Wednesday, October 2, 2013

autumn is in the south

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i know it is fall because my baby is sleeping more than last week, even though it is not grey and moody outside, as any self-respecting fall should be. i mean, i know i talked about how gorgeous the weather is just the other day, and it is, and i will go outside and enjoy it, but come on. we all know what fall is supposed to be like, right?

i remember when loverboy first got excited about moving to Georgia, where "the leaves actually change." i was so confused. don't leaves always change in the fall? i mean, it's fall—leaves turn brown and then they fall off the trees. duh. then i witnessed the "changing of the leaves" here in Georgia, and i have to admit, sure, it's pretty. all that orange and yellow and red. i get it. it's colorful. it's autumnal. so now i know. autumn is what you have in the south.

in texas, we just have fall.

and for me, fall will always be mostly brown. brown and bleak, grey and drizzly, crunchy and full of lightning. full of sudden freezes and brief flashes of heat. full of electric blankets you turn on when you need them — on the weekends, when the cold fronts come. they always somehow come on the weekends. or, if you're lucky, on a friday. then you go to school bundled up and daydream during math class about the stack of library books and hot cocoa at home. and that's another thing. here, it's hot cider. and don't get me wrong, i love hot cider. especially when loverboy makes it with apple butter (another foreign concoction from the south) and orange slices and lots of nutmeg and whole cloves. but, it's just different. you know. it's more like autumn. and not like fall.

and as much as i'm coming to love autumn in the south—apple picking and flaming leaves and pork for barbecue—a little small part of me misses fall.

fall, where you can tell it's not summer anymore and it's not winter yet only because you're in school and not on vacation. fall, when the trees turn brown. fall, when the rain is plentiful (usually). fall, when bugs die. fall, when it's time to pull out all your calvin & hobbes, make yourself some peanut butter crackers, and call in sick. fall, a good time to go to soccer practice. fall, when pumpkins turn into pies.

but since we're in the south, i guess i should start calling it autumn...and go outside and enjoy those leaves. ;)

1 comment:

  1. Beautiful---gave me goosebumps. Although that could also be the weather here, which is certainly not autumn, and not even fall...in California we get neither. At best, we get a colder spring, which perhaps has its charms...but something in me misses autumn and fall, too. Funny things we people are.

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