October 19, 2006

Confessions from the Carpool

Falling for Fall

By Shana McLean Moore
Times Columnist

There are so many reasons to rejoice during this time of year, and it’s more than just the beginnings of the celebration-a-month club. Sure, from Halloween through Valentine’s Day, there’s plenty of reason to party. But let’s also toast to the fact that we’ve washed and put away the last of the multiplying beach towels, surrendered our efforts to sprout green thumbs in the garden, and stopped all involuntary sweating. Don’t you just love the annual predictability of it all?

Glory be to the ancient Egyptians for mapping the days on a calendar. All I know is that once we flip ours to October, peace and harmony have a chance of returning to our lives, squelching my instincts to mummify the children.

By now, you see, the kids have finally surrendered to the groove of the school year. Just as the needles on our old turntables followed the grooves through to the end of the album, the kids are now on course to follow this school year through until the glorious dead air of summer.

Last month, they couldn’t get past track one. With the re-introduction of math facts, spelling, and mandatory reading for “pleasure,” they pined for the carefree days of July and August. There was so much pining and whining, in fact, that we sounded like a broken record stuck on “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.”

By October, though, it’s as if we’ve put ol’ Cyndi Lauper back in her album cover. In fact, our family has adjusted so well that I rarely hear the other old lyrics of my youth swirling in my head. You know, songs that serve the dual purpose of reminding us of simpler times while summing up a mom’s after-school mood. Lord knows we spend most evenings “Livin’ on a Prayer,” just shy of “Burning Down the House” via combustion, and remaining sane “Against All Odds.”

But now that we no longer waste 30 minutes negotiating the inevitable tasks, we have time for other autumn treats. One of my favorites is to go for a brisk walk and hear the crunch of leaves beneath my feet. Granted, for us Californians, this has to be a purposeful pursuit. We have to search for the few Ivy League wannabe leaves that drop when the midday temperatures still reach 80 degrees. Is it even legal to crunch leaves while wearing flip-flops?

Fortunately, the retailers manage to fill in where Mother Nature neglects us. With all the ghouls, gourds and earthy colors accosting us at the stores, we know that we are marching toward winter. We simply must embrace the pumpkin pie latte before they switch to eggnog.

And while we’re at it, we’d better stock up on Halloween candy before it’s picked over. Face it, moms, there’s nothing worse than seeing the look of disappointment in Cinderella and Spider Man’s eyes when they’re told to “just take one” from the single bag of generic Smarties you were lucky enough to land when shopping on Halloween morning. Besides, if you buy the chocolate in bulk now, you’ll be able to nibble yourself nauseous on bite-size candy bars that never feel as guilt-producing as the big ones. Even when eaten in multiples of three.

Ah, yes, the season of gorging has begun and the timing couldn’t be better. For now, only the October mornings and evenings are crisp enough to send us out bundled up for football games and early morning soccer matches. But before those bite-size bars have bitten us in the butt (and latched on for dear life), the afternoons will also be cold enough to spend in clothes that most women over 30 want them to be spent in: full-coverage pants.

To you notable exception yard duty moms in show-off running shorts, I’m not sure if it makes me happier to cover my legs, or that you will eventually need to warm your own. Since it’s hard to envy what you can’t even see, I’m thinking I see this two-fer as a bumper crop harvest for fall.

If that’s not something to celebrate, I don’t know what is.


Shana McLean Moore lives in Almaden Valley and is the co-author of “Femail: A Comic Collision in Cyberspace” and the author of “Caffeinated Ponderings on Life, Laughter & Lattes.” For more information visit Moore’s Web site at www.caffeinatedponderings.com.