Oh, Fall. I walked through campus yesterday kicking through every pile of leaves I could find. There’s really nothing as satisfying as that soft rustling of leaves as they explode away from my boot and then settle back on the sidewalk in small piles. I got a few raised eyesbrows on account of my goony smile and the stems stuck in my hair, but I’m used to that… I get raised eyesbrows on account of my goony smile basically every time I drink coffee.
Speaking of coffee… that’s what fall is, I think. Fall is coffee and pumpkin pie and driving to Manchester, Michigan with my sister. We visit the cider mill there, stop for a snack at the Coffee Mill Cafe, drive down M-52 on our very own color tour, and make frequent stops to ooooh and aaaaah over… tractors. Someday, when I’m fabulously wealthy, I’ll buy my Kelsey a tractor instead of just an apple or two. She’s looking forward to it, I know.
I balance an overly adult love of color tour drives with an immature delight in apple picking. When I visited the Eplegaarden – an orchard outside of Madison, Wisconsin – in October, I even made a point to find out just “How Tall This Fall?!” I was. Great news: I’ve grown a whole zero inches this year, a whole five in a hat and heels.
I know the fall weather will end soon. With the end of daylight savings time the whiskey hues of sunset color my street by five or so. But I’ll preserve the sense of the season in the foods of Thanksgiving and Christmas: the rich, just-short-of-bitter scent of fallen leaves finds its complement in my coffee; the sweet, crisp fall wind flavors the apples in a thanksgiving pie; the warm, nutmeg earthtones of the landscape reappear in roasted squash and sweet potatoes. And that goony smile I get when crunching leaves will reappear when my parents visit this weekend, when my cousin gets married later this month, when I bring my friend a birthday cupcake this weekend, when I hug my sister on Thanksgiving, when I see old friends during holiday breaks, when I avoid work and watch a Christmas movie with my roommate, … and every time I drink yet another cup of coffee, of course.
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