I love my annual Christmas gift from one of my best friends, Ashley. Years ago, she started creating these awesome personalized calendars as Christmas gifts that make me excited for each new month since I never know what pictures she has chosen to go with each one.
Seeing these pictures just now as I turned to October in the calendar took me back to previous Fall Breaks. My first Fall Break was spent writing and with my nose buried in books as I tackled a mountain of Stats homework and readings and assignments for my other two classes that semester, Program Eval and Intro to Doctoral Studies. My second Fall Break was much more enjoyable when Ashley and another best friend from college, Monika, came down to visit!! We had a Thirty-One party where they got to meet some of my new friends down here, took in a ghost tour in downtown Greensboro and enjoyed First Friday festivities. Last year, during my third Fall Break, I went to York and stayed with Ashley and visited with Monika and her as we had a fantastic weekend in Baltimore and York taking in Wicked and just enjoying each other's company. This year's Fall Break will find me in Nashville, TN for the first time!
I love fall.
I love October.
I love adventure.
I love fun times with family & friends.
I love pictures & personalized gifts that remind me of those times!
This time of year and seeing the leaves changing always remind me of the fall collages I have in storage at the moment. I have four fall collages I made the year after I finished my Master's degree and had my Saturdays free from attending classes at Kutztown University the previous two years. That Labor Day, while attending the Kipona Arts Festival in 2006, I had admired a photographer's fall collage. I was thisclose to buying it but Ashley and I determined that $40 for it was a bit much. I thought to myself...hey, I could create this myself! Besides, I don't like yellow leaves (which were abundant in the photographer's expensive collage) and would rather a collage that had more red and orange ones in it. So, my fall project that year revolved around taking photos instead of writing a paper or completing a course requirement. Dad and I had driven around on Columbus Day, when we were both off work, and took several shots of the fall foliage in the mountains at home. I added to those pictures ones I took by the Susquehanna River and around Harrisburg, where I was living at the time, when I went on my first motorcycle ride as an adult. The guy I was dating at the time had one and we had fun exploring the mountains near Harrisburg on many October and November Saturdays that season. I also had a few pictures I had taken from my sun roof in my Saturn (RIP 2004 Ion) as I drove from school to school in York so there are pictures from York and Lancaster area in the collage as well. I love that these four fall photos capture so many of the places that helped to shape my mid 20s...such memories the gathering of these fall foliage photos hold for me! I can't wait to hang up those pictures again! For now, my personalized calendar courtesy of Ashley and the artwork from my niece and nephews I do have hanging up in the Bonus Room and at school will suffice.
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