Fall Excitement!*

Do you think the disease naming people purposely named it Seasonal Affective Disorder so the acronym would [ironically] be SAD? 

I've been doing a lot of googling lately. I get a very weird feeling when fall comes around. I think my friends are sick of hearing me talk about it so i'm going to write it here, then be done with it. 

I'm actually fine with winter -- once it's here I've accepted the cold and I LOVE the holiday season. It's the time period from mid September until Thanksgiving that just gets me feeling off. As soon as it starts to get cold out I get this feeling of anxiety. I don't think I have a real case of SAD -- it's more of just a 'fall blues' kind of thing. I have nothing extra to be anxious about in the fall except for work events, but that can't explain why I've felt this way forever. The best way to describe it is as a feeling of dread. Dread that I'm going to be freezing and slammed with 100 mph winds every time I step out the door. I just feel like summer is so relaxed, fun and everything is easier (i.e throwing on sandals and a dress rather than socks, boots, leggings, sweater, coat, scarf, hat, gloves...ugh). I prefer baseball season over football season and hot coffee reeks worse than cold coffee. I know i'm in the minority here, but I'm more impressed with spring when flowers, plants and leaves bloom form the dead than when they change colors in the fall. 

Okay enough complaining. I'm a strong believer in the fact that by simply practicing changing your thoughts, you can change your deeper attitude/outlook about something. So let's see if I can do that with fall.

Some good things about fall being here:
Eating chili
Craving soup again
Busting out the crock pot
Not feeling more pale than everyone around me
Wearing slippers
Hikes
CLEMENTINE SEASON 
No humidity
Having a reason (too cold) to stay in and cuddle
The leaves are pretty nice
All my favorite shows come back on TV
The area I work in is not overcrowded with annoying kids out of school
Leggings
Vacation days (I have 2 weeks of vacation to use up before the end of the year!)
Trader Joe's pumpkin butter
Cheap apples dipped in dark chocolate peanut butter
The new grocery store in my area will be opening!
I'll be starting at a new gym so no more scary walks (more on this later)

Things to do:
Buy a box of clementines every week
Go pumpkin/apple picking
Carve a pumpkin
Go to a haunted house
Buy fall scented candals
Plan a hiking date
Watch Halloween movies (Double Double Toil and Trouble! Hocus Pocus! Halloween Town!)
Go costume shopping/brainstorming early - like now.
Have a Halloween party
Buy some cute new fall clothes
Get a massage (this just needs to be done generally, but especially in the fall)
Try to make pumpkin pie
Start listening to Christmas music (!!)

Okay, I feel better already :)

*This post was originally titled "Fall Blues" but I went back and changed it, even adding in the exclamation point for good measure. Go me.