town.

Facing down more hurricanes than a Scorpions concert at the beach

I flew to Atlanta this weekend for the Decatur Book Festival, which is a pretty big deal. Here are some of the things I noticed along the way.