My favorite season

September is my favorite month and it's almost here. I live in the Northwest and I love rain and hate extreme temperatures on either end of the spectrum so it's not surprising that I like the Fall. I like Spring too, again not surprisingly, I enjoy the smell of lilacs and I, usually, am happy when my birthday comes around (in May), but Fall is my favorite time of year.

I think it had a lot to do with school at first. Not that I was so into school, from an academic standpoint. At least not until recently and by the time I developed a deeper academic interest I was in classes year-round anyway. It's just that school gave me something to do all day.

I grew up in the country and my closest friend (by closest I mean geographically closest) wasn't really within walking distance, maybe within biking distance, which I did sometimes, but not walking distance. I didn't live on a farm or have any major responsibilities in the summertime. Summers were boring. My brother was too much older than me for us to really hang out together so I was left to my own devices a lot.

I'm not saying I couldn't entertain myself. I had an active imagination and I was active in general, so tree climbing and building forts in the woods were always top items on the agenda. I also loved television so that helped. If all else failed and I was just bored I'd bake cookies, and once an ill-advised pie from the cherries on the tree in our yard. So, it's not like there was nothing to do, but I appreciated the interaction with kids my own age that came with the start of school each year.

Given my status as somewhat of an outsider with the kids at school one might think that summer would offer a welcome reprieve from the constant effort to fit in. That's not really how I saw it though. The constant effort to fit in, while usually a resounding failure, was at least a challenge, something to do to fill the days.

Now that I'm an adult, filling my days isn't an issue. I have a job that fills eight hours a day, well actually nine hours most days and four on Wednesdays, more if you count the commute. Right now I'm also in the process of looking for a new apartment so that takes up a lot of my time as well. Now, when I turn to baking, as I did this past weekend, it's more out of avoidance than boredom.

I still love Fall though and I'm not sure if it's just the cooler temperatures and increased rainfall that make it so appealing. Sure there's the look and smell of falling leaves. There's the cocoa and apple cider. Pumpkins. Baseball playoffs. A new television season. It becomes much more accepted to stay inside with a good book rather than going out to play. There's something else though, something intangible, something specific to the month of September. I'm not quite sure why it is exactly that I love September so much, but I do, I love it and it's almost here.