Ode to Fall

There is change in the air.

"CH-CH-CH-CH-CH-CHANGES!"

(My first concert when I was a kid was David Bowie. My mom's kind of awesome.)

No, I'm talking about FALL! Autumn! My favorite season! I remember once, in the fourth grade, our class did an activity where we each took a piece of paper and wrote down our name and our favorite season. Someone then grabbed the Scotch tape and categorized the pieces of paper on the board by season. About 90% of the kids wrote down summer, with a smattering of spring and winter favorites. I was the only one to scrawl "FALL."

I've always loved fall; sweatshirts and jeans, my beloved copycat Frye boots:

flannel shirts, beautifully colored leaves, school supplies (obsession briefly discussed here), and the encroaching time of darkness in the evenings, in which my mom builds fires in our fire pit. Fall is a gorgeous, dynamic introduction to the cascade of holidays the later months bring; a time for cooking and baking things that I find inappropriate at other times of the year, like pumpkin cookies, long-simmering chili, roasted sweet potatoes and apple pie; a time for impromptu road trips to orchards to pick apples for said pie; most of all a time of both great anticipation and great enjoyment.

That said, there is something beautiful about the time of year we're in right now in Ohio. I like to call it the death of summer. Don't worry; I'm not going to wax poetic all over you again. It's just that since the times of ancient cultures, the in-between times -- of the day and of the seasons -- are supposedly the most magical. Dawn and dusk, spring and fall.

Right now, the nights are getting cooler, even though it still reaches nearly 90 degrees in the daytime (thanks, Ohio, home of crazy weather fluctuation). Things are dying -- plants (my basil resembles more of a dead branch stuck in the ground than a tasty herb), bugs (I crunch over far too many dead cicadas to mention when I walk the dog) and the carefree attitude that summer naturally brings to the world. Kids of all ages are back in school and squirrels are starting to freak out about eating and storing enough food for winter. The trees just look plain tired, and last weekend I saw the first yellow leaves of fall on an admittedly very early-changing shrub.

 Welcome, fall! Only three days 'til September, people. I'm starting to crave roasted pumpkin seeds.

Sammie

Farmer's Market

On Saturdays, I wake up at 6. A. M.  I know -- gasp, shock, horror.

However, I do this happily because I work at a local farmer's market.  The market is in the historic city of Worthington, a northern suburb of Columbus.  Nearly a hundred vendors of produce, meat, baked goods, cheese and flowers line each side of High Street from 8 am to noon.  I work half the year for a landscaper who sells herbs and flowers, and the other half for a family who sell some serious fruit -- apples, peaches, plums, pears, nectarines, apricots.... (I could go on and on).

I'm sure I'll talk about the farmer's market and all it's accompanying awesomeness (and drama) a lot on this blog, but I just wanted to let you all know that today, I saw something like this walking down the sidewalk toward our stand:

image via here

His name was Hamilton.

And with that, I'm off to enjoy my Saturday.  You do the same!

-- Sammie

First Day of School!

Hello!

Welcome to my little blog.  You may remember me from my incredibly famous (ha, not) blog, Coffee Conundrum, on which I believe I posted a total of three times, until life got in the way.

However, now I'm back! My head is full to bursting with fleeting thoughts, ideas, ramblings and goofiness and I feel the need to write it all down.  I want to write about all this life stuff that I used to think was just getting in my way.

I'm a second year grad student at The Ohio State University (yes, we are obnoxious like that- we capitalize and always over-pronounce the word "THE" in our school's title) in Public Administration and I think the program is great; I also happen to work in the student affairs office of my program, which pays my tuition and offers me a wee stipend to live on, which is awesome, since otherwise I wouldn't be able to afford grad school.  I'm extremely grateful for this opportunity.

However.

Due to recent legislation, public colleges and universities in Ohio are now required to utilize a semester schedule as opposed to one based on quarters.  I did my undergraduate work at Ohio University (notice, no "THE." I'm often torn between pride for my current institution and four years of laughing at the insufferable arrogance of OSU).  Both my schools were on quarters until this year- and as a result this is my first ever experience with college semesters.

My first day of class was Wednesday, August 22nd.

Last year at Ohio State, and during the previous four years at OU, I wouldn't have been starting class until late September.  Another MONTH!  This week it's been nearing 90 degrees in Columbus, and I'm trying to adjust to having class in what I long considered the midst of summer.  I saw the first day of school on my calendar and excitedly pulled out my boots, jeans, and a variety of fall weather shirts, until I realized I might look a smidge out of place (or you know, die of heatstroke) among the sundresses, short-shorts and sandals that semester-goers wear on the first day of school

Oh well.  I'll graduate in early May, as opposed to mid-June.  Think positive!  My dear boots, you'll have to wait a few weeks til the weather cools down to real school fall weather. 

*Sigh*

:) Sammie