Maybe It's Fall?

 Since moving to southern California seven years ago, I have often heard it expressed by people that I am "so lucky" to live here. Such comments have been directed at me so many times that it must be true, but I still find myself wondering what exactly is there to be envious of? Maybe it's the weather. True, the weather here is nice and stable...and boring. When it is something other than sunny with clear skies, you would think the world had ended. Daily conversations & news media are full of excessively exaggerated reactions to rain and how terrible it is, the number of car accidents increase because rain makes native southern Californians twitchy and nervous on the road, and everyone you talk to will complain about the rain. (True story: One day while walking home in the rain in college, I overheard someone on their cell phone describe the weather as "the Apocalypse").

Or perhaps people envy the hustle & bustle of such a large and diverse population and the car culture of California. Because who doesn't enjoy sitting in bumper to bumper traffic at 5:30 in the morning. Or maybe it's because when it's a truly nice day, even by southern California standards, you can do something fun like go to the beach, an outdoor shopping mall (especially in western OC), or Disneyland...just like the other 14 million people. Or maybe it's the wild abandon with which air conditioning is used in such a way to showcase just how much money there is to throw away here. I mean when it's 70 degrees out who doesn't want to walk into a building Air conditioned to 55F? Nothing says luxury and style like torturing people with Raynaud's for going to work or the grocery store. If nothing else, living in southern California will maintain your sense of humor, because otherwise you'd go mad.

As for myself, I find that I spend more and more time each year in southern CA waiting and waiting for the change of seasons....and I always wind up disappointed. Two years ago, I spend an entire summer in San Diego waiting for a nice sunny summer morning only to meet with cloudy mornings all summer...and then summer was over and I was still waiting. This year, I have been waiting for fall to come. Last week, it finally felt like fall. The mornings had a crispness to them (which was enhanced by a day or two of rain that cleared all the smog out of the air) that returned in the evenings. And then two days later it was 90 degrees again. Nevertheless, I took full advantage of those two days by finally opening a can pumpkin and baking something with those wonderful fall flavors. I had originally planned on just making some oatmeal cookies for the Husband Unit for the day I got to see him in the past couple weeks, but then I thought it was a shame to waste the weather so I mixed in some pumpkin to make it more seasonally festive.

 

These cookies went over really well when I brought them in to my shift last weekend. I think when I make them again, I will add more of the spices; there wasn't quite enough flavor from the spices.