Molasses>Rosin

The giant sunflowers at the sunflower house are gone. If you're bold enough to step up to the yard though, you'll discover that the roses, which are still going strong (how do they bring out all those blooms on one bush? One of these days I'll have to ask. Watch it be one of my professors....), are bobbing on their stems because they're so heavy with perfume. The white english teas, especially, will make you dizzy with so much sweetness. I wish I could describe the smell to you, it's absolutely heavenly. Especially as an accent to the exciting patchwork quilt of smells I've been experiencing this week. Since Tuesday (when the local weather did that switchover from "why's it so hot, it's October?!" to "f*^$%, it's cold!"), I've started noticing the damp earthy smell of decaying leaves, overlayed by the crisp, biting tang of cold. For a couple nights now, I've smelled smoke from bonfires, too. And then of course, there's the perpetual funk of sci-fi lounge...

As a side note, the smell of rosin is similar enough to molasses to make you think you can eat it. Well you can't. It really does not taste like molasses at all, actually.

Steven's squash soup also smells like heaven (and nutmeg, hot-sauce, and carrots). If you get a chance to eat in kosher co-op, do it. You'll be so glad you did.

The changeover from summer to fall is all the more exciting this year, because I get to see it through the eyes of a friend whose California hometown doesn't have seasons. This poor deprived child, for all that he grew up with the roar of the ocean in his ears, has never rolled in a pile of damp, freshly raked leaves (or squealed because of the imaginary spider that must be crawling through it), never collected bright fallen foliage for a tracing book, has never run through the park like a fool trying to catch the pieces of color as they fall, and has probably never played acorn jacks! Obviously, this must be corrected! Yesterday, though it was very cold (yes I know, "get used to it"), I found consolation watching this friend experiment with breathing out different ways to see his breath. I didn't even notice I could see my breath, until he started huffing and puffing away! (I do believe there was even a giggle in there somewhere.) Also, he hasn't seen snow since he was 8... Snowball fights this year are going to be epic (;;cackles evilly;;).

There's probably a theme in there somewhere, something about appreciating old things in a new way... Maybe you'll appreciate it, I'm not going to think about it too hard just now (I'm saving all my thinking for midterms!).

In less than an hour, I'm going to take a basic Lindy swing class, and a basic Charleston class, so that I'll be ready (or at least won't make a complete fool of myself) at the costume swing dance tonight. After that...the study marathon!

By now you've probably heard that Spenser and I have broken up. No more Sperin. I really don't feel like going into detail about it. I'm ok. As far as I can tell, he's ok. We're still ourselves, just as individuals now.