Five and a Half Reasons Why I love Fall
1. CANDY CORN.
Orange triangles of pure bliss. I can't get enough!
2. Chai tea lattes and pumpkin spice nut mix.
As I have only recently discovered, I have a penchant for almost anything that is pumpkin-flavored: coffee, weird but delicious pumpkin-coated pretzels & popcorn, cream cheese, pumpkin dip. My most recent obsession is this pumpkin spice nut mix I discovered at Target, with sugar-coated walnuts, graham cracker chunks, and pumpkin-coated raisins. It can't be good for me to be consuming such copious quantities of fake-fruit flavored"foods," but I'm addicted. Hard-core. Seriously. It's quite gross. I'm going to pay the price someday when I turn a sallow shade of orange, have no teeth intact (hello, free dental care!), and suffer from diabetes, but it is worth it, I tell you!
3. Northwestern Football Games.
It's really more about getting to visit the alma mater's campus, which is gorgeous in the fall (lots of leafy trees and beautiful lakeside scenery), spending time with old friends, and enjoying the occasional NU win. NU is better than usual this year (5-1), but I always expect heartbreak at Northwestern games--we always lose just when I think it's in the bag! Hence the reason why most students yell ridiculous imprecations about the opposing team's future employment prospects (usually some outdated reference to pumping gas or parking cars and involving obnoxious key jingling). To be honest, it's alwasy embarrassed me, since in my opinion academic snobbery has no place on a football field (or anywhere, for that matter) but the strangley sarcastic school spirit matches my own predilection toward self-deprecation quite nicely.
4. Halloween
I'm actually not a huge fan of dressing up, surprisingly. Maybe this is just the type-A side of me, but I always feel like there is so much pressure to come up with a costume that is appropriately obscure, clever, funny, and if you're a woman, slutty (a stereotype which I have no intention of fulfilling!) Plus, since I'm kind of a class-clown, I feel like I should be extra-funny, and I always fail. But I still love the decorations, crisp air, scary movies, and in Chicago, the raging debauchery that floods the streets during Halloween weekend. So many freaks, so little time! I love it.
5. New beginnings
While it feels sadly less so in the working world, autumn usually marks a new beginning in academic life: a change to reinvent yourself, re-establish yourself in a dynamic social and academic hierarchy, and re-dedicate yourself to all the things you love. There's such a sense of possibility, like anything could happen (and sometimes does!). Reaching back even further, I still miss the smell of new crayons, Elmer's glue and construction paper, and all of those blank notebooks, waiting to be filled. Hitting up the supply closet at work for a new set of Post-it notes doesn't have nearly the appeal. Maybe this is why I overcompensate with so many of #1 and #2 on this list?
1. CANDY CORN.
Orange triangles of pure bliss. I can't get enough!
2. Chai tea lattes and pumpkin spice nut mix.
As I have only recently discovered, I have a penchant for almost anything that is pumpkin-flavored: coffee, weird but delicious pumpkin-coated pretzels & popcorn, cream cheese, pumpkin dip. My most recent obsession is this pumpkin spice nut mix I discovered at Target, with sugar-coated walnuts, graham cracker chunks, and pumpkin-coated raisins. It can't be good for me to be consuming such copious quantities of fake-fruit flavored"foods," but I'm addicted. Hard-core. Seriously. It's quite gross. I'm going to pay the price someday when I turn a sallow shade of orange, have no teeth intact (hello, free dental care!), and suffer from diabetes, but it is worth it, I tell you!
3. Northwestern Football Games.
It's really more about getting to visit the alma mater's campus, which is gorgeous in the fall (lots of leafy trees and beautiful lakeside scenery), spending time with old friends, and enjoying the occasional NU win. NU is better than usual this year (5-1), but I always expect heartbreak at Northwestern games--we always lose just when I think it's in the bag! Hence the reason why most students yell ridiculous imprecations about the opposing team's future employment prospects (usually some outdated reference to pumping gas or parking cars and involving obnoxious key jingling). To be honest, it's alwasy embarrassed me, since in my opinion academic snobbery has no place on a football field (or anywhere, for that matter) but the strangley sarcastic school spirit matches my own predilection toward self-deprecation quite nicely.
4. Halloween
I'm actually not a huge fan of dressing up, surprisingly. Maybe this is just the type-A side of me, but I always feel like there is so much pressure to come up with a costume that is appropriately obscure, clever, funny, and if you're a woman, slutty (a stereotype which I have no intention of fulfilling!) Plus, since I'm kind of a class-clown, I feel like I should be extra-funny, and I always fail. But I still love the decorations, crisp air, scary movies, and in Chicago, the raging debauchery that floods the streets during Halloween weekend. So many freaks, so little time! I love it.
5. New beginnings
While it feels sadly less so in the working world, autumn usually marks a new beginning in academic life: a change to reinvent yourself, re-establish yourself in a dynamic social and academic hierarchy, and re-dedicate yourself to all the things you love. There's such a sense of possibility, like anything could happen (and sometimes does!). Reaching back even further, I still miss the smell of new crayons, Elmer's glue and construction paper, and all of those blank notebooks, waiting to be filled. Hitting up the supply closet at work for a new set of Post-it notes doesn't have nearly the appeal. Maybe this is why I overcompensate with so many of #1 and #2 on this list?
5.5 Applying
This only gets a .5 because it's part of the aforementioned "new beginnings." I don't love the application process itself (see yesterday's post), but it's still exciting to entertain visions of the wonderful things I could be doing this time next year, wherever that may be. Ah, the possibilities.
I could go on and on: the cold mornings, warm days, my new golden-russet-colored leather jacket (yes I did just compare my outerwear to an apple, and yes, I look badass in it!), hot toddies, simmering pots of chili, the color of lake Erie....even the trash-filled streets of Philly start to take on a certain charm (no offense to you Philly-fanatics out there!).
If only the end of fall in Chicago didn't mean the beginning of a winter that will inevitably last 6 months. Good-bye, sun....see ya in May!
I could go on and on: the cold mornings, warm days, my new golden-russet-colored leather jacket (yes I did just compare my outerwear to an apple, and yes, I look badass in it!), hot toddies, simmering pots of chili, the color of lake Erie....even the trash-filled streets of Philly start to take on a certain charm (no offense to you Philly-fanatics out there!).
If only the end of fall in Chicago didn't mean the beginning of a winter that will inevitably last 6 months. Good-bye, sun....see ya in May!
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