Falling

Two days ago was the first official day of fall. The trees haven't started turning yet and the weather hasn't decided to be cold yet (she flirts with the idea, but apparently isn't ready to make any sort of commitment), but that's all coming and it's a glorious time.

Autumn is most definitely my favorite season and here is why (in no particular order):

• Clothes: I'm always very tired of my summer clothes by the time fall gets around, and it's the best to finally break out the sweaters and jackets that I've been missing for several months. It's really the cutest season to dress for: spring and summer you dress for comfort, winter you dress for warmth, but fall you dress to look good. Fall is time to get back to business after summer, so the dress is less casual and that's great. Casual clothes are comfortable, but never quite as flattering and are rarely as interesting as nicer clothes. And all of those classic neutral colors that will always be my favorite to wear fit with the season better than any other.
• Football: By far my favorite sport to watch. I'm not a fanatic, but that doesn't mean that every year about mid-summer I don't start counting down the weeks until kickoff. It's really a great time of the year. It gives something to talk about to many a male and provides plenty of entertainment.
• My birthday: Even though these days it's not as exciting as it used to be, it's certainly a good thing to have a day when everybody feels obligated to be nice to you and wish you a happy day. And it's always good to be one year older. Especially for me, as I'm young for my age (meaning basically everybody I associate with is older than me). It's always a feeling of catching up to turn another year. This year it'll be good to be not nineteen. I know it's just a number and technically not that big of a deal, but twenty is a big one to me. All of my friends are in their twenties and I'm still an infernal teenager.
• Leaves: I love the colors and the rustling and the big piles. So pretty and so fun. Towards the tops of the mountains the colors are changing and slowly creeping down. I can't wait for them to get into the valley.
• Thanksgiving: What better holiday than the one where you get to stuff your face guiltlessly? I love pumpkin pie and cranberry sauce. And I love being in Grandma's kitchen with five thousand other woman working on something or another. And I love lying around groaning about how much I ate but still slowly consuming a piece of pecan pie. I love turkey sandwiches for the next week or so every meal. I love the beginning of the holiday season and listening to Christmas music for the first time for the year (the music that I'll of course be dying to get turned off by the end of the holidays, but breaking it out for the first time is still a treat).
• School: Now I don't really like school, but I like being in school better than the summer (summer's only good for two weeks and then I start needing a purpose in life again). And the first couple months of school are nice because I'm still in the motivated stage of things (the rest of the year is unfortunately a big slack-off). I like the structure of school and it's not feeling old until about late October, but then soon enough Thanksgiving break comes along and I'm revitalized until the end of the semester. I don't like the second semester of school ever, except maybe the first week. (And of course I'm not really doing school this particular fall, but it's still a good part of the general autumn experience.)