Welcome, Fall

I have not been ready for Fall. The biggest problem is we had a 30˙ drop this last week so mentally I was still clinging to Summer and then I was tossed into Winter: cruel joke. Well the other night after work I had to head north to get measured for my dress so Taylor and I missed having dinner together. When I got home we went to Slab Pizza so I could eat a ginormous piece of Hawaiian pizza. It was dark and rainy as we left the partially sub-level restaurant and my mouth wasn't satisfied so we headed towards our favorite frozen yogurt place. When we got to the parking lot of Yogurtland it didn't seem right. I knew it would be delicious but I wasn't sold and I knew Taylor wasn't in the mood. As I sat in the car debating dessert I saw Starbucks across the street and I decided I wanted a Holiday themed drink.

The entire Starbucks experience that night hit both Taylor and me. We walked into the small shop, Taylor wearing his hooded jacket (something deeply sentimental for me for lots of reasons I won't discuss) and me in a jacket and scarf. The shop had enough people filling the chairs it felt welcoming but not enough to have a line or destroy the home-y feeling. We got our drinks from a hipster guy and a magenta-haired girl and we walked out into the cool mist of Fall. I slipped into the high that comes with a cozy feeling in the middle of California-winter weather and Taylor imagined the variety of similar places we could discover if we lived somewhere like Chicago or New York.

We were not meant for Provo. Today, Taylor came and took me to lunch (I work in American Fork). There's not that much distance between the two places but there is so much freedom the closer you are to Salt Lake City. It will be a temporary fix in December when we're married and leave Provo, making things better until we can leave Utah for good. Until then, we are both now fully enjoying the cooler weather and all it offers.

Winter Shoes

Yesterday Taylor and I went to TJMaxx in search of some knock-off Uggs for me. I figured out few winters ago it's best to get $30 Fuggs because I'm so tough on boots it doesn't make sense to (as much as I'd love to) buy the name brand ones when they're going to be shot in six months.

As we walked through the shoe racks he pulled out every pair of not-Ugg boot. Apparently he thinks Uggs are awful, but every boot he pulled out I would never be able to get myself to wear, cold feet or no. At one point I found a cool pair of Ralph Lauren shoes that looked a lot like the traditional Puma style.

Me: "These are cool."
Taylor: "Yeah. They're summer shoes though."

pause.

Summer shoes? Oh yeah. This is my fifth winter in Utah and I still see any pair of close-toed shoe as a "winter" shoe.

This is why: Rainbows.

As a California kid, I wore these pretty much year-round. That picture is of me, my brother, Philip, and my sister, McKenzie, during our family portrait session last summer. Unplanned, and yet to no surprise, we all wore Rainbows. (What you don't see in this is that my sister-in-law, Elizabeth, and brother-in-law, Austin, were also wearing Rainbows.)

That's why it's so hard for me to buy "winter shoes". I always want to wear flip flops and cold weather means I need to wear any type of shoe, so my feet are always cold.

These are what I did buy, though:

They're perfect: a little weird, waterproof, fully lined and warm and I want to wear them.