autumn – The Cameraphone Diaries

“No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace as I have seen in one autumnal face” – John Donne

I woke up this morning with my socked foot sticking out from under the covers. I felt very warm under the covers, and outside (while still the inside of my apartment) felt very brisk. This is the point at which I gave up and welcomed in fall.

It’s been feeling more and more autumny for days now – I can’t put my finger on what it is exactly. A smell? A certain snap to the air? Maybe the trees are changing colors and I just haven’t really been paying attention? Suddenly all I want to do is shop for new boots and sweaters. Not to mention school supplies…oh, the school supplies…

I can’t stop reminiscing, as of late. Mostly I’ve been thinking about being in high school. Which isn’t to say that I want to go back to high school. I mean, even the memories I’m getting trapped in are of being in bed when the alarm goes off, and it’s so early and dark out. It’s not particularly welcoming.

I will try to steer my thoughts toward fall in college – with its classes that start later. (Remember when we were all in high school and we would get up at like 6:00 to go to zero period? And it’s just what you did? That ish is crazy.) College is good fall memories. I’ll have to buy some strawberry conditioner (works every time) and a pumpkin pie spice candle.

Or I can think about being in New York – working at the haunted house in October (October is even the coolest word!), and everything gets windy, but not cold yet, and leaves are everywhere, and you’re just so freaking happy that it’s not summer anymore. The landlord turns your heat on for the first time in 6 months… Everything is burgundy and burnt orange and brown. I mean the clothes, of course.

I’m really looking forward to the fact that this show and the next show we’re doing are in Mountain View. Downtown Mountain View in the fall is pretty darn perfect. Again with the leaves and the wind. And soon it’ll be Halloween. I don’t like dressing up for Halloween, but I love every other single thing about it.

I will bemoan one more time the fact that, living where we do, we don’t really get seasons. This just means I’ll have to be sure to go to Lake County this fall to enjoy it. And take advantage of every second I’m down at work.

I love spring and I love summer and I even love winter, but above all else, man I love the fall.

Sacrilege?

I am reluctant to admit this but Ash Wednesday and Lent completely snuck up on me this year and all over Facebook are people talking about getting their ashes done and what they’re giving up for Lent. I usually need some time to really think about what I can deal with giving up versus what I should give up and where they overlap. In the past I have given up chocolate and ice cream but I always knew that I was really just treating Lent like some kind of diet plan and that wasn’t really the point. So last year I decided to give up saying bad things about my friends, which I had noticed I was doing a lot, and I thought that that was a) a nice quantifiable thing that I could keep track of, and b) also something that would better myself and make me more Christian.

This year as I said it snuck up on me and, not willing to make a sudden deal to give up refined sugar or diet Coke for the next 40 days, I thought I’d just skip it this year. Then I thought, why not give up fighting with Drew? So I asked him what he thought, and he agreed that would be a great thing for me to give up. I told him he had to give up fighting with me too. He asked, But what if I’m right about something? I said, Then we have to discuss it like grown-ups.

So here goes, 40 days of not fighting.

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