Cold and rainy out today, perfect weather for a November Saturday. Stephen has grad classes all weekend, so it's quiet and still here at home. I have another paper to write, but haven't gotten up the motivation to start yet. I just want to sit at my desk and listen to the passing cars on Mass Ave. stir up the puddles.
I also want to clean. You know how some people claim to like exercising? I feel the same about cleaning. Not the drudgery kind of cleaning, like scrubbing the tub or rinsing dishes, but the sorting and putting things away kind. I love a clean apartment. I find it difficult to get much done when it's messy here--too distracting. So maybe I'll go straighten things up for a while, and then start my research. I think I might write about government-mandated inoculations. That'll wake things up around here.
Across the road, there are a dozen trees with all of their leaves still on, most of them green. That's surprising, because the honey locust that fills our living room windows went gold and then dropped its foliage weeks ago. I don't expect things to be green after Halloween.
Although I'm not fond of the cold, I love this time of year. I remember having a similar feeling about the summer after undergrad. I had lined up a summer job for June, then I was going on vacation with Stephen's family in July. My family was going away for the first half of August, and I had secured a full-time job that started right after we got back. It's rare for me to have arrangements set that far ahead of time, and I remember thinking that the summer would be like a conveyor belt, effortlessly moving me through all of the plans I had made. And that's pretty much how it was.
I get the same feeling at the beginning of November every year. Thanksgiving and Christmas lay ahead, glowing with promise, and all we have to do is wait for the conveyor belt of time to usher us into the holidays. It helps cushion the descent into winter.
