Three beautiful things from a beautiful November:

1. Today dawned clear and crisp after yesterday’s rain and temperature free fall. It was the perfect day for a nice heavy wool sweater over a t-shirt.

2. My college roommate and I hae stayed friends over the years, even if we are not always good at staying in touch. On Tuesday I managed to get her on the phone and we chatted away for nearly an hour, learning about what each other was up to as well as exchanging tidbits of information about friends and families.

3. I went to the doctor today for a three-month follow-up to a diagnostic appointment I had over the summer. The doctor reports no changes from my earlier test results, which everyone agrees is very good news.

I know. I know. You’re dying to know — what were three of the beautiful things that I noticed this week? Wait no longer. Here they are:

1. Late Friday night as I was walking back to the Burrow, I caught a good whiff of fall. I wasn’t expecting it. But there it was, waiting for me, just like an old friend on the street corner. And it was there again the other day amidst the crunchy leaves littering the sidewalk on the way home from work.

2. Tonight I decided to make some applesauce with some of the apples deteriorating in the fridge. I didn’t bother to measure the cinnamon when I added it to the pot, and it was clear from the way the mixture smelled as it was simmering that I’d put in way too much. But then once it was done cooking, it tasted fine. So cinnamon can be added to applesauce far more liberally than recipes call for and it just makes it that much tastier.

3. I took yesterday as a work-at-home day in order to finish editing a book that got passed on to me. The topic was astronomy — and, in particular, the terrestrial planets (Mars, Mercury, Venus, Earth, and the Moon). Unfortunately, because I barely passed the subject in college, I was having a difficult time understanding some of the nuance the astrophysicists were trying to get at in their comments. So it felt really good when, in the last chapter, I finally understood that a planet’s magnetic field is related to its core and that its major surface disruptions (like volcanic activity and earthquakes) are related to its mantle. The two have nothing to do with one another, according to NASA. [Don’t say we aren’t instructional around here…]

When I express surprise that Thursdays roll around with such speed it’s not because I have difficulty coming up with Three Beautiful Things. It’s just that this and the farmers’ market may be the only concrete reminder I have of what day of the week it is.

From this week:

1) On Saturday, I was in a store when I chanced to glance outside and see a pink tint to the sky. I hurried out to discover the most gorgeous sunset. It stretched from a dark blue in the east through the spectrum of purples, pinks, reds, and oranges to a pale sunny blue in the west. Layers of clouds created intricate designs. And one group of clouds had arranged itself in such a way as to look like a Greek god blowing the rest of the clouds across the sky. It was tremendous.

2) One of the houses near me pulled out all the stops for Halloween. They had purple sparkly streamers and giant spiders and pumpkins. It was very festive in a neighborhood that can be a little staid.

3) Rudi and I went up to Connecticut to get rid of some more of the stuff we had stored in my folks’ basement this past weekend. We are both packrats, so there’s a lot of stuff up there still and it can be traumatic to give it away. But this time it felt good. Three huge bags of clothes went to a thrift shop, two bags of papers and such went into the garbage pile, and five boxes of household goods are waiting to go to the thrift shop at Thanksgiving. It allowed us to find things that meant something to us (Rudi’s ski team photos and my letters from college) and to pass on things that have served us well but would better suit someone else now. We still have a number of boxes to go through, but it feels good to have made such a solid start.

Three beautiful things from the last week:

1) 85 degrees and sunny weather in Tucson for the three days I was there. It was nice to wear shorts one last time this year.

2) October shouldn’t be that warm, so it was nice to come home to golden leaves on the lawns and a nip in the air.

3) Min and I knew each other through mutual friends in college, where she was a couple years ahead of me. We had managed, for the most part, to stay in touch through the years, but time and distance make that challenging and we’d managed to lose track of each other in the last year or so. So it was nice when we made plans to meet up while I was visiting town. I think we both were a little worried that we’d changed since we’d last seen each other (we’re guessing it’s been about seven years) and that we wouldn’t recognize one another. But instead we did and I had a lovely time reminiscing and catching up and getting to know her better. Maybe the next time I come to Tucson will be a little bit more relaxed and I’ll have more opportunities for visiting.

How did it get to be Thursday again already? Are we skipping several days — and if we are, are they during the weekend? Nonetheless, it’s never too soon to discuss the beautiful things in our lives. Three from the last week:

1. Yesterday, when Sarah and I were walking back to the office from lunch, I noticed a flock of pigeons flying in large arcs over the street. Because it was so sunny, their shadows appeared against the buildings, making it seem like the flock was twice as large as it was.

2. On Sunday, I wanted chocolate and instead of just eating the chips out of the bag, I decided to make cookies. For the past week, Mrs. Potts has been full and available for snacks and cravings and sharing with Rudi when he’s on the phone with his mom.

3. Rudi and I went through our clothes this weekend and took three big bags full to Goodwill. I hope the clothes find owners who like them and that we have continued luck paring down our lives.

Thursdays seem to be coming awfully quickly this fall. Three Beautiful Things are upon us again:

1. Sam and Alexis got married on Monday and it was clearly the best thing in the world that they did. They’re very much in love (but not in that sickening way that sometimes love can materialize as) and they complement each other well. They knew it, their families knew it, and their friends knew it. Their celebration became a celebration for all of us present — an embodiment of what love could offer to the world.

2. Sam and Rudi and I have known each other for a long time now — 11+ years since Sam first walked into the College Relations office at Conn and thought I was a grown up (a mistake he has never since made). In that time, we’ve spent a great deal of time together, particularly with his mother’s extended family. His grandparents, Mac and Irv, lived about half an hour from where I grew up and we would drop Sam off to visit and he would invite us down to celebrate Christmas Eve with them. As such, I got to know his extended family in ways I haven’t with many friends. So attending his wedding was like going to my own family’s wedding in a way — a chance to catch up with aunts and cousins whom I hadn’t seen in a while. And a nice visit with Mac, who is a dear, and Sam’s immediate family — Charlotte, Terry, and Alan.

3. I don’t care if Eddie from Ohio believes that the “prettiest October in all the 50 states” can be found in Virginia. I come from New England and I will forever believe that it has the best foliage in the fall. Pink, scarlet, yellow, orange, brown, and various greens. The colors were muted because the trees had only just started to change when the storms came through, but it didn’t matter. It just made it look like someone had caught in watercolor the moment when you should start paying attention. Another week, and by the time you noticed, it might have been too late. But this gave you a chance to actually see the colors arrive.