Sunday, October 08, 2006

I need some hot chocolate...

Ugh. The Yankees. So disappointing. Argh. No words. Can’t talk. Bad bad bad. That’s all I’m gonna say about that…

Actually, that WAS all I was gonna say about that, but I just returned home from lunch, and checked some news headlines, and apparently Joe Torre will no longer be the Yankee’s manager next year. I don’t think I agree with this decision, but apparently I don’t have much pull within the Yankee organization. I mean, c’mon – the Yankees have made it to the playoffs EVERY year Joe Torre has been manager. They’ve won four World Series titles. As much as I love the Yankees, they CAN’T win the World Series every single year… that’s just unrealistic. Not to mention boring. If other teams never win, there’s no reason to root for your own. And what’s even worse than firing Joe Torre is the rumor of his replacement – Lou Piniella. I can’t stand Lou Piniella… Lou Piniella already managed the Yankees back in the 80’s… he didn’t do much with them back then. Why does anyone think he’ll be able to change anything now? I really don’t think Joe Torre was the problem…

Anyway… I can’t believe it’s already October 8th. I’m a bit alarmed by how quickly the month seems to be passing. An entire week is gone so soon? I don’t even have my Halloween Evacuation Plan in place yet (this is where I sneak out of my house early on Halloween, before trick-or-treaters have a chance to ring my doorbell and realize I have no candy whatsoever…). And it doesn’t help that it’s still practically 90 degrees every day. How am I supposed to believe it’s really autumn when I’m still wearing t-shirts and tank tops?

This is probably the time of year I miss New Jersey the most – from about October to December. I miss it now because I know it’s getting cooler up there, and the leaves are changing color, and there’s an obvious line between “summer” and “autumn.” There’s a gentle, sloping transition between clothing choices… tank tops… t-shirts… t-shirts and jackets… bulky sweaters… sweaters and wool coats. Whereas here in Texas, every day is either really warm, or some kind of surprise – surprise! It’s cold in the morning but hot in the afternoon! Or, surprise! It’s freezing cold all day but the weather guy said it would be 80 degrees! This is the time of year I never really know how to dress in the morning. I guess it’s best to dress in layers. If you dress in layers, you can strip off what you don’t need, and add it back when you do…

And I miss New Jersey throughout the whole Thanksgiving/Christmas season, because – for someone who mostly grew up in the northeast – “75 degrees” and “Christmas day” just don’t go together. It’s sort of bizarre to see brightly-adorned Christmas trees – most of them made of plastic – decorating stores and businesses, in this area of the country where fir trees are few and far between and look rather out of place when they’re casually displayed in a window. It takes a bit of conscious effort to begin shopping for Christmas gifts, since the seasonal signals of frosty weather and visible wisps of exhaled breath just don’t show up too often. Yet I know, by looking at the “October 8” on the calendar today, that we ARE well within the fall season. And the end of the year is quickly approaching. So, wool coat or not, I’ll soon need to begin searching for holiday gifts and pulling out boxes of decorations. I’ll probably even make hot chocolate and spiced cider and various other warm beverages – the kind that taste so good when the thermometer dips uncomfortably low, but still taste perfectly acceptable (although not nearly as soothing) when the weather is clear and sunny.

But for now, I’m going to forget about the weather and just brood about the Yankees for a while… (Lou Piniella??? Sigh…) Maybe some of that hot chocolate WOULD be soothing right about now…

No comments: