A passion for dead leaves...

(Hey y'all, do me a favor and vote in my poll. I promise to send positive energy and lovely thoughts your way for each vote..)

If I could pick a season in which to live perpetually, it would be fall. I love everything about fall. I love the golden colors the sun creates as it filters through red, orange and yellow leaves. I love the tangy smell in the air when I wake up in the morning. (Have you ever noticed that each season has a smell? Well, it does. Let me enlighten you: spring smells clean, like wet dirt and freshly cut flowers. Summer smells warm, like newly cut grass and sun dried pavement. Fall smells tangy, like fallen leaves blown off the trees by the wind. Winter smells crisp, like falling snow on a quiet evening . Aren't you so glad that I called your attention to this? Thank me later.)  I love the little bit of bite the air has to it. I love driving with my windows down and not melting in the kind of heat that can only have been created by Hades. (I know. It's not as bad as Texas or Arizona. That's why I don't live in those places. If I think Utah is too hot, imagine how miserable I'd be some place else.) I love any excuse to wear a chunky sweater and tights. I love boots. I love the feeling and sound of the crunchy brown leaves under my feet as I walk down the tree-lined streets of my little neighborhood. I know plenty of people like fall, but this complete passion and adoration for all things autumnal has been around as far back as my excellent memory takes me. I remember waking up in the morning during kindergarten and being unreasonably excited to walk to school. Not because I particularly cared for the walk, but because it gave me an excuse to traipse through large piles of leaves and take long deep breaths of that lovely tangy air. Yup, I was that kid. And you know what? I'm glad I haven't grown out of it.

Some things I just have a feeling that you'll all want to know...

I love cloudy days. It makes me so happy to wake up to a sky full of grey clouds because usually that means rain, and let's be honest. I love rain.

Today was one of those good hair days, where even the wind made my hair look better. You gotta love that.

I had an uncontrollable grin on my face when I walked out of my first class and saw the ground outside of OSH covered in fall leaves.

The only reason I love my American Religions class is that I get to spend 1.5 hours staring at the back of this really cute kid's head. Now if I could just find a way to talk to him, then I'd be ecstatic.

It smells like fall today. What could be better then that?

I love fall because I finally got to wear my favorite U of U sweater that I got for working at the stadium.

Today is a tutoring day. This means I get to go to Karlie's classroom for a little while and teach Maria.

Not that any of those things are super important, but they made me happy, so I thought I'd share...

Dear Fall...

I'd like to thank you so much for finally coming to visit me.

I've missed you so very much, it's been such a long time since you've been to visit. I love the way that the cool breeze you've brought blows my hair and allows me to finally pull out all those cute fall clothes that have been in the back of my closet since you last stopped by. I adore the lovely smell of rain that seems to linger in the air whenever you're around. Thank you for the beautiful bouquet of orange, red and yellow leaves that you've left on the trees on campus, it makes an already gorgeous campus even more amazing. In short, I love you. Thank you for finally coming back to see me, you've been greatly missed.

Love,

Mal