My Listless Autumns

I have a love/hate relationship with this time of year.  Autumn is hovering over us, ready to drop its windy, chilly days at any moment.  School's back in session, I find myself keeping a sweatshirt in my car in case of a "Holy shit I'm freezing!" emergency.  The days are still blisteringly hot but the humidity is gone and the nights are cool.

There's a short list of reasons why I enjoy this season.

1. Pockets.  During the summer I'm either in a bathing suit, a sundress, or just a pair of underwear and a tank top.  Not having pockets can be very inconvenient.
2. O.P.I.'s fall line of nail colors.  Chocolate browns, burnt oranges and rusty violets look so good on my nails.
3. I can get my cowboy boots out of the closet.  Those bad boys have been sleeping since April, maybe even March.
4. My leather jacket can come out of hibernation as well.
5. I'll fantasize about going to pumpkin and apple orchards and haunted houses with a boy.

Otherwise, this season brings a sense of melancholy upon me.  I'm a summer baby, through and through, born in August and I thrive in the heat.  I prefer no clothes over fuzzy sweaters and boots.  I'd rather sweat than freeze.  So here's the list of reasons why I hate this time of year.

1. Cold weather.
2. I cannot stand anything pumpkin or spice flavored, so when Starbucks comes out with their pumpkin lattes or whatever, you will not find me in line.  I don't even like what is considered "fall scents."  Kind of makes me want to barf.
3. The pool is closed.  Enough said.
4. I'm more susceptible to bouts of depression, due to the change in weather.  Cold, rainy days make me miserable and it's a lot easier for my mind to slip into that dark place.
5. Shorter days.  Most days I'm driving to and from work in the dark.
6. Snow is coming.  I don't care for it.  Don't like shoveling it, don't like driving in it.  Sure, it's pretty when it's falling, but within an hour it becomes gray sludge all along the roads.  Not to mention people freak out at the first sight of a snowflake and figure they have free reign to drive like assholes.
7. Soon it will be time to put up Christmas decorations.  I like Christmas and all, it's great, but when you have to drag bins upon bins of decorations, plus two trees, up from the basement, then are responsible for putting up those trees, I kind of want to rip my hair out.  You know that song The Twelve Pains of Christmas?  Yeah, that's like the story of my life.
8. Did I mention how much I hate cold weather?

So yeah, I'm usually pretty melancholy this time of year.  We all feel it, we know that the time is coming where we'll be cooped up for the next few months, closing up our homes and our hearts against the cold of winter.  The only thing for me to do is hunker down and pray for spring time.