MetaTalktail Hour: what are you currently looking forward to? October 15, 2021 4:37 PM   Subscribe

It's the weekend, and it's time for some largely-unstructured chatter, and so: what are you looking forward to? Big stuff, small stuff, long-sought stuff, random stupid little stuff: it's good to be looking forward to something, so, what have you got? I see you shiver with anticip...
posted by cortex (staff) to MetaFilter-Related at 4:37 PM (93 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite

...ation.
posted by cortex (staff) at 4:37 PM on October 15, 2021 [4 favorites]


What am I looking forward to? Well, I'll tell you, ladies and gentlemen!
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:52 PM on October 15, 2021 [9 favorites]


I'm pretty excited for Villeneuve's Dune to open next week.
Also, it's spring here, and I'm really getting into riding my bike, at least 30 minutes every day, more on the weekends, and the nice weather makes it a joy.
My 14 year old is at his first actual party, and I have to pick him up in a bit.
I'm getting better at playing bass, and am starting of thinking of ways to find people to jam with.
posted by signal at 5:20 PM on October 15, 2021 [6 favorites]


I'm having a zoom meeting with an old friend / former colleague tomorrow morning. So I'm excited to check in with him and see how things are going at my old clinic, and I'm also picking his brain for advice on how to help implement behavioral health integration into the clinic I work for now (we're both social workers). It's sort of a role that fell in my lap yesterday when my boss got fired so now uh I get to try to help... So, after a very weird work week I'm looking forward to enjoying a pleasant fall weekend and thinking about how I want to proceed with my career!

I'm feeling nervous but very energized about the whole thing. If we can do this well it'll mean a world of difference to our patients, who are almost all dealing with significant trauma and stressors (it's New Orleans: nearly everyone has some level of PTSD here).
posted by tivalasvegas at 5:30 PM on October 15, 2021 [3 favorites]


In a little while I get to go visit some friends, and I am excite. The plan is to meet their dog, pet their cats, drink tea, and lounge about. Occasionally text one of them from the next room, or maybe from the other end of the couch. It's me, the high-maintenance visitor.
posted by theatro at 5:31 PM on October 15, 2021 [4 favorites]


I'm excited that Mystic Paths, a game I helped design, is finally reaching market.
I'm looking forward to my sister coming to town next weekend to watch a UVM/RPI Men's Hockey game with me. And we'll likely coordinate with my best friend to get a viewing of the new Dune movie in sometime too.
Soon I'll be starting to learn a choreographed bachata performance and looking forward to how it helps my social dancing techniques and style. And, with three socials coming up at the end of the month I'm blessed to finally have a full dance card again.
posted by meinvt at 5:38 PM on October 15, 2021 [6 favorites]


I'm looking forward to being able to walk properly again, a year out from breaking my knee. I'm REAAAAAAAAAAAALLY close; this week I was able to walk down stairs properly for the first time, instead of one-stepping it like a two-year-old; and I'm also getting close to being able to dance to "Iko Iko" in the kitchen. I still have the habit of locking my knee straight to compensate for muscle weakness, and you can't dance with one stiff leg; so solo dance parties are kind of encouraging me to start trying out bending it again.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:32 PM on October 15, 2021 [15 favorites]


I'm pretty excited for Villeneuve's Dune to open next week.

I have been pretty thoroughly ignoring release dates for everything, including this, because what are release dates even these days, but: hell yes. I am genuinely stoked. Even if it's weird and flawed I'm on board; Lynch's film is nothing but and still I love it to death, so an ambitious, high-gloss take from someone else is a welcome addition to the oeuvre no matter what. I'm hopeful that it will actually be good as well.
posted by cortex (staff) at 6:42 PM on October 15, 2021 [5 favorites]


I am also looking forward to Dune and hope to make my dad watch it with me at his house (he enjoys movies but rarely bothers to see them).

It will finally get a bit cool and dry around here Sunday so that's just nice for me, a person who likes that.
posted by skynxnex at 7:08 PM on October 15, 2021 [2 favorites]


There are whispers of rumours of murmurings that Hong Kong might allow some travel and return without quarantine after Q1 2022/the Beijing Olympics/the Rugby Sevens in early April - currently regardless of vaccination status, all returning travellers have a 21-day, self-paid hotel quarantine if they test negative and 21 days in a hospital if they test positive. This has made leaving the city impossible for basically everyone for nearly two years - for perspective, I took ten trips overseas in 2019.

(Of course, this probably depends on raising our vaccination rate for over-80s to something higher than its current 15%, but I will leave it as an exercise for the reader to speculate as to why that is. Sigh.)
posted by mdonley at 7:16 PM on October 15, 2021 [1 favorite]


I am planning a short trip to New York next week! Looking at my pre-corona calendar it is almost exactly 2 years to the day since my last visit. I miss travelling, and I miss New York, and I am looking forward to just eating my way through the city. Copenhagen has really good food, both high-end and low-, but it is not good at ethnic specialties. I have a vacation plan to take a walk down Roosevelt ave. in Queens just trying everything along the way :)
posted by alchemist at 9:55 PM on October 15, 2021 [6 favorites]


I am excited about carving pumpkins next week and two exciting job interviews I have lined up, now that I've finally bit the bullet and really started looking for something less insane.
posted by Grandysaur at 11:06 PM on October 15, 2021 [2 favorites]


Dune will be the first film I see in a cinema since the pandemic! I haven’t even seen the original or read the book, it’s just a huge pop culture reference, and I love Zendaya. I’m looking forward to going home for Christmas without isolating, I’m going mid December so two months away!
posted by ellieBOA at 11:44 PM on October 15, 2021 [3 favorites]


Surprised to realise I am actually looking forward to things:

1. The French Dispatch. Mr Anderson's films please me immensely. This is one of those Lucy's Footballs of a movie, but hopefully it opens the day before my birthday, and if I go to the first showing it won't be too crowded.

2. Julian Lage, the wonderful guitar player, is scheduled to play in London on November 12th, and I have tickets and will be going, plague willing.

3. Graham, who makes superb bodies and necks for electric guitar, a number of which I already have all bundled up into instruments of joy, is retiring at the end of the year. I hopefully have a commission in for him to do me a thinline telecaster (the kind with the f-holes) before he does so, with (eccentrically) arm- and belly-contours, for which I've got a Charlie Christian pickup for the neck (with a matching bridge tele pickup. He won't get started on this until mid-November at the earliest, so I won't see anything of it until the early next year, but am excite and am definitely looking forward to it.
posted by Grangousier at 3:20 AM on October 16, 2021 [5 favorites]


I was inspired to order a bunch of licorice and other candy, and it’s arriving Monday!
posted by moonmilk at 5:16 AM on October 16, 2021 [3 favorites]


Due to the various lockdowns, I've been accumulating tickets to events, which are then cancelled or postponed. So, in terms of postponed, I have a lot to look forward to. PWEI (tix bought in 2019), Billy Bragg, Hannah Gadsby (was meant to be next week), the Punters' Club reunion show, Violent Femmes... I think that's all, but who knows?

I would like to look forward to swimming off Borneo, but I'm not letting myself do that just yet. I will allow myself to look forward to NYE at a mate's farm, if I'm allowed to leave Melbourne at that point.
posted by pompomtom at 6:24 AM on October 16, 2021 [1 favorite]


Norway. I have a plane ticket booked, though it's some months away, deep into 2022. It may not happen due to {waves at the last few years} all manner of things, but in the meantime I have something to look forward to that - and this is important - sits on the other side of the looming winter months.

What to do in Norway? Hiking and walking and train rides and possibly some Hurtigruten ferry rides. I've done little bits of Norway before - I saw in my 30th birthday in a spectacular hotel deep in fjord country - and there's more than a lifetime of places to wander around and explore, and also return to. The Lofoten Islands has been top of my list for a while now, but of course {waves at the last few years}.

I also, if I can get it through customs, will be bringing some proper Lemon Curd to a good friend of many years, who has promised me home-made cake, Brunost, and maybe a bit of sailing, in return. Adventures await! There's also enough time to learn a bit of Norwegian e.g. "Mitt MetaFilter er fullt av ål" beforehand.
posted by Wordshore at 6:48 AM on October 16, 2021 [16 favorites]


What I was looking forward to: 2 weeks off from work, no travel, just being around home, and it has been delightful. But now I'm at the end, I go back to work on Monday, my little taste of retirement is over. *sigh* So now I gotta find something else to look forward to. First snowstorm, maybe?
posted by JanetLand at 7:28 AM on October 16, 2021 [2 favorites]


In an almost unheard of event, I will be taking the train to Pittsburgh without the rest of my family next week to hang out with friends, eat, drink beer, and watch Halloween-appropriate movies for four days.

I pretty much never travel solo unless it's for work, and I am really looking forward to it.
posted by ryanshepard at 7:37 AM on October 16, 2021 [3 favorites]


When something important is on my horizon, every other date is expressed in my head as a delta. Right now the dueling zero points in my mind are October 26 and November 3.

Today (Δτ1 = -10) I have a walk with a friend I haven’t seen in several weeks, and then a monthly zoom with some friends who live far away. Next Thursday (Δτ1 = -5) it’s parent teacher conferences for Little eirias, which will be the first really informative such meetings in two years (and conveniently, all happening on Zoom, in the event that the night requires beer). December 11 (Δτ2 = +25) is my back of the envelope estimate for when life with Little eirias can start getting… I don’t know, normal is probably a stretch, but it would be nice to no longer feel it’s irresponsible to take her anywhere with walls.
posted by eirias at 8:00 AM on October 16, 2021 [1 favorite]


I'm going to the ballet tonight. Next week is my birthday. I'm running (well, walking/jogging) a 5K next weekend.
posted by kathrynm at 8:22 AM on October 16, 2021 [2 favorites]


A conversation on the topic I had with my therapist this week.

Me: I'm having so much fun planning for Christmas! I've started gift shopping, made a baking spreadsheet, its so nice!
Therapist: That's great! In the past you've been having trouble being excited about the future, what do you think changed?
Me: I got incredibly worried about the supply chain.
posted by lepus at 8:26 AM on October 16, 2021 [34 favorites]


One of my favorite October traditions has been that a local org who does pop-up drive-in movies does Halloweeny double-features, and we have tickets tonight to see The Nightmare Before Christmas (one of my husband's favorite movies) and Gremlins, which *whispering* I've never seen all the way through before. I didn't feel safe going last year (also you had to stay in your car instead of sitting out on folding chairs like most people do, but I didn't feel like dealing with porta-potties either), and I really need out of the house. I'm very excited about packing up an epic picnic, and we are having absolutely perfect nighttime weather right now.

This is at least 18 months overdue but I finally bit the bullet and got a telemed appointment this past Tuesday and picked up an antidepressant prescription the next morning. I assume I already feel better just from having done the damn thing and not the medication, but I do already feel better and look very much forward to that continuing to trend.
posted by Lyn Never at 9:44 AM on October 16, 2021 [7 favorites]


Woke up this morning and it was chilly, but delicious snuggle under blankets with a purring catortwo. So finally get to take out the window a/c units (figure out the smell in one, not looking forward) keep the window fans just in case, and delight in being a little bit cold unless moving. But hoping its warm enough to mature my last crop of excellent peppers.
posted by winesong at 10:27 AM on October 16, 2021 [3 favorites]


I'm looking forward to the end of summer. I know it's technically autumn, but it's still been a sweaty, ugly, oppressive air-swamp every day in my town for months that makes going outside painful. I cannot understand why midwesterners schedule all their outdoor events for the time of year when it's absolutely miserable to be outside. All of you lovely people who enjoy summer are incomprehensible aliens to me. (Cheers! I'm glad somebody likes it!) Though, today's actually rather nice, for the second time in more than half a year.

Pretty much everything else notable and good depends so much on COVID trajectories that it seems presumptuous to say I'm looking forward to it rather than just vaguely hoping that it actually happens this time after a year delay.

I suppose I'm looking forward to a vasectomy in a couple weeks, which I've been putting off for years. I'm not looking forward to the actual event itself; I am looking forward to having it completed.
posted by eotvos at 10:49 AM on October 16, 2021 [4 favorites]


Seconding the anticipation for seeing Dune, which should happen for me next week or the following.

I'm also going to be in a much better place than last year to experience Día de los Muertos observances, ofrendas, catrinas...
posted by Sheydem-tants at 10:57 AM on October 16, 2021 [3 favorites]


Well, I was really looking forward to the bubble tea I ordered with lunch, which was the main reason I decided to order from this particular Thai place. But Doordash fucked me over... AGAIN... by forgetting our drinks.

So, uh, I dunno, man. Probably take a nap this afternoon. Maybe drink a beer later. Not a lot going on right now.

Oh... my new Förhäxa tarot is supposedly out for delivery today, so I AM looking forward to that! And also enjoying some truly cool fall weather today, and some sunshine.

OH!! And season 3 of Succession starts tomorrow. I've really been looking forward to that!
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 10:57 AM on October 16, 2021 [2 favorites]


I am trying hard not to focus on Alaska’s ongoing epically terrible covid crisis. I would normally clear my head outside on a bike but it is shoulder season and we’re getting all the 35-40F rain and sleet lately and even if it is not actively raining it is too sloppy by late afternoon for me to want to mountain bike after work, and too slick to get out on the road bike happily.

BUT! Within the next two weeks it will be real winter and the mudflats will freeze hard and even if it doesn’t snow we will have studded tire fatbike + ice skate season. This is the best season you can have besides snow season and forever-light season. I love throwing my skates in my backpack and biking on the flats until I find a pond or flooded area that has frozen up nicely and then skating wherever I want. Some years it is amazing glass everywhere and some years you get rocks and sand and there’s a lot of serendipity involved that tickles all the right parts of my brain.

Pray for cold, friends.
posted by charmedimsure at 11:01 AM on October 16, 2021 [8 favorites]


Switching workgroups, will soon be through a massive licensing exam and have brain space (and weekend space) for other things again, Metafilter gift swap, long jogs on cold autumn mornings. And a big box of Penzeys spices.
posted by curious nu at 11:37 AM on October 16, 2021 [2 favorites]


Tonight I'm watching this movie with my wife and some friends, and tomorrow I'm gonna meet up with another friend for an afternoon of record shopping and beer drinking, but prior to that I'm looking forward to the end of my shift at 5:00.
posted by The Card Cheat at 11:43 AM on October 16, 2021


Here, in the US, I’m very much looking forward to the possibility of getting my kid vaccinated in the next month or so.
posted by sciencegeek at 12:33 PM on October 16, 2021 [13 favorites]


I quit my job of the last year that i have been absolutely miserable at, and this coming Friday is my last day! So that, primarily. Then a week of downtime, and a new job to kick off November. I’m looking forward to revisiting the album of covers and originals I have been working on (mostly off, rarely on) for the past few years.

Tomorrow we might take the dogs into Manhattan (we’re in Queens), and it’ll be the younger dog’s first time in the city. We got her right before the pandemic so she’s not especially exposed to lots of people and dogs, so we’ll see how it goes.

I’m looking forward to seeing how my new anti-anxiety meds work out too. Lexapro has been great but I’ve been a whole weight-loss/diabetes turnaround thing for the past year, and I found it wasn’t helping it much so switching things up a bit over the next week or two. Let’s see how it goes!
posted by bxvr at 1:55 PM on October 16, 2021 [2 favorites]


For years I have had in my mind the ideal wool cardigan and have been searching, searching, searching. The longer this has gone the more I have resolved that if I ever found the right one I would buy it, regardless of price. Well it finally showed up at Pendleton this fall for a stupidly expensive price and I ordered it. Should be here soon. It will probably be too big because of course nothing truly great ever comes in XS but I thought it was worth the $7.50 in return shipping to try it.

Tuesday I get my booster. After that kicks in I think I'm going to loosen up somewhat on the Covid caution. I'm a true homebody and my state is an unmitigated disaster of overwhelmed hospitals so it's been a pretty easy decision for me to keep acting more or less like it's still March 2020, but it's finally too much even for me. I'm bored and unhappy. Something has to change.
posted by HotToddy at 2:28 PM on October 16, 2021 [5 favorites]


Y'all. I got news this week that a collection of poems I wrote won a small-press chapbook contest! This is unbelievable--I'm not a writer, but I've made some massive life changes over the past couple of years (namely punking off from everything to go goat farming) and allowing myself creative space has been a huge part of building a life no longer structured around [what were to me] the anxieties and ever-draining demands of work in the city.

I'm overjoyed and so incredibly proud; I feel a sense of power in this strange life of solitude and simplicity. This bit of external validation is assurance that I am on--well, I wouldn't want to say the, but a--right path. The person I was five years ago could not conceive of the peace and gratitude I now experience daily. Fuck you, depression! I made it through!

So I am very much looking forward to doing a weird launch reading in the spring of poems about racial alienation and goats and I will definitely also play some dumb songs on ukulele. Keep your eyes peeled for the associated IRL post. So crazy! So excited! Ack!
posted by youarenothere at 3:01 PM on October 16, 2021 [54 favorites]


That's fuckin' rad, youarenothere.
posted by cortex (staff) at 4:40 PM on October 16, 2021 [2 favorites]


I went looking for a film with Javier Bardem. So, I watched Skyfall a month ago, or so. I gnored most of the film until Bardem showed up, excepting the outrageous water shots with a sailboat. Sort of. Then I was engaged by the film. So then I read about the general enthusiasm regarding Daniel Craig's Bond. In short I binge watched the films and then watched Skyfall in proper sequence.I went to a noon showing of No Time To Die, in an imax sort of theater, with reclining seats. It was great. I prefer mayhem to uncomfortable comedy. The villainy was mega horrifying. I can't wait to see Dune. And I can't wait to run across some autumn leaves. Have to harvest my basil. I found a basil plant which will live like a shrub in this climate.
posted by Oyéah at 6:01 PM on October 16, 2021 [5 favorites]


I make small goals. I am looking forward to the soup I will make tomorrow, because I recently worked out how to make lentil soup that is the food of angels. Slightly gassy angels, perhaps, but it helps with the VTOL.

I also have a haircut to look forward to. Since I became okay with having a mane, I've really enjoyed caring for it. The place I go to in North York makes a huge fuss over it, and that's rather nice.

I'm also looking forward to surgery. An odd thing to say, but it's the other half of my massive and misbehaving thyroid. I had one half out in mid-2018 as it was compressing blood vessels in my neck. This other half has decided to push my throat the other way, partially blocking it. This is entirely unfun. Yes, I know I'll be on thyroxin for the rest of my life, but this wee shite needs to be gone.
posted by scruss at 6:35 PM on October 16, 2021 [5 favorites]


"I gnored most of the film..."

This belongs to me now — too bad if you had other plans for it.
posted by jamjam at 8:12 PM on October 16, 2021 [3 favorites]


I just got done with the most intense work period of the year - when I have no brain space for anything else for more than a month. So I'm looking forward to taking a few days off here and there through the end of month. I'm going to a hockey game for my birthday, then seeing friends the next day - I'm looking forward to that. Going to be dog-sitting for Thanksgiving, which will be rad. Borrowing a dog a week a year is awesome! My parents booked travel to the U.S. for March, which will include a trip to see me. It will be the first time I see them in person since November 2019, so I'm super looking forward to that.
posted by gemmy at 8:23 PM on October 16, 2021 [2 favorites]


youarenothere, your news is just way too cool. I'd be totally jazzed if it were me... Hell, I'm totally jazzed for you!

I'm looking forward to going back among people, gonna get my booster this week, then a week after that I'll step toward society, with a mask on. That delta variant a total drag but the real drag is these brain-dead mopes who won't get vaccinated. Personally, I don't give a rats ass if any of them die, or if all of them die, but they are putting me in danger also, and you. I don't even really want to go out after the booster but I just cannot stand this any longer, I need people, I need to be out and about. So I'm looking forward to that, though it's mixed.

Part of the reason I'm more uptight about this covid shit than I might otherwise be -- I got bad news from my cardiologist six weeks ago, he had on his face the look you never want to see on your cardiologists face. It's not garbage in my blood IE cholesterol, which is right where I'd want it, it's not high blood pressure, and my pulse exactly where you'd want it. For whatever reason my heart is skipping around some. A scrip for carvedilol, a beta blocker, and an appointment three months out, not the usual "Hey, see you next year." with the look I want to see on his face. Maybe a pacemaker? He wants to see how three months on this beta blocker affects things. I'd put in 16 pacemakers, I wanted to put them in that day, there in his office, carve myself up and pound those fuckers in with a hammer, but my doc is taking a more measured approach.

My body a traitor. Aside from when I had the heart attacks in the first place it's never played these horses-ass games before, always I've rode hard and put up wet, told it what to do and made it happen. The idea that I can't make it do something I want it to do is infuriating to me.

I haven't said anything about it to family members. And this is the first I've written here about it. I have a close set of friends who know everything -- my true brothers plus Tina also; my family is great but these people know it all, all of my cards face up. But I don't want to be some big candy-ass, walking with a measured pace, everyone wanting to bring out crutches or wheel out wheelchairs or some shit.

So I'm off topic here. I'm actually not looking fwd to whatever this jive is, as you might imagine. But: A perfectly gorgeous day here today, the first bit of fall, maybe a high in the mid 70s, real pleasant. It'd take a real mope to not love Austin in Autumn, after being cooked like bricks in a kiln for six month, a day like today a gift. And: I just looked at a weather page, and tomorrow is forecast with a high of 71F, so I'll end with saying that I'm looking fwd to that.
posted by dancestoblue at 8:28 PM on October 16, 2021 [11 favorites]


i am looking forward to rereading sandman (up to issue 21 so far; there might be one or two individual issues that did not make it into graphic novel publication and escaped my possession during an ill-advised series of lending library gestures some years ago), as i recently learned it is in production for television or something, and to watching some more episodes of french intelligence drama "the bureau" which i'm a few episodes into. i guess i'm looking forward to dune, insofar as i am aware it is a work on the cusp of release and, having seen the prior versions and read some of the books, expect i will consume it at some future time. it is a pretty pallid looking forward, though. (curiously, i dgaf about foundation; dunno why. probably will see some of it sometime.) on occasions when i think of it, i guess i'm looking forward to more episodes of the witcher.
not super happy that the first things that come to mind are media.
i am looking forward to some stumps hastening to rot; some "no-till" style fall garden crops to thrive before freeze kills them; some of my houseplants thriving, some subsisting (might deploy a grow-light for the over-winter-trimmed&potted jalapenos, my first try); hopefully cutting (or lasagne-ing) and amending (probably more "emending" -- it will be incremental) a new garden bed in the spring; i am ruminating upon an impulse to start vermicomposting.
i am looking forward to continued uninterrupted visits with parents and little lurk and little lurk mama. i am looking forward to learning some music, playing some music, hearing some music (right now the local public radio station is kicking ass mixing (mostly) old hip-hop!), and thinking about some music; drinking some coffee; achieving intoxication via certain intoxicants.
pretty routine. there is the risk of a visit from a long-lost friend, uncertain yet whether it is enough of a thing to be a thing-looked-forward-to (though, then probably not vermicomposting either). there are local friends i would be happy to spend some time with; but we are not mutually seeking such company now. i am not at all interested in being around people again; never really was before. (i acknowledge that social serendipity and the familiar stranger made some parts of my life somewhat richer than they are now: i miss, for example, the people from whom i bought my lunch; it is no longer proper to describe myself as a person to whom people spontaneously confess stuff, because no people, now).
i am looking forward to participating in the creation or apprehension of beauty or insight... but have no immediate plans to do anything particular toward that end.
hey, that radio show has ended. the successor is good too, but i'm gonna go back to listening to clawsoon's million-year chromosome mutation data sonification, which is pretty great, and crack open that sandman.
posted by 20 year lurk at 9:29 PM on October 16, 2021


Mrs. Marxchivist and I are taking online art history classes from the Smithsonian. I’m looking forward to our next one on Miro’s “The Farm.” We had a great one today on the art of Dante’s Divine Comedy. Got a great idea for a Metafilter post from it but someone already did it.

And there’s a comic con to look forward to the first Saturday in November.
posted by marxchivist at 10:32 PM on October 16, 2021 [2 favorites]


it feels saucy, looking forward to something - as in, tempting the fates especially since the fates have been dishing it out so hardcore for the last couple of years. That said, if it all cuts in our direction we'll have a place to chill and garden and look at stars in a month or so. And I look forward to that working out. The property comes with a genuine, I kid you not, literal brick shit-house, too. A marvel.

There's a lake down the road there and I'm hoping it'll freeze in winter and I can go skating on it with my kid. (So that's two things to look forward to.) It's a curious thing, the way your mind turns as you get older and have a wider perspective on things: the better view a consolation prize for all the physical aches and stiffness.

(I'm also looking forward to seeing how the dark months coming up feel without booze. Normally it's an utter shit-show with December being an absolute... dungeon (I have a light and special teas and vitamins and exercise and still, it's a thing I make plans around.) I quit drinking some time last spring and since have slept through the night most every night and have less problems with my gut - both of which have been more than enough motivation not to pick up the glass again. I really really liked booze, red wines and bourbon whiskey especially and I thought booze liked me, but it was maybe a little more of a one-way street than I realized... so I'm curious if alcohol's been lying to me about the darkness as well and I'm looking forward to finding out. (christ, that's three things...))
posted by From Bklyn at 1:39 AM on October 17, 2021 [6 favorites]


Ooh I’m looking forward to the gift swap too now!
posted by ellieBOA at 3:58 AM on October 17, 2021 [1 favorite]


The weather has been warmish the last several days. Also been raining the past 2 days, warm and humid. Looking forward to seeing the sun again, and cooler nights for good sleeping weather.

Gathered some leaves from my yard, before the rain started. Painted them with hair conditioner, to keep them from drying out, then let them sit a day. Ironed them between 2 sheets of waxed paper, and will trim around the edges and tape to a window.

Today, looking forward to seeing the sun again, after the rain stops. Going to roast a chicken, with lemon and capers, and do some vacuuming. Always feels good to get rid of the dust bunnies.

Finally got all the supplies needed to make suncatchers, was waiting on one set of beads that took almost 3 weeks to arrive. Have a bunch of other craft supplies and projects lined up, ready for the long dark times, from November to January.

Got a new TV recently, as my old one wasn't playing nicely with streaming channels anymore. It's pretty neat to have a new toy. I don't have cable where I live, so streaming is it (not interested in doing the dish thing, too many channels that I won't watch). Then I can put on some mindless show while doing crafty things.

Found a like-new cashmere scarf at the resale store last week, looking forward to cooler weather so I can try it out. This should be a good week for going around and taking leaf photos. There's a nature preserve nearby, with wide paths. There are old apple trees, and lots of interesting vantage points for photo ops.

I aways have a spurt of energy in the Fall, feeling the need to prepare for winter. Making sure the oil tank is topped off, that I have enough warm clothing (sweatshirts, new socks, hat and gloves, etc.) to see me through, doing a little clearing out of things and redecorating, stuff like that. Now I feel like I can begin to hunker down and relax for a while.
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 4:43 AM on October 17, 2021 [1 favorite]


I am looking forward to Saga issue 55 finally hitting the shelves in January.
posted by janepanic at 5:40 AM on October 17, 2021 [2 favorites]


I’m looking forward to not having a labral tear in my hip anymore. It’s been hurting since January, did PT over the summer which didn’t resolve it, and got it diagnosed on an mri last month. Have a surgery consultation in a couple weeks. I’m dreading the insurance battle and the recovery and just eager for it to all be over. I won’t be mad if I have to take a few weeks off work…
posted by obfuscation at 5:49 AM on October 17, 2021 [1 favorite]


Looking forward to my Pfizer booster shot. It's due in February so I'll be getting it as a birthday gift.
posted by Splunge at 7:45 AM on October 17, 2021


My still newish person's birthday is this coming Friday, and I LOVE giving gifts, and found him a few things. I am hoping one of them is that perfect I didn't know I needed this until I saw it just now gift.

(Honestly though, I thought I had met everyone in this dang city, but in June he found me and I am looking forward to every minute we ever get to spend together because he is astonishing.)
posted by wellred at 7:50 AM on October 17, 2021 [6 favorites]


Lots of movies coming out this fall/early winter:
- Dune
- French Dispatch
- MacBeth
- Licorice Pizza
- West Side Story
- The Matrix Resurrections
posted by octothorpe at 7:55 AM on October 17, 2021 [1 favorite]


Oh and S6 of The Expanse.
posted by octothorpe at 8:29 AM on October 17, 2021 [6 favorites]


I am looking forward to building this Theremin kit.

And then, I suppose, learning how to play it.
posted by soundguy99 at 8:43 AM on October 17, 2021 [4 favorites]


Normally, we'd be "looking forward" to 80,000 inebriated idiots coming to town for Fantasy Fest, but that's been massively scaled down again this year. I think they are still holding some high-dollar events like the Headdress Ball and a couple of Porn Parties, but most of the public festivities, like the parade, have been limited out of existence. The room rates are still at all-time highs and they have been for most of the summer, which is nowhere near normal, and in some instances, tripled.

We have an annual phenomenon starting two weeks prior, where all of the people who couldn't get reservations for the "real deal" settle for coming down and acting like solo Fantasy Festers. It's one thing to be crazy among thousands; it's quite another when you are the only one. This is a good source for some excruciating YouTube videos, and will make every embarrassing thing you've ever done in your life look positively mild by comparison.

It also means that I frequently run across bands of drunken revelers on my bicycle commute to work on say, Wednesday morning at 07:20.
posted by halfbuckaroo at 9:00 AM on October 17, 2021


the stack of pancakes on my plate :D
posted by supermedusa at 9:45 AM on October 17, 2021 [6 favorites]


oh my those cakes were gooood.

so my husband & I are going to Cabo with 4 friends and a 4 year old, to rent a catamaran and sail around the bay of california for a week at the very end of november. WE ARE SO EXCITE!!! we are gonna fish and snorkel and visit some sea lions and chill out. we haven't done a real thing in soooo long.
posted by supermedusa at 9:56 AM on October 17, 2021 [3 favorites]


Moderna booster shot and after I get it I'm going to see my favorite cousins, I haven't seen them since the before times.
posted by mareli at 2:07 PM on October 17, 2021 [4 favorites]


Felt a little sadness contemplating this question. So much has changed and so much is still uncertain. I struggled a lot with depression this year and have disengaged from many of my friends and activities - I feel isolated but very hesitant, unready and uncertain about trying to mend those fences.

But I did the laundry today and changed the sheets, and climbing into a bed with fresh sheets is always nice. I haven't cooked much at all for quite a while, but I bought everything I need for a simple-looking pasta bake recipe which I'll hopefully get to tomorrow night. And the weather here is cooling off so that means sweaters, scarves and boots. I have a lot of craft projects to work on. Some interesting stuff is happening at work.

Some family events are coming up and, since many of my family are unvaccinated but also they're family and I miss them, I'm anxiously waffling over what to do about this.
posted by bunderful at 7:23 PM on October 17, 2021 [7 favorites]


I’m looking forward to the results of a newly-developed blood (and tissue) test that measures if, and how many circulating cancer cells are in your blood. (Yup, imma talk about cancer again - it took over my life for over a year, and I’m still here)
My doc sent in the tissue samples and tubes of blood five weeks ago, so …any day now.
I feel so great these days that I’ve convinced myself I couldn’t possibly have cancer - but intellectually I know that’s not how it works.
There’s also a bit of good news/bad news. Good: this test exists, something that hasn’t been possible until recent developments in genomic mapping. Bad: there are no treatment protocols if a significant number of such cells are found.
BUT - knowledge is power, so I’ll take what I get and go from there.
posted by dbmcd at 7:32 PM on October 17, 2021 [8 favorites]


I've been searching for a new job for the better part of 12 months now, and I'm looking forward to finally getting one. A few weeks ago a turned down a job offer that, despite being a much better salary than I ever thought I'd earn, just wasn't the right fit for a variety of reasons. Next week I'll be traveling to visit in-person at a job that definitely wants to hire me but would require relocating, and which still hasn't given me a salary estimate -- but which would involve collecting and processing many datasets of single-cell neurophysiology from the basal ganglia of humans which would be both extremely fun and very rewarding (pun not intended, for the five of you that get that). Earlier this week I had what I thought was a fairly successful interview at an internationally-known drug company that would be great for life stability. And I've just seen a local posting for a job that looks like it was written for me; soft money but it would still be a big step up in both quality of life and salary from postdoc purgatory. So I'm finally feeling like doors are opening for me again and I'll be able to move on to the next stage of my life and career, whatever it ends up looking like, and I'm really, really, really looking forward to it.
posted by biogeo at 9:12 PM on October 17, 2021 [5 favorites]


Metafilter: for the five of you that get that
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:24 PM on October 17, 2021 [8 favorites]


I'm looking forward to the MF gift swap, which will likely be the only holiday present I'll receive, as sad as that sounds.

My doggo has a hell of an ear infection, and it took us a week (!) to get a vet appt, but that is in the morning. Looking forward to him being on the mend, hopefully--not looking forward to the visit since he's a huge pain at the vet.
posted by maxwelton at 11:34 PM on October 17, 2021 [2 favorites]


I look forward to hopefully completing a bunch of red tape which will mean that i would receive an invalidity pension as of December.
Following paid sick leave for 12 months, in April i had another break down and dropped Out of the system because i was unable to keep the appointments and keep up with the paper work. So since May i have had basically no income, only savings, and no health insurance since April, and severe mental health issues paralysed me so hard the last 5 months that only a couple of weeks ago i picked up again the paper work, and various related medical appointments.
So now i am back on track in the insurance system.

I should add that only through reading metafilter i realised how lucky i am to be in Austria. Decades of socialist governments mean that Austria has a robust system of financial aid for people like me.
As long as one is able to keep up with the Red Tape which is fair enough.

Of course this social safety net has been and continues to be under threat since the conservatives came to power in 2017. The Kurz government are actively eroding and undermining the social safety net. Kurz stepped down last week but his minions are still hard at work.
If you read German check out the chats, or view a reading of some choice morsels.
All the chats are between then Austrian Federal chancellor Kurz, his cabinet, and some with a pollster (named as B.) they paid through Fake invoices with government funds to manipulate polls to influence the elections in 2016. Their scheme was successful, the social democrats lost.
posted by 15L06 at 2:18 AM on October 18, 2021 [6 favorites]


Competitive indoor soccer for the first time in more than a year, for me. We've been practicing outside when we can, but it's not the same.
I've got a game tonight where we mix and match the teams, but no-one goes easy on each other, and my five-a-side team will start up in the first week of November, if ICU numbers stay steady.

...and if we're really lucky, we might get to drive west and ski this winter, but I almost don't want to say it out loud yet, despite paying deposits and booking places to stay.
posted by Kreiger at 7:48 AM on October 18, 2021


I am always looking forward to my next beer.
posted by AugustWest at 11:08 AM on October 18, 2021 [1 favorite]


Travel! I was in Charlotte, NC last weekend. I'll be in Nashville, TN this weekend and in Washington, DC, the following weekend.
posted by emelenjr at 1:02 PM on October 18, 2021


Looking forward to my new book appearing.
Now it's in the hands of the publisher, so there are edits etc to come. Unfortunately supply chains plus Amazon mean it won't appear until 2023.
posted by doctornemo at 1:09 PM on October 18, 2021 [4 favorites]


Just saw this now, on Monday, and briefly thought it was friday. Dang. Dang!
posted by Going To Maine at 3:27 PM on October 18, 2021


The good news is that now you've got something to look forward to!
posted by curious nu at 3:36 PM on October 18, 2021 [6 favorites]


It looks like we will be doing a project meeting in Flanders in December, a couple of days work, interesting enough and nice enough. I am really hoping me and my SO can work out an onward trip to Germany for a long weekend of Xmas markets. Not quite sure what the full set of complications will be in terms of getting digital vaccination certificate, and sorting out a PCR that will apply long enough to get me from UK into Belgium and then Germany, if they are still needed by then. Not sure whether either will still be letting us in at all given how numbers are going here. Very keen to do if possible.
posted by biffa at 4:22 PM on October 18, 2021 [1 favorite]


I make small goals.

scruss I had to read this three times before I realized that it does not say, "I make small goats."

I'm traveling this weekend for the first time since August 2018. I'm going to northern California to spend a weekend with a guy who worked for my dad at a cruise missile base in England at the end of the Cold War and thought my dad was a fantastic guy. He was especially thrilled that my dad sent him to the Soviet Union on one of the inspection teams.

He's been very kind to me and we've swapped mementos of the old days. That said, he and his wife live in a very large off-the-grid house in the middle of nowhere. I've only met them once so I'm renting a car at the airport just in case it turns into a Saw movie.

"I like to reminisce with people I don't even know."

I'm also planning to find those chocolate bars I used to love in California that can't legally be shipped across state lines.

And it was only an extra $40 to fly first class on the way home so I'm looking forward to that too.
posted by bendy at 6:05 PM on October 18, 2021 [6 favorites]


I'm looking forward to having access to a Caterpillar D10 for a little fine gardening, yup, that look like much of my site too! I do industrial site rehabilitation (planning, earthworks, planting - and all the other stuff behind the scenes) and am frantically busy - but that's a good thing for me. I had an idea before I studied, way back in '94 of what I wanted to do and am now doing it at scale - but my own garden is still a wilderness, looks like a prairie waiting for the fire.

biffa! What do you do in Flanders? I cycled across Europe in '91 and so enjoyed Belgium, tbh it was my favourite continental country of that trip, despite awful weather, constant battering wet northerly.

I've just recently discovered Burial, and have South London Boroughs on repeat. Amazing for drawing to.

We're (well most of the team of 5 million) currently very nervous as Jacinda and team lost the plot last week and confused the %^ out of everyone and Delta is out in the wild (basically due to institutional racism and not wanting to work with Maori and Pasifika) - in Auckland which is in Level 3 for another two weeks. Even here some people just refuse to get it that public health means everyone, and that even gangland has a role to play, 'cause no one in the gangs is going to respond to officials (and police have abused public health in the past, they just can't resist). Interesting times.
posted by unearthed at 11:01 PM on October 18, 2021 [1 favorite]


AAPL hitting $150 again.

The final Expanse book: Leviathan Falls.

The final season of The Expanse.

The God is Not Willing a new Steven Erikson Malazan book.
posted by cjorgensen at 8:26 AM on October 19, 2021 [1 favorite]


I am also kinda surprised that I'm looking forward to anything.
Two things:
1. I got tickets for an immersive Edgar Allen Poe event. It is staged in a historic mansion where I live. I CAN'T WAIT!!
2. I know it's not coming out until December, but the remake of West Side Story. I'm so, so, so excited to see this.
posted by marimeko at 9:28 AM on October 19, 2021 [1 favorite]


Getting back to regular painting practice. I moved into a new apartment about 5 weeks ago. I have set up a pretty spacious painting corner (bonus of living alone). But so far gripped nightly by indecision, making minimal progress on the remaining boxes (of which there are so many), watching painting videos on YouTube, and other obstacles. (Though, watching the painting videos is better than watching all the Graham Norton videos. Time stealers! [But definitely recommend if you're feeling low - esp the series "Try Not To Laugh on the Graham Norton Show".])

I have been thinking about a Meta for starting a MeFi art group, wherein folks could post their current work and provide helpful or encouraging notes for each other, recommend videos and podcasts, etc? But I don't know where or how. I think people use FaceBook for this, but of course that place is fraught. Hmm.
posted by Glinn at 9:33 AM on October 19, 2021 [8 favorites]


Glinn, a number of people on my wife's own Wordpress blog use the platform to show and critique each other's paintings and drawings.
posted by unearthed at 9:48 AM on October 19, 2021 [1 favorite]


Pink Martini concert tomorrow! First stop on the tour, too. It'll be my first indoor event of the COVID era and my second concert. (First was a glorious jazz and blues fest in August that was outdoors and with plenty of room for everyone.)
posted by BibiRose at 1:34 PM on October 19, 2021 [1 favorite]


What do you do in Flanders?

I do some research work that has two Flemish city partners so made a fair number of visits setting that up and getting it going. We will hopefully be having our first IRL meeting in two years there. We were able to do a Xmas market weekend in one of them after that last meeting, and this time fancy a Bavarian Xmas market visit so if I can work out the trains & admin I will have a night in Belgium then train journey across Germany over the weekend.
posted by biffa at 1:53 PM on October 19, 2021 [3 favorites]


I've enjoyed reading this thread, but it's also made me realize how depressed I am. I am not really looking forward to anything. Or that's not really true.
I've just started an SSRI for the first time and I hope it will help my anxiety. I'm feeling very nauseous today and I'm hoping it's drug side effects and not ecoli. I've been paddling a kayak on the Vlei and it's rather polluted, so that's something I worry about.
I've got some time to spend on my own writing and usually that makes me feel much better, so I'm looking forward to that. If I can get over the initial hurdle of just getting started.
I might get up at 4am on Friday to watch the live stream of the new Critical Role campaign. I've never done anything like that before and I've been really loving listening to the Critical Role games as podcasts.
I find it incredibly soothing and one of the few things that give me pleasure right now.
Also, I'm looking forward to cuddling with my new 2 baby rats, Jasper and Nicodemus. They are super cute and funny.
Yesterday they fell asleep in my sleeve.
posted by Zumbador at 2:40 AM on October 20, 2021 [8 favorites]


Technically there are things on my horizon and they are things I theoretically like, but my entire brain remains firmly planted in March 2020. But sometimes it is entertaining to watch my body go have experiences without me. She seems to be having a grand old time.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 7:55 AM on October 20, 2021 [7 favorites]


For years I have had in my mind the ideal wool cardigan and have been searching, searching, searching. The longer this has gone the more I have resolved that if I ever found the right one I would buy it, regardless of price. Well it finally showed up at Pendleton this fall for a stupidly expensive price and I ordered it. Should be here soon. It will probably be too big because of course nothing truly great ever comes in XS but I thought it was worth the $7.50 in return shipping to try it.


Update: Hahahaha this thing is so huge you could fit two of me in it. Goddamn it. It is otherwise perfect.

Also I got my booster and holy hell. It hit me WAY harder than the other two. Skin hurts, everything aches, stiff neck, etc. What a miserable night I had.
posted by HotToddy at 1:10 PM on October 20, 2021 [6 favorites]


HotToddy: " It hit me WAY harder than the other two. "

I got a Pfizer booster after rounds 1 & 2 with CoronaVac, and I was miserable for 2 days, muscle aches, neck aches, generally grumpy and tired.
posted by signal at 7:13 AM on October 21, 2021


I woke up in a really open, positive mood two days in a row and just realized it is less likely this is a coincidence than it is my new meds finally kicking in and oh wow thank gawd.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:33 AM on October 21, 2021 [8 favorites]


signal, yeah, still feeling pretty terrible today and had the most impressively awful night--I slept like a stone but woke up drowning in sweat, like a fever had broken, and all of my teeth hurt this morning so I must have been grinding my teeth. Injection arm is killing me and my skin still hurts. I assume I am having a truly awesome immune response!
posted by HotToddy at 9:57 AM on October 21, 2021


I found out inadvertently that one of my exes (possibly the most fraught one) has left the city (indeed, left the country!), and it's a strange feeling, both empty and light. For so long we have shared the city, with our interlocking webs of friends and acquaintances, and the potential for chance run-ins. You know how there are people you just...never want to encounter with 3-day-old hair and a ratty sweatshirt? Even if you'd never, ever date them again? It's just a whole thing? Yeah, it was that ex.

And just like that, vamoose! The first thought that popped into my head was actually "well now I don't have to blowdry my hair before I go to [show venue] I guess." So that's a kind of looking-forward, I suppose...
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 10:15 AM on October 21, 2021 [3 favorites]


Oh hey a couple things to look forward to just got closer!

1. This guy leads monthly photo walks throughout New York City; he's a sweet guy who started doing this to encourage budding photographers and nudge them to network. I started joining in about two years ago, and then between Covid and my own bum knee I had to miss like a years' worth. He finally started up again (after a year off) in August, I was able to join the one for September, and this Saturday is the next outing, up in a park which should just be starting to get some fall color.

2. And then a week after that is The Great Pupkin, my neighborhood's dog costume contest, which is every bit as awesome as that sounds and possibly more. (Here's a collection of photos from the last time they were able to go live.)

3. And then a couple weeks after that I decided screw it, and signed up for yet another photo walk during what will likely be the peak of fall color in New York. It's in the ass-end of the Bronx and I'll have to get up at 7 am to pull myself together to get there in time, but I don't care.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:40 AM on October 21, 2021 [3 favorites]


We're going to Cape May tomorrow, which is great because of the birding for me and the beach for my wife. Our son is coming along for the ride, and as long we play mini-golf once or twice, he's good. We're all vaccinated, we're staying in a place with a kitchen and plan on cooking dinner each night, yet I still feel this weird tension between doing things it's pretty safe to do and just hunkering down. It sucks actually being responsible and thinking about the consequences of your actions, I guess is what I'm saying.
posted by mollweide at 6:19 PM on October 21, 2021 [2 favorites]


As per my post above, I saw The French Dispatch this afternoon. I thought it was wonderful and my life is much improved by including. That said, I'm no longer looking forward to it, but rather back upon it.
posted by Grangousier at 12:03 PM on October 22, 2021 [2 favorites]


I don’t have an answer; which is itself worth contemplating.

Much love to all the mefites.
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:48 PM on October 23, 2021 [2 favorites]


'Dead Lens': Contrasting visuals of the sun as interpretive Trope in The Walking Dead and Wayward Pines.
posted by clavdivs at 11:47 PM on October 23, 2021


I did not know I was looking forward to - in fact I was actively not looking forward to - yesterday's day of local history talks, but I enjoyed it, especially seeing my sometimes-collaborator for the first time in about 18 months, and being reminded of his (mostly) endearing fusspotness. Also there was a good cat in the churchyard.
posted by paduasoy at 1:18 AM on October 24, 2021


Oh gosh. The birthday was lovely. I’m so grateful to see him happy.
posted by wellred at 3:22 PM on October 24, 2021


I skipped this thread last week because it was too painful. Things to look forward to were too far off. BUT! People in my state have gotten vaccinated (partially because there are mandates) and we are rushing towards 90% 12+ double dosed. And my parents can finally make plans to come and visit! I haven't seen them in person since July and I just want to give my mum a big old double vaxxed hug.
posted by freethefeet at 3:52 AM on October 25, 2021 [3 favorites]


Horizon Event #1 — the FDA’s advisory committee meeting on Pfizer vax for 5-11 — has come and gone, and the motion to recommend approval passed 17-0-1, and the FDA looks poised to issue an EUA this week. Horizon Event #2, the CDC’s advisory committee meeting on the same, happens next week and I hope will be followed by a new thing to look forward to: a fully immunized child.

Also, today I gave a talk to my favorite audience on a project that’s in progress, and they did the thing I knew they’d do, the reason I brought the talk to them in the first place, and that was to pepper me with questions about other things I should try, and now I feel great.
posted by eirias at 2:44 PM on October 26, 2021


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