Finally, after another sweltering summer with unbearable days of triple digits, and energy bills shooting through the roof, she has arrived. She has thrown on her cloak of crimson and copper, pumpkin and purple, then secured it with a golden chain.
Like most kids growing up, my sisters and I had a diverse menagerie of pets. One of our first was a white guinea pig named Jo-Jo, who followed my mom around the backyard while she hung sheets on the line. Jo-Jo made little oinking noises while mowing the lawn with her two front choppers. Unfortunately, she met her demise when the neighbor’s scary dog busted through our fence.
A million years ago, when cavemen discovered fire, I was just a kid roaming the earth. TV screens were the size of a postage stamp, and every channel was black and white. All three of them. My family had a tiny television on wheels, with small dials that you had to actually turn by hand. That’s right, my little millennials, you had to get out of your chair, cross the room, and physically switch channels. You had to mess with the rabbit ears too, cursing like a sailor and begging the TV for a clear picture.
A million years ago, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, my mother retired from Bank of America after over three decades of service. Her co-workers decided to gift her with an adorable bulldog puppy, and our family chipped in for what would be the best present she ever received. We named her Maggie, and she was a roly-poly bundle of wrinkles and happiness.
Well, it’s been a crazy busy weekend, including Easter, Cesare Chavez Day, and my parents’ 69th anniversary. And if my lovely father were still here, he would be savoring a nicely chilled martini this evening. Tito’s please, two olives, and very light on the vermouth. And like most red-blooded sports fans, he would currently be obsessed with the wild and wacky world of college basketball, also known as March Madness.
I know I always say that Fall is my favorite season, but that’s usually in October. That’s when Halloween comes rolling around and all the ghouls and goblins creep sneak out from the city’s darkest corners. Then every year I say that Winter is my favorite season, but that’s when Christmas rolls around, and my heart gets all sweet and mushy for baking, tree decorating, and family gatherings.
Good evening peeps, and a very Happy New Year to you all! I hope your holiday, however you celebrated it, was joyous and lovely. If it was like mine, it was full of chocolate, cinnamon rolls, eggs benedict, bubbly, and my cousin Lori’s amazing Finnish cardamom loaf. YUM. It was also full of old Christmas music LPs (Barbara Streisand, Glen Campbell, and Nat King Cole). It was a weird, but amazing get-together for my family this year.
Okay, I’ll admit it, I get really sappy this time of year. Call it melancholy, nostalgia, or maybe just an incurable case of the saddies. I miss all my late relatives, the family get togethers, the cocktails, the loud conversations, and the three-hour marathons opening presents. It took us so long to unwrap packages, we were forced to take a happy hour break in between.
Boo! Did I scare you? Did you jump a little? Well, my friends, by the time you read this, Halloween will be done and gone, taking all its ghouls and goblins with it. Children will have taken to the spooky streets on All Hallows Eve with plastic pumpkin buckets and paper sacks, weighed down with all kinds of scary sweets and treats. The dream team of Barbie and Ken will rollerblade through the sidewalks, wreaking havoc on unsuspecting ghosts, their sheets spinning like a whirling dervish.
It’s finally fall, folks, and that’s always a time for reflection. So pull up a chair and warm your chilly fingers with a hot pumpkin spice beverage, butter a slice of pumpkin spice bread, and light up a pumpkin spice candle for that whole freaking fall effect. Breathe it in. Suck up the aroma. Remember, you only get this one time of the year.
