Good things about fall

1. Autumn leaves, until a nice windstorm blows them all away in the middle of the night and suddenly you're living in a barren wasteland that seeks to crush and destroy you. I've heard.


2. Fabulous brown shoes made by the good people at Mudd. They're to go with my absolutely darling brown knee-length skirt with really cute pleats and trimming at the bottom. The best part is that I found it at Wal-Mart (or Wammart as it is generally known). Had no idea they sold cute clothes there. Way to be, Wammart.


3. Hallowe'en decorations in people's houses and yards. My mom even has a Halloween tree. Some of the neighbors have strings of pumpkin lights going up their front steps, or those jack o' lantern trash bags stuffed with leaves in their front yards. Others are going slightly overboard with 6-feet-tall inflatable ghosties and pumkins. But still, they're getting into the spirit of the thing.


We also have people who have decided to just bypass the whole Halloween/Thanksgiving thing and started putting up their Christmas decorations--like, weeks ago. Some have just put up their hanging icesicle lights, which Mom says they do because it's too flipping cold to be putting up lights in December. Others have put up those blue Christmas lights. I really dislike blue Christmas lights. They're like sci-fi Christmas.

The clear winner, though, is the house with an entire plastic Nativity scene assembled on the front porch. When the trick or treaters come round they're going to trip over the baby Jesus. But then, maybe the creche is meant to announce that there's a God-fearing family living inside and there will be no observance of Satanic holidays at this house thank you very much.