Read This If You Love World Peace

This post is overdue. One week overdue, in fact. For, just one week ago, we were all (hopefully) sitting down to a table filled with food, family and friends, thinking about what we are thankful for and about how many antacids we can take in a 24-hour period following our unnecessary overindulgence.

This, my friends, is my Thanksgiving post. It will be short, sweet and filled with pictures of Baby Charlie because, well, the only thing we did more of than eat and drink was take pictures of the baby. It was great to spend a weekend with my family, just hanging out, cracking jokes, eating food, and drinking all the wine. For that, I am thankful. 

Many of you participated (and are still participating) in "gratitude month" on Facebook and are posting what you are thankful for each day in November. At first, I didn't really know what was going on. I thought you guys were all spammed by some weirdo inspirational spammer. Instead of "Day #2: Lost 5 pounds without even trying -  find out how!" the posts read "Day #2: I love my family! They are always there for me when I need them!"

I wish spammers spammed like that.

I also wish those "lose five pounds without even trying" spams were accurate.

I didn't participate in "gratitude month" because, even though I'm on Facebook an alarmingly high number of times per day, I usually try to avoid Facebook trends, unless they involve posting pictures of hilarious animals. See Exhibit A:

Yes, "gratitude month" is totally different than a "Post this if you love Jesus!" trend and I enjoyed reading your grateful messages, but I just never came around to joining in.

Those Facebook trends are a slippery slope, you know. You click on one "Share this if you have a Mom and think she's the greatest" and suddenly you're locked in. "Umm...Lindsay proved she loved her mom but she didn't share the picture of the puppy to prove she wants all puppies to have food...LINDSAY HATES ANIMALS."

Free Fallin'

Obligatory "fall leaves" picture. So pretty. 

After writing about politics and apartment fires, I thought I'd write a post that's a bit more simple: my simple loves of Fall.

Despite the fact that it always starts with a sinus infection and dozens of dollars spent on tissues and menthol cough drops, Fall is my most favorite season*. I believe it's called "Autumn" if you think you're better than me.

 *Fall is actually third behind The Christmas Season and Award Show Season. This is important to note as posts about these seasons will most likely show up in due time. But, I thought it would be dumb to write a post about my "Third Favorite Season" so just go with it.

PUMPKIN SCONES
In case you were hoping for an insightful post with clever, unexpected points, then I'm sorry. My reasons for loving this season are as cliche as they come. For example: pumpkins.

If it has pumpkin in it, then I'll probably be eating it. During the months of October and November, I eat pumpkin like it's going out of style. Because, guess what?? It is. You think you can get a pumpkin scone in March? Good luck with that.

Pictured to the left is a pumpkin scone from Starbucks. Now, in my expert-pumpkin-pastry opinion, Starbucks pumpkin scones can be hit-or-miss. This is due to the icing. There's too much of it. Sometimes it's delicious and sometimes it tastes like glue. (I think because maybe it is possibly glue). Personally, I'd rather have no icing at all, but sometimes you just get wrapped up in all their promotional pictures and the next you know, you've ordered it.

Unlike the rest of America, I don't actually obsess over Starbucks' pumpkin beverages. Pictured above is my tried and true "GrandeIcedGreenTeaUnsweetenedPlease." That's how I order it.

FOOTBALL
Even when your team is 2 and 74 or whatever the Panthers record is right now, football is still a great part of Fall. (For the record, I know the Panthers are 2-7. I believe in you, Cats. All Ws from here on out...)

Aside from a few irritating folks that I probably shouldn't be virtual friends with in the first place, I love that people get all crazy about their teams - college or professional. The Panthers may be having a JV season this year, but there's always that anticipation and hope that this will be the week.

Panther growl. Right before our VICTORY over the Redskins. 

We didn't start the fire...

...No we didn't light it. But we tried to fight it.

Actually I didn't try to fight it. That's just a Billy Joel song.

And those are also the only words I know from that song aside from when I chime in on, "Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television." 

But back to the fire I didn't start or fight.

I was getting all ready to settle in for a rousing Friday evening of butternut squash soup and my Netflix queue  when things took a very surprising turn. In case you do more exciting activities on a Friday night, I should explain that "getting ready" for my evening meant that I would be taking a shower after a training session at the gym (more on that in the future.) and promptly putting on pajamas. This explanation is important to the story because it means I was still in a sweaty gym t-shirt. I tend to procrastinate on everything in life, including post-gym showers. This may be why it's good that I live alone. This may also be why I'm still single.

Nonetheless, I was sitting on the floor in front of the coffee table, starting my delicious bowl of soup and watching an episode of Alias when I heard a strange ringing sound which I only assumed was part of the show. But, even when the show switched scenes, the ringing continued. I thought, "These CIA people are morons, don't they realize they've set off some sort of alarm?" I muted the TV and the muffled ringing sound remained. Hmm...peculiar.