I love fall. I’ve loved fall since the first semester I spent in Harrisonburg, watching the colors burst among valley. For some reason, however, fall also puts me into the worst kind of depression–I feel sad and somehow displaced by the cool mornings and early evenings. David thinks this is because fall reminds me of JMU and also of my not being at JMU. I think it relates to various things that ended at the zenith of a fall season.

This fall, I’m taking Lauren’s advice and trying to use the changing season as a time to get a jump start on goals. Some of you will be involved, so get ready to hear from me soon.

Run a 5 k: I bought a Nike + last week and I’m trying to work heavily on training for a 5k by no later than the spring. I’d love to even get to one this fall.

Scrapbook: I promised David that the four boxes overflowing with scrapbooking pieces would be settled and cleared by December. Operation Scrapbook will commence as soon as I’m feeling comfortable with…

Literature Class: I’m taking a huge leap of faith in my teaching abilities and teaching my first literature class this fall. Most of the literati I haven’t read since high school (see: 7 years). Still, I’m most excited to show them my favorite poem: Falling by James Dickey.

Visit to Seattle: Later this fall, I’m taking a trip out to Seattle to visit the University of Washington’s communication program. This PhD program currently sits in my top five, but is highly competitive. Next fall I’ll put in applications for the 2011-2012 program and I’d like a head-start on the competition. I will be hosted by the notorious Danny Pham.

This leads me to the coolest mission I’ve ever undertaken:

I’ve kept almost every greeting card, Christmas card and personal letter I’ve ever received. These rare (and becoming rarer) communique have been an important way for me to timeline my life and the moments which encouraged and engaged these contacts. These happy pieces of mail now take up the entire floor of my closet. I’ve discovered that some of the greeting cards are particularly fun and useful for scrapbooking, however, many of them remain unused. Therefore, my goal is to repost these cards to you. Two things happen–a unique piece of mail arrives at your door, allowing the card to live a second life and recycled (most likely in the disposed of kind of way) AND, I am happy to know that my floor of greeting card lives on in the infamy of two lives. Look for this at a mailbox near you.

Finally, I’m currently reading Extremely Close and Incredibly Loud by Jonathan Safran. Although it’s a book club choice (and let’s be honest, this ain’t no Oprah-type books we’re readin’) I’m really enjoying it and can’t recommend it to enough people. I also can’t recommend Whip It to enough women–in particularly the ebullient Megan Kelly. It is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a long time, and with no particular brilliant scene to reference, I hope you’ll trust me that this one is worth the ticket price.

What light through yonder window breaks? It is the lit textbook and I am it’s bitch.