It's That Time of Year

My Grandma Jensen and Weather & Climate professor (yes, I took Weather & Climate in college for a science credit) both told me I would make an amazing Weather Anchor. Actually, my Grandma still thinks she’ll see me on Kare 11 News one morning. I’m 99% sure this will never happen, but here Grandma, I’ll give you today’s weather forecast via Internet:

It’s officially fall.

I know this because the leaves are beginning to come down - they crumple under feet and clog the sewer grates. There are new smells – and to think my nose had just begun adjusting to the sour smells of garbage baking beneath the sun. These new smells of the first day of fall are fresh and clean. Today, people pulled out sweaters and drank hot coffee and stopped packing for weekends away at the Hamptons. More tour buses crowd the streets than they did in June, July and August. Flannel prints and tall leather boots fill store windows and I crave crisp apples and snuggling under covers.

Today I finally got my haircut and walked out into the Saturday morning daylight feeling like so much had been lifted off me. I don’t know what I would do without the change of season. As much as I love routine and using the phrase, “Who moved my cheese?”, I also love this day of change. The day when I realize we’ve moved into a different phase. And even though I’m terrible at science and I don’t even pay attention to weather reports, I do know it’s fall. I know it’s here when I breathe in and out harder and slower - and realize everyone else has shelved their flip-flops but me.