Seasons aren’t the only things that transition

I am completely unprepared for it to be cold.

I mean, I know it’s going to happen. It’s Illinois and it’s November, but I still want to hold on to what warm weather we have. I am a winter baby and do look forward to the season every year, but for some strange reason, I just don’t want it to come. At least not yet.

It didn’t really set in until I woke up last Friday (Halloween) to see snow falling outside my window. Actual flakes, ground cover-worthy. A little part of me cried inside.

With winter comes cold and with cold comes snow. The former is what I’m looking forward to least. There are conflicting reports that Illinois will see several “polar vortexes” this winter. People have been crediting that to the cooler summer. Whatever the case may be, this could be the first time in a while where I just want Illinois to skip winter and head straight into spring.

This is also the season where flus seem to pop up at a greater pace. Two weeks ago (granted it was warmer then), I was to headed to DeKalb to see some friends from college, but the bug hit both of them, and our trip was canceled. I fear that will only blossom as we head into winter.

It’s been a busy month to say the least. Between work, personal issues and seeing friends grow up, get married and welcome children to this world, I’ve found myself tied up more often than not. Some musing from this past month:

It’s been weird around the house with just one dog. For those unaware, my dog Newman passed away on Oct. 3. While I’ve gotten over the original depression, I still miss him. But I can’t tell how it’s impacting his brother, Kramer.

He no longer seeks out his buddy, but he has established a “route” around our kitchen that he takes about every 30 minutes. He also no longer sleeps in the cage; if we even attempt, he freaks out and starts barking maniacally.

His main hobbies now are sleeping, barking, and peeing on our fridge (another fun little thing he’s picked up — he does not inform us when he has to go outside, as he and his brother did when they were younger. Rather, he walks over to the fridge and just relieves himself).

Health-wise, he’s fine. We just have those secondary characteristics to fix.

I’m very excited that we’ve entered Oscar season. This summer at the movies was less-than-thrilling. I can’t remember a time where I just had no motivation to go to the theaters to see movies. Now, I can’t stop.

It’s even more a blessing that theaters around my house play the lesser-known movies that may not receive a full distribution. In the past two weeks, I’ve seen Birdman, Whiplash, and Nightcrawler, all of which will be honored in some manner. Be it Actor, Supporting Actor, Cinematography, or Director, these three will receive an award.

Halloween is slowly becoming one of my favorite holidays. In elementary school, I always enjoyed dressing up and heading around the neighborhood on the ultimate search for the largest candy pile. As I grew, that love was replaced by spending time with friends, watching movies, or just greeting said trick-or-treaters.

In college, I distanced myself from the holiday. My peers turned Halloween into an “all you can drink-athon’ and, well, I just didn’t want to be a part of that.

In the years since college, I have rediscovered it. Though I did not dress up this year, I served as our trick-or-treat supervisor. We got a grand total of two trick-or-treaters, so naturally, we have a large pile of candy remaining.

While waiting for those who would inevitably not come (our neighborhood has never had strong numbers), I managed to have a mini-movie marathon. I never realized the exorbitant amount of horror and Halloween-based movies are out there.

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