october.

October is my favorite month, and with only forty-six minutes left of it, it's time to say why.

I put this off because I cannot accurately express it. Unless you've been where I've been and walked in my shoes, you can't quite understand. But some of you will somewhat understand, and others of you simply deserve an explanation for why I act especially ridiculous during this particular month every year. All I know to do is to tell you what October is, to me. Maybe that will shed light on the situation.

October is:

family traveling in from out of town
brand new journals
cleaning the house
Chamberlin Holiness Lectures
motor homes
long-sleeve shirts
Votivo red currant candles
cream puffs that are still slightly frozen
football
fresh air
leaves that start to fall in the wind
apples
Christopher Columbus
black cats
street lights that, without fail, always flicker out

October is assorted fall candy in leaf and pumpkin-shaped dishes spread throughout the Smith house. More, October is searching all of those dishes for a Reese's cup and finding that there are no Reese's cups left; instead, there are bunches of candy wrappers left in the Reese's cup's place.

October is finally getting settled. September is chaotic because you're still trying to figure out school and how to balance everything. By October, you've gotten the balance and are ready to soak up the fun.

October is when things happen. You think I'm making this up, but the craziest things, the best things, the most unusual things all always happen during this month. Maybe it's a Halloween thing? Maybe it's in my head. Maybe it's just a bit of fall magic.

Essentially, it all traces back to October 1998 and Dad's inauguration as WBS President. That month was chaos, but I remember it so well for only being in the third grade. That month kicked off all of the crazy adventures that have happened, consistently, every October since.

This October has been a blur, but, like all other Octobers, it's been great. I'm excited about a new month starting tomorrow - or, I guess, in twenty-four minutes now. I just had to acknowledge my obsession with these past thirty-one days first.