a love letter to the month of October

I'd be remiss if I didn't note this as something I endorse that happens around October -



- but aside from my minor obsession with baking the perfect pumpkin cookie, I adore this particular month. Few things make me want to write in quite the same way October does.

Maybe it's the weather. I walk outside after sweating in my cardigan all day to find that the temperature has dropped nearly 30 degrees. I almost don't want to get hopeful, weather, you have toyed with my heart before. But soon, according to a forecast I almost never check unless I think maybe it will tell me that fall weather is coming, I get to wear fall clothes.

And oh, October attire is my favorite. It's chilly but not freezing, usually, and that is the happiest of mediums in my book. It's cozy. I get to pull out and pull on my scarves and sweaters and leggins' and boots, ohhhhhh boots. I don't like closed-toed shoes at all, honestly, but for boots I make an exception. I am all about a good boot.

Maybe also it is the activities. [I'm not even talking about Halloween, because my appreciation for playing dress up is more of a bonus here than anything else.] But how much more special and exciting is a cup of coffee in the morning when it not only nourishes my intense and overwhelming need for caffeination but also warms my hands and throat? Add to that a splash of peppermint mocha coffee creamer (sugar free, of course) which is only available around this time of year and I'm about done for. Pumpkin patches and hay rides and haunted corn mazes and looking at the leaves changing in the mountains. But it is more simple even than that - I get to watch movies and use extra blankets and I wear a jacket and shiver a little when I'm standing outside in the nighttime. It's something. I don't know why that feels almost romantic to me, but October, hello. You are all things romance.

And perhaps that is the thing: October is romantic. Not in a way like February where expectations are high and everyone is dopey and dewy-eyed but in a way that is sophisticated, even surprising. It's romantic in a way that is idyllic and exciting and mysterious. It's sunsets and colors and wrapping my scarf tighter and I have my hands in my pockets and all of a sudden I am hopeful. Is that weird? It might be. But probably if you think about it there's something that makes you feel that way too. And maybe it's weird, but maybe that's fine. I know I love October and I look forward to its coming. I will soak in all its autumn-ness until I think my heart might burst.

Then, well, then it is November, and it will surely bring its own excitements. But until then, I'll be here, baking and drinking coffee and wearing boots, madly in love with right here and now.