Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. We needed at least one other female teammate to show up this week for us to participate in playoffs, and we got two!

2. Monday, we went for a drive out to the countryside to a cafe that used to come to the farmers market. I’ve dreamed of their smoothie bowls in the last two years since they stopped coming, and reality did not disappoint.

3. We aren’t out of the woods yet when it comes to the election, but it certainly wasn’t the slaughter that many predicted.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world this week?

My camera on the phone is still on the fritz, which means I’m using Rudi’s mom’s old phone and then sharing the photo with my phone and then putting the photo someplace I can use it. Which is a lot and mostly means I’m not taking a lot of photos just to take them right now.

But I thought I’d tell you that I’ve gotten to the heel of the first of a pair of Christmas socks, knit out of West Yorkshire Spinners’ Signature 4 ply in Candy Cane, a red, white, and green stripey yarn. It makes me happy to see it, and I’m excited to see what an industrial Blue-Faced Leicester yarn will be like to wear.

On the reading front, I have several books that are suddenly overdue at the library, so I’m trying to quickly plow through them. First up is Sarah Maas’ oft-banned A Court of Roses and Thorns, which one of my teammates recommended. In the ears, I’m back to Jane Pek’s The Verifiers.

Check out what others are crafting and reading at As Kat Knits.

While we’re probably still days away from certainty, the early returns suggest we have reason to be cautiously optimistic about this year’s midterm election.

Thank you to the younger voters, who turned out this year and whose votes leaned more progressive.

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic from That Artsy Reader Girl asks us to share series we’d like to catch up with, start, or finish. I thought I’d share ten series that I’m interested in beginning:

1. Fractured Fables by Alix E. Harrow
2. The Scholomance by Naomi Novik
3. Brontë Sisters Mystery by Bella Ellis
4. The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi
5. Autumn by Ali Smith
6. The Moomins by Tove Jansson
7. The Christmas Chronicles by Jeff Guinn
8. Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landry
9. Mycroft Holmes and Sherlock by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
10. Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine

How about you? Are there series you’d like to read that you haven’t gotten to yet?

I’ve been thinking a lot in the past couple days about sticking things out.

There are some things I’m quick to quit: books I’m not enjoying, parties, situations that bore me.

But with most things in life, I’d say that I’m there until the bitter end, regardless of how it comes.

Sometimes that’s good. Democracy, for instance. When evil people take control of our government, some people are quick to suggest leaving. But if everyone who hates a new regime goes, who will bear witness to the demise? Who will help to right the ship? Who will put out the fire?

But sometimes, it’s bad. With my last job, there was a period of six months where I knew that the situation was untenable, but I thought that because I was good at my job that if I could ride out the uncomfortable, I could make it through to smooth seas again. I know now that I should have cut bait, should have gotten out when I knew that I couldn’t make the changes I knew would have to happen in order to stay and be happy.

A dear friend once told me that was both my superpower and my fatal flaw: I was deeply capable of holding on in uncomfortable situations. He was right. I can and I do, regardless of whether holding on or letting go would be better for me.

Less personally, I’m thinking of that specifically about Twitter, as are many users of the social media platform this week. The new owner is a stereotypical super-villain, who is used to getting his way by throwing money and power at problems. And I could live with that, if we agreed on what the actual problems were. But we don’t, and I wonder if this is a situation, like my last job, where I should leave while I see the writing on the wall, or if this is like democracy, where if I leave, I’m part of the problem, turning the platform over to trolls and bots and dooming it to failure.

A periodic consideration of what’s going on around me:

Seeing: The glow of the Halloween fairy lights on the living room wall.

Tasting: Toothpaste. I’m heading to bed as soon as I hit publish.

Hearing: Tires on wet roads. (But not the dripping of rain anymore. Corey shifting on the rug and trilling at me to hurry up so we can join Rudi in bed.

Feeling: Sore. I played volleyball for a couple hours today and came home with a couple minor aches and pains. And glad of the extra hour of sleep ahead.

Smelling: The faint whiff of laundry detergent, since these are fresh pj’s.

Give us a sense of what your world is like in the comments.