Fall Has Sprung

[FYI: This is not Colorado.]

Hello, what presumptuous jerk decreed that spring was the only season that could be sprung?  Fall has sprung, and it has sprung HARD.  So there.

Now that October is somehow here (and honestly, how did that happen???), I have prepared myself for the following realities:

1.  I need a new pair of boots.  And quickly.

2.  What happens to the body around late September that suddenly makes pumpkin appropriate at all times?  I’m being real here.  Beer, pie, lattes, costumes, candle-holders (I guess that’s really only for one night, but still) – in much the way that my body seems to wake up every morning and say, “It seems to be morning!  Coffee, please,” it seems that every fall, I am predisposed to purchase and indulge in every pumpkin-related item I can find.  Once, there was body wash.  I’m past that now.  Although I may or may not have purchased some hand soap.  Whoops.

3.  I’m pretty amped that I’ll get to see my family three times in the next three months.  Win!

I tried to climb a fourteener last weekend (for those of you who don’t automatically associate that word for a huge, daunting mountain, that’s what a fourteener is.  All 14,000 feet of it), and it was horrible and awesome at the same time.  I will say right here and now that no human’s lungs are supposed to breathe air at that elevation, and mine quit around 13,000 feet – I guess I have a goal now for next spring.  Anyway, if you’re wondering what it looks like near the top of those mountains I sometimes show pictures of, wonder no more:

[Large.]

Notice how those other peaks look really big, and how the perspective seems to be kind of level.  Yeah.  That’s not normal.  So, I did that (almost).  That was pretty gnarly.

I would say that I’m pretty settled in here at this point – and it really did take a while.  Finding a place to live, finding a job, getting used to my surroundings, making friends (if there is a manual on how to do this as a grown-up out there somewhere, I will seriously read it, because this is HARD!!) – getting acclimated to such a different place and making such a giant leap really sapped my energy there for a while.  But I’m doing it.  So, there’s that.

I’m worried that this post is about to go somewhere rambly and uninspired, so I will bid you all a happy Monday and happy pumpkin month.  Because really, I got off track with that, and let’s be honest, that’s what it is.  Am I right?