Saturday, September 06, 2008

let’s break out the cinnamon sticks

You’re the crumble on my apple crumble. —Gavin Ewart

I like autumn. The drama of it; the golden lion roaring through the back door of the year, shaking its mane of leaves. —Joanne Harris

Yesterday was most perfect. We’ve had a bout of overcast, rainy weather, which makes me deliriously happy to be alive. Too many sunny days in a row oppresses me, which I understand is strange. But I just can’t help it. I never got over Grand Rapids’ weather, and I miss it in autumn more than ever. So yesterday’s gloom and the constant rain of Thursday were hugely appreciated…

No less so because I dragged out the first scarf of the season. (A slight stretch, but it was 60 degrees after all… bliss.) And there was definitely a Seattle’s Best Maple White Mocha in my afternoon (go try it: yummy and gentle and autumny), and a cooking magazine at Borders bookstore. Running errands, the rain, the coolness, the bookstore… it all made me miss being at Calvin, actually, and the energizing crisp air of fall. Books to read, classes to attend, articles to discuss, friends to meet over coffee, chai tea to drink as you finish the last bits of your assignments… reading Dickens, if you’re lucky.

Oh my goodness, I want to go back to school.

If this weather keeps up, I might throw caution (not to mention my finances) to the wind and apply for an MFA program immediately. (Which would be very bad timing.) But I could talk myself into wanting another degree, and then teaching writing… professoring somewhere, some place that is always September, always apple cider, always rain and warm socks.

The only antidote to this caramel-apple-madness is the book. The book, the book, the book. It’s groaning and creaking at 172,300 words, which wouldn’t alarm me nearly so much if I were further in revisions than I am. But if I’ve added over 20,000 words to the first half of the book, what’s going to happen when I get to Part Three? I’ll know in a few weeks…

All this to say, it’s time for summer to disappear. And time for me to get to work.—jl

Posted by Jenn Langefeld on 09/06 at 06:19 PM
(0) Trackbacks • Permalink

<< Back to main