It's that time of year again...

It is the first day of October. October means that it is fall. It means Thanksgiving is right around the corner, it means Halloween is coming soon, it means cooler weather (no snow yet, but definitely cooler) with the changing of the leaves and the sharp, crisp rains.

I am feeling really nostalgic today. I don't know what exactly triggered it, but I have been thinking back to my childhood all day today. Fall has been one of my favorite seasons for a long time. A couple of summers ago, I moved out of my childhood home that I grew up in. I hardly am ever "home" anymore because I've got my own life out at school in my little apartment. As I sit here in my room, I'm watching the rain hit my window and run down (like in the movies, ya know?) and can't help but start to feel a deep sense of missing for my old childhood home. When I say old, it's not necessarily just a word I'm throwing in there. No, this house was really old. It had so much character, it was moved from an army base before it was moved to my town and I can't help but wonder a lot what might have happened in that house before me. It was such a wonderful place to sit and enjoy days like these cold, wet autumn days. I would curl up in a blanket with my slippers by the old brick fireplace (yeah, real fireplace with real wood) while my parents had some classical favorite on of the day (quite possibly Handel's Messiah or the likes) and watch the rain. Well, I don't have a fireplace in my little apartment, but here I sit with my blanket and slippers sipping on some hot chocolate (wishing desperately for some fireplace to pop up as my landlords haven't seemed to turn the heat on yet) listening to Mr. Handel's works.

Speaking of Handel's Messiah, I also can't help but miss the times when I was just a little girl sitting around the table on Sunday with a hearty meal of steak and wine with my sisters and me making up our own words to Handel's tunes (they were pretty great). I think back to the times when life was so easy. No hard decisions to make, living the innocent life of a child (I use the word innocent with discretion, but you know what I mean). October is also still early in the new school year. New school years used to mean one new outfit, new pencil crayons, new runners, seating arrangements, walking down the hall single file, and those awesome desks you could hide things in (imagine if we still had to sit in those things). I love being an independent person living on my own, going to college...but there are simply some things that were just super. Today I was watching The Price Is Right (weird, I know) and there was this giant cartoony picture of a honey comb. The memory hit me so hard: computer class in grade 1 or 2 where we still worked on MS-Dos computers and there was this honey comb game that you learned math and spelling on! Oh man, was that ever fun. Oh to be a child again and computer games were so simple...I wouldn't be surprised to hear of 5 year olds playing Halo to learn math...

Perhaps all these memories are triggered by the fact that it's almost Thanksgiving. Last year I missed Thanksgiving as I was in Florida for a volleyball tournament. I mean, Thanksgiving happens at the same time whether I'm in Canada or not, but I missed the family festivities back home. I think this really made me really aware of how important and how "thankful" I am for occasions like it. I missed hanging out with my family (in my favorite season), both immediate and extended (I really miss my grandmas), I missed the huge spread of dinner on the table (turkey or not), and dang it, I would've killed for a slice of my grandma's famous chiffon pumpkin pie. This year I have to miss half of my Thanksgiving weekend again due to a volleyball trip to Minneapolis, but I am excited to be able to spend that second stretch of it home with all those memories that I've been missing lately.

I just need my fill, then I'll be good to go for another year. Although, that pie could stick around all year....