Ah, fall…the days when the sun is warm but the air is crisp, the farmer’s market fills with apples of every conceivable description, and sweaters are retrieved from the bottom drawer. In New York, in particular, the fall is fantastic – the stinky clotted air of August blows away, most of the tourists go back to their regular lives (in which, we hope, they do not amble down the middle of sidewalks holding up their iPhones like divining rods, in hopes that the wee iElves will send them in the correct direction).
Yes, fall…the theater season is in full swing, the movie listings swell with new releases, museums and galleries line up their big exhibits…
It’s exactly like that here. Except for, you know…sweaters, apples, tourists, iElves, theater, movies, museums, and art galleries.
Stasha’s listicle this week is about autumn but even before I knew that would be her subject, I had been thinking about fall. This time last year, I was still in the just-arrived expat fugue state; I couldn’t really have told you what day it was, much less what season. Now, however, I am awake and aware; I’m pretty sure it’s Wednesday and I know it’s October and thus, fall.
Sort of.
Living in a place where it’s always summer is odd – it’s not even like LA, where a person might want a little jacket or something against the evening chill. Here, if you’re lucky, the temperature goes down to…80F in the evening, or maybe, maybe 75. Don’t get me wrong – the fact that I will not spend February leaping across the slushy chasms of New York street corners is just fine with me, but I do feel nostalgic for fall.
1. Boots. I love boots. Tucked into our storage facility in New York are my adored motorcycle boots…and suede boots, tall boots, low boots, high-heeled maybe-I’m-really-Condi-Rice boots…And while, yes, it’s true, some women here do wear boots in January and February, I can’t bring myself to do it. It’s like having hockey teams in southern Florida. It just doesn’t make sense.
2. TV. We still get Entertainment Weekly here (about two weeks after the fact), so I just got the issue that describes all the new TV shows. True, I wouldn’t watch probably 95% of them if we still lived in the States, but I could, if I wanted to. Probably I could figure out how to stream these shows now, or download them, or something like that, but you know? Most of those shows aren’t worth that kind of commitment. And that’s what I miss, more than anything: the mindless flop onto the couch, remote in hand, for a little quality multi-tasking hour or so. Because a person can’t just watch TV. That would be, I don’t know, sinful or something, wouldn’t it? So I used to watch TV and answer email, or fold the laundry, or figure out why there were legos embedded into the rug. Now I do all those same things but without the company of pretty people with big heads bobbling around on the telly.
3. Apples. Let us have a moment of thanks for the gift that is the Honeycrisp apple, piles and piles of them at the Union Square Farmer’s Market. Or Fujis, or Lady Gala, or… The apples here get flown in from New Zealand, Italy, France. And while there’s something sort of glamorous about that (not to mention expensive), they don’t taste as good as when they’ve been picked the night before. Caleb and I always have an apple binge when we go back to New York during the winter holidays–it’s usually just past apple season, but still better than you can get here.
4. The farmer’s market, in general, in early fall: eggplant, peppers, tomatoes to die for. The last riches of a summer garden, all on display. I usually get my Martha Stewart on, at this time of year: I make tomato sauce, ratatouille, roast a lot of vegetables, and then dump everything in the freezer so that in mid-March, I can have late August on my dinner plate.
5. The New Season. Why “the new” gets launched in the fall, I don’t fully understand. Maybe it’s because the weather gets yucky, so all we want to do is sit inside and be entertained? I miss the buzz that surrounds all new releases, although, as Husband points out, we very seldom could afford to see even a fraction of the theater that looked interesting. Mostly that was my fault: I would price out the cost of theater tickets and a babysitter and decide that no show was going to be worth approximately eight-five thousand dollars. Every fall, as the new season launched, I would launch too: into a diatribe about the ridiculous cost of theater and how theater owners were alienating the next generation of theater-goers because only the very rich and/or ladies on tour buses from New Jersey could afford tickets. But still. I miss the buzz.
6. Fuzzy things: scarves, sweaters, socks.
7. The stinky-gingkos, as Liam used to call them. When the gingko seeds squash on the ground, they smell a bit like old cheese and wet leaves. It’s odd to miss a bad smell, but it’s a very specific, very autumnal scent.
8. Huge, splendid, dramatic dahlias, in deep purple and incandescent orange.
9. My wonderful French raincoat, purchased in Paris many years ago. It’s perfectly plain outside – just a tan trenchcoat – but inside:
I don’t ever get to wear that coat here, because we don’t get days like this:
And that would be what I don’t miss about autumn in New York: cold, wet, drippy, and always the possibility of losing an eyeball to the idiot carrying a golf umbrella that would shield an elephant.
10. The autumn sky in Abu Dhabi, with what passes for “weather:”
Weather. Which is to say: clouds.
How I love apples/boots/fuzzy things and a snappy jacket liner.
xo
Alexandra recently posted..Silver Lining To Everything
1. I adore boots! I cannot, however, get with the wearing of cowboy boots in summer as people do here. Also, this new nonsense of “booties” with open toes. IT’S A BOOT. FOR COLD WEATHER. WHY ARE YOUR TOES EXPOSED? And then to suggese wearing a sock with an open toe…my head. It explodes.
2. I’m pretty much done with TV. Outside of random special things like a movie here or there or the debates (which made me try to figure out what time it was for you to be watching in real time) I have no interest in TV (not on a regular basis, at least). That makes me sad. I used to enjoy mindlessness.
3. I love a room temperature Granny Smith.
5. We wanted to take the girls to NY for the Christmas show at Radio City. Um, no. The prices made me cry.
6. These things are necessities since I hate to be cold and then want to be comfortable in warmth. Soft warm things are a must.
9. I have more coats than boots, it’s true. There’s something about a coat or a jacket or a sweater or a puffer vest or a trench that does something to me. If it’s lined with something unexpectedly fabulous, it’s even better.
Arnebya recently posted..The Bright Side of 39 (and a letter to myself)
Ah, I think I’d miss it too. Sometimes I think I am ready to relocate – I have such wanderlust – but I do so love NY. Not sure I could last too long somewhere else. Thanks for sharing 🙂
I love the seasons, having grown up in New England. This is my first non-New England fall in Paris and although there are weather changes here, it will be the first time we won’t go apple picking and pumpkin picking at our two favorite places. I think the boots would be the hardest for me too!
Oh my, you had some clouds ha? Well that is a rare sight! I missed the seasons more then anything else in the Gulf. when it turns for the worse and the rain comes down hard, I will post some photos just for you xo
Stasha recently posted..Wordless Wednesday
I moved to NJ, just outside of NYC two years ago, and I’ve totally gone on a boot fetish. I never had them in CA. I think I’d have less trouble adjusting to your winter weather than the weather here 😉
Stacie @ Snaps and Bits recently posted..Google Me Again
What a wonderful, nostalgic list. Every year I think that there are new shows that I am going to watch, for sure, but I just don’t have the time. Living on the Wet, I mean West Coast, I can’t imagine a fall without rain or apples. I think my husband would like the lack of rain where you are but not the heat.
Brandee recently posted..Fall is here!
You make me miss autumn and I’m right here in the thick of it. It’s been kind of warm here in the Mid-Atlantic, so I haven’t broken out the boots yet . . . but I bought a BEAUTIFUL pair for when that cold snap cracks its whip. Right now, I’m rocking flip flops and enjoying the last eggplants out of my garden.
I’m glad you are more settled and at peace than you were at this time last year. Ellen
Sisterhood of the Sensible Moms recently posted..Thanks For The Complisult. How Clever.
I feel you on pretty much everything you wrote here! Boots, apples (I indulge the hell out of a carmel apple or 5 every fall), scarves, hugging myself in a stylish coat. Especially TV. Oh, how I miss American TV. We have DVDs of some great shows (30 Rock, Breaking Bad, Dexter, Mad Men etc…) but it’s not like the good old plopping down on a sofa to let the part of your brain thats not folding socks enjoy some entertainment. I miss that. (though I love that I watch zero hours of crap I feel guilty about now taht we don’t have a TV.) Anyway, great post. You always encourage me to write after I read your stuff….
Kim at Mama Mzungu recently posted..The Sweetest Potato (and a rare recipe)
I always really missed Fall when living in a hot country. I love Fall.
I also love for your Parisian trench-coat.
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