OK, so last month, I told about some September stuff and an October trip. I actually was away from home for three of October’s four weekends, and to be honest, it was the very first time in my life when I felt overwhelmed by being overbooked.
Yep, it actually happened. Here’s why.
After San Diego, I attended another Mortified event with friend Juli (a live event where people get on stage and read from their childhood/teenage journals and diaries), followed by an amazing show by Aesthetic Perfection that was long overdue, followed by an indoor archery birthday party for friend Bobbie, followed by a couple of scrapbooking dates, followed by a weekend scrapbooking retreat.
The retreat was with friend Cathy down in Colorado Springs in a really nice hotel off of the highway. We met up Friday afternoon and then went shopping at Simple Pleasures scrapbook store before settling in for a weekend of making. I ended up making dozens and dozens of cute cards!
Here we are! 
Pretty productive, eh?
The weekend after that, I checked another US state off of my Goals List: Michigan. It seems odd that I had not yet been to Michigan since it’s rather “close” to Pennsylvania and New York, but the truth is, up until this weekend getaway, I had only ever been in the Detroit airport, and that doesn’t count.
Dear friend Leah went to college at Michigan State and then lived in Michigan for several years, yet I never got the chance to go out and visit her during that time. So, when we were discussing on January 1, 2019, which states we still both needed, and I mentioned Michigan, we decided right then and there to make it happen. Then, we found out that on this last October weekend, Michigan State would play Penn State in football, and the rest is history.
To make it even better, it was mandatory to attend a Detroit Red Wings hockey game, and it just so happened that on the day we arrived, the Buffalo Sabres were in town! Talk about perfect.
So, we flew in, met up with Leah’s college roommate Michelle (who so graciously carted us around, hung out with us and let us stay at her house) and we spent the evening in Detroit. Yes, it has a bad reputation for being rundown and dangerous, but on the contrary, it’s seeing a rebirth and renewal, and I found it full of promise and beauty. It reminds me of Buffalo with many gorgeous buildings from the turn of the 19th century that likewise is trying to get back on its feet.
We had dinner and then walked over to the arena, which is really new and quite nice. It has lots of fun stuff to look at and take photos with inside!
The arena 
Inside the gates 
Gordie! 
Little tiny head, big body 
Chris Chelios made entirely out of pucks. Pretty bad-ass.
The Red Wings suck SO bad this year that Buffalo actually won. Yay!
The next day was football day, and unfortunately it was also cold and rainy. We first found a nice local place in which to eat lunch and then walked through the stunningly beautiful campus to the stadium. This was the perfect weekend to go because all the trees were in full fall foliage mode, and just the most amazing hues of yellow, orange, red and green. The colors aren’t as vivid in the photos since it was a grey, overcast day, but you can still get the idea of how pretty it all was!
The stadium is about a fourth of the size of the one at Penn State, if not less, but we had good seats near the Penn State section so I could see the lion and cheerleaders run around…and around…and around as we stomped all over the Michigan State Spartans.
By halftime, it was starting to rain a nice chilly sheet and Penn State had scored a lot more than MSU, so we left. We went home, got dry and warm, and enjoyed a night in with snacks, drinks and cheezy Hallmark Christmas movies. God those are horrible!
On our last day, we drove a couple of hours north to a town called Frankenmuth to the largest Christmas store in probably the world, Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland. Not gonna lie, it’s quite the Americana overdone scene, but you can get any Christmas ornament there that you can think of as well as trees, lights and other decorations.
I can’t even get the entire building in frame! 
Massive decorations and lights everywhere. 
Since it was still October, they had a gorgeous display of the Dept. 56 Halloween stuff that I collect. 
Every possible type of nativity set you can think of. 
And plenty of photo opps!
Then we topped off the day with a visit to a local scrapbooking store, which was a really nice one. Leah stocked up on travel paper.
October wrapped up with another Avalanche hockey game and an excellent show by Marilyn Manson. I can’t believe I’ve been going to his shows for over 25 years now. He scared the crap out of me the first time I saw him back in 1993 (it’s a looong story for another time), but damn his music is good.
Japan Scrapbook Ready to View
And, as a special treat, if you’ve scrolled all the way down here, check out my complete scrapbook about our 2019 Japan trip. In this quarantine state of existence, I’ve been scrapbooking my face off and made an entire huge album in record time!