Bouquets of Sharpened Pencils~

Ladies and gentleman, we can all breathe a sigh of relief! Whew!!!

Somewhere around mid-January I get the wintertime grays. Literally--I can't see past the sun going down at 4 pm and the layers of ice and snow covering every imaginable surface. Somehow I convince myself that summer is just a hop skip and a jump away. Naively I psych myself up to spend countless hours with mediocre literature and the alternating sounds of the lake crashing into the shore or the rhythm and bass pulsing through the buds of my iPod shutting out everything else. I imagine myself working on my (safe! SPF 45 baby) tan with the backdrop of peace and tranquility and whatever drama happens to be unfolding on the pages of my current book.

The fiction! The audacity! That shit doesn't happen. Summertime has a whole new meaning in the real world. I long for the days of summer I so recklessly wasted before I knew how to truly revel in three months off. Summertime just means you get to trade ice and snow for blue skies and 99 degrees. It just means that you get to do your work while the lucky few are out enjoying "summer". It means that although you've uttered "I love the outdoors..." what you really meant was "...when I'm camping with my fam, partaking in my share of alcoholic beverages on the coast of somewhere beautiful." Otherwise, really, nature is just a big old pain in the ass!!

Now that I've lived a full summer, and almost a full year as a working girl away from the nanny gig (and the full size swimming pool) I feel I've finally seen the error of my misguided ways. Summer is crap. Summer sucks. (Except for folks like my sissy who was smart enough to choose a job that lets you take advantage of your fully- capable-adult- decision- making- skills and revel in three months off).

I heart September. I heart fall. Forget long hours and endless to-do lists. We've got bedtimes and school nights, we've got routine! I heart routine! We've got dinner times and schedules. We've (almost!) got new TV to dive into with cups of hot tea and extra blankets around for those moments it gets a little chilly. I'm a routine girl. I get up earlier and start my day the right way. I'm reading and writing because now suddenly I have all this time! While summer so greedily sucked away every precious minute I had, fall gives it back in spades! I'm speaking almost entirely in exclamations, and I give credit where credit is due; to FALL! To new sweaters and corduroy skirts! To pumpkin spice lattes and apples right off the tree! To not having to keep up my pedicure and swimsuit season coming to a close!! To spending weekends with my sister crafting, talking, and cracking each other up!

I feel like skipping in the crisp morning air. I feel like dancing through college campuses. I feel like sharpening bouquets of pencils and just passing them around. Instead, I'll just do all that in my imagination; save the public from my autumn--induced euphoria.

On second thought, that pencil thing might just get me through the afternoon!