Anyway, the reason I'm telling you to enjoy the fall photos while you can is because this season is already winding down and the grayness of winter is already on the horizon. If you don't believe me just look at these photos I took yesterday...
Compared to this photo I took just today.
The trees are shedding their clothes faster than a bunch of overweight Carnies at a family reunion. And it's scaring me. I'm starting to get my winter anxiety, because living through a winter in a walking city is different. Because I'm still having to walk Harlow outside five times a day when it's barely twenty degrees. And I'm still walking to get groceries. And walking to class. Or waiting outside for the bus or the train. Or trying to hail a cab while everyone else is. And it's cold. Oh so cold.
But I'm not going to go down that dark path at the moment. For right now I'm just going to enjoy this cozy little scene at Starbucks I am currently living. Rain is falling, coffee is brewing, and I'm listening to the Joie De Vivre station on Pandora right now. Two things about that last sentence: #1. I know I need to get with the times and switch to Spotify already. I'm just stuck in the 2005s. #2. I'm not trying to be a pretentious dick by listening to French music, it's just really good writing music, I swear. And sometimes I like pretending I'm a pretentious dick, what can I say...
I'm actually trying to get ready for the novel I just promised myself (and the internet) I'm going to write (and finish for once!) thanks to the fact I officially signed up for National Novel Writing Month for this November! I've thought about doing this for years, but I finally bit the bullet and committed myself to writing 50,000 words in November and I am just gitty about it. If there's even a little bit of I should do this going on in your head at the moment I say why the hell not, sign yourself up!
In all honesty, I don't know if I'll ever share this story I'm working on. It's truly just something I need to finish for myself on account of the fact I've started and stopped more books than I like to admit. My favorite English professor in college, God rest his soul, once gave me great advice about tackling something as big as a novel, he said, "Above all, just write for yourself. Take the pressure off and just realize the first thing you write is probably going to be trash. But write the best piece of trash you can and enjoy every second of it along the way."
So there you have it, I am writing a piece of trash and I'm okay with it. At least I'm writing.
