Autumn in La La Land

As long as I've lived in the Lafayette area, the arrival of fall -- and more specifically, October -- has excited me.

First of all, it's football season -- REAL football season, when the other Big Ten teams come to town. And even if we're losing (as we are this year), there's nothing like spending a Saturday at Ross Ade cheering on the Boilers. If you win, you want to hug everyone around you. And if you lose, well...there's plenty of beer back at the tailgate.

Secondly, this is the point of the year in Indiana when the weather actually starts to change. No more of this dilly-dallying between summer and autumn. No more wondering whether to wear shorts or jeans. Get out the scarves and hats and sweaters! The leaves are changing, falling, and crunching. The windows are open during the day. It's perfect sleeping weather. It's freaking fall.

And thirdly (and probably most importantly), it's Christmas show season.

Now, I've been out of college for like...over two years. So this doesn't even apply directly to my life anymore. But for four years, October meant the beginning of rehearsals for the spectacular Purdue Christmas Show. First was the unveiling meeting where we got to see for the first time what the set would look like and what songs were in the show. Right after that, rehearsals would start. And even though it meant no more free time between regular PMO rehearsals and classes and homework, it was the thing I loved best, and I soaked it up. I walked to class with the rehearsal music in my mp3 player, memorizing the arrangements to "O Holy Night" and "Sleigh Ride" as I passed the spookily decorated Greek houses and Halloween event sheet signs.

And even now, when October rolls around, I get that same urge to crunch across the leaf-strewn sidewalks, smelling Starbucks pumpkin lattes, and letting my headphones pump the sounds of Christmas into my brain.

Is that crazy? Yes. Is it cheesy? Yes. But also magical. And while I'm not the kind of person who starts putting up the tree before Thanksgiving or anything like that, I do enjoy my slightly brainwashed reaction to the change of seasons and the subsequent need for me to listen to a yuletide tune or two.

blogging at the lake...

There’s no internet connection up here, which is awesome, but my fingers are still itching to type, so I thought I’d just type up anything that came into my mind and post it on the blog later.

(Oh, and just a note…when I say that having no internet is awesome, I don’t mean that sarcastically. It really is nice.)

Being on vacation has been so nice! It’s Thursday night as I’m typing this, which means there are only a couple days left here at the Lake, but my vacation isn’t really over until Monday night when I have to go back into work. And I’m soaking up every minute.

Marla and I got in last Thursday evening; we made great time and Marla drove the whole way, giving me a chance to catch up on sleep. Although I did offer several times to drive—and I could’ve—I admit it was nice that Marls wanted to stick it out all 13 hours. I slept like a rock, too, which is unusual for me, because I hate trying to sleep in cars. I guess that’s what the graveyard shift does to you.
Friday was our first full day here, and we had beautiful weather. We spent the first couple of days laying out on the dock in the sun. Friday when I put my headphones in and put my mp3 player on random, vacation took over my playlist. It was amazing! All of the songs about relaxing, summer time, and so on. I don’t even remember what they all were…one was “Fabulous” from HSM 2, one was “Summer Breeze” by Seals & Crofts.

The weather has been so great; we’ve only had two rainy days and even on those days I went fishing with Dad. Wednesday was one of the rainy days, and all of us girls (Mamaw, Mom, Marla and me) drove down to “town” –a good hour away—to Virginia’s mall for some shopping. I got a long sweater that will be so perfect for Purdue football games! I’m already pumped about tailgating and going to the games. I never (literally, never) got to tailgate in college because I was always busy recruiting, or we’d have a Purduettes show. So this year Mom and Dad have season tickets for all of us and we’re going to tailgate, and in meeting the Habbens this summer I learned that they are hard-core tailgaters too, so I’m looking forward to having another excuse to see more of that wonderful family! Speaking of which, I called in to Lafayette Wednesday while I was at the mall with cell phone reception and as of that day, everything is fine at my apartment, and Fish is still alive! When I get back, my boy-buddies will be on vacation, so hopefully I’ll have time to catch up with some of the girls before they all head off to school.

Right now I’m typing this and it’s just about an hour until my twenty-fourth birthday. I’m 24. That’s insane. I think it makes my dad feel old, because he asked me how old I was going to be and then he just shook his head in disbelief. Mom and I baked a cake tonight and we’ll ice it in the morning; I think she even got candles! It’s really cool to be up here on my birthday—we used to have my birthday up here all the time and then school just came too early to make that work anymore. Tomorrow is our last day, and then Sunday morning we all drive home. I told Marla I’d drive the whole way, since she made the whole trip up. But I hope that means I get to choose the music most of the time. Marla doesn’t seem to like my music…any of it. Even if I pick something I think she’s going to like (which is a lot), she says, “Ugh, I’m so sick of that song.” It’s OK. It’s just hit-and-miss but I’m guessing she’ll sleep a lot of the time so if I want to listen to Broadway songs or Ashley Tisdale or something, she won’t be awake to hear it. I’m sure it’ll be fine no matter what! Plus she can always listen to her iPod.

OH!!! Speaking of music...we went to church tonight and they had a sort of praise band to do the music during the service, which was outdoors with a barbeque afterwards. This group has probably six or seven people, all dressed in khakis and denim shirts (always classy) with their names on the front and the group’s name, “Second Chance,” embroidered on the back! And during the dinner they played a set of oldies and country songs, but the way they all sang, it was like something straight out of “A Mighty Wind,” or those SNL skits Will Farrell and Ana Gastyer used to do about the middle school music teachers. It was the stuff sketch comedy dreams are made of. So funny.

OK, I think that’s about it. Everyone’s in bed. It’ll be my birthday in Indiana in eight minutes, but here in the Land of 1,000 Lakes I have to wait another hour. I’m gonna edit some video and go to bed.
Until later! 