Looking Forward to the Leaves Changing Their Colors

I remember back in the day, I dreaded the impending doom of Fall. September meant going back to school, having homework to do every night, the days getting shorter, tans starting to fade and having to follow the rules. Lately, however, as I have gotten older, I have really grown quite fond of the Fall and Winter months, in fact, with September just a week away, I am really finding myself getting excited for the change in the seasons!

I guess the summer for me, as an adult, has always meant tons of "obligations" and less "just me" time. From the time March hit this year, I kid you not, I have been on the go every single weekend since then. The weeks are filled with the humdrum of working all day long, playing catch up with laundry and cleaning and gym responsibilities on the week nights and the weekend meant having to run from one place to the next in order to appease everybody and not appear like a social disgrace. I know that sounds awfully cheesy, because too often people complain about not having social functions to attend to, but seriously, when it seems like you are constantly on the go, and not giving yourself the time to just relax, it essentially takes the fun out of everything.

Now, for everybody who knows me, you know that I tend to be somewhat of a " I need to know when and where" type of people. Maybe it's because I've always had a bunch of people always pulling me in different directions, that the knowledge of "what's going on" makes my whole life ALOT easier to plan around. Personally, I don't really like that. The idea of not having anything planned, and then waking up and deciding, "Hey... let's go here" or "Let's go do that" is really exciting to me. I like the idea of not having to be at any certain place at any certain time to do any certain thing, I have really grown to appreciate moments like these. Since Michael and I started dating last year, I have actually been on more of those spontaneous surprise trips or adventures than I have ever been in my 25 years of life. Unfortunately since about mid-March, our schedules and lives have become so insanely hectic and upside down and inside out 95% of the time, that we really haven't had an opportunity to take advantage of those moments.

Back in December, we woke up one Saturday morning grabbed some lunch and then decided to get in the car and drive to Prescott Arizona to visit his nephews and his sister in law, before Christmas. That trip is probably one of my favorite trips ever. We had so much fun! We spent the evening pounding some Jager in the local watering holes in the 20 degree weather, we spent the next day visiting with his amazing teenage nephews and his sister in law, and we even had a chance to take in a few of the historic sites before heading back home. It was last minute, it was unplanned and it was one of the greatest trips I've ever been on. I still think back to that weekend and smile at the memories of our adventure.

With all the responsibilities and obligations that seem to invade my life the older and older I get, particularly during the summer months, I find myself aching for the leaves to start changing colors, and the breeze to start getting crisp, and my life to gently slow down. Now, this may sound totally crazy, but it's not that I want to spend my life sitting at home in front of a television set getting fat and sassy on popcorn and Milk Duds and never getting out of my PJ's(although... sometimes a day like that just sounds fabulous) I actually have a list of TONS of things I'd like to do... but the only difference is that it's things I'd *LIKE* to do, as opposed to things I *HAVE* to do... see the difference? I have a list of things that I can pick and choose from anytime that I want and if a weekend at home cuddled up on the couch, getting fat and sassy seems more enticing than a weekend picking apples in Oak Glen, then so be it.