Today

I'm feeling totally sentimental today.

First of all, it was a *beautiful* cloudy day. And i don't mean the partly cloudy NorCal bullcrap where it's kindof overcast in the morning (just enough to get my hopes up) but then the sun burns it all away by lunchtime and heats up the day. No, it was solid grey & gloomy, just the way i like it. It reminds me of autumns back home - my favorite time/place combination. I've tried to write about this before but always fail to come up with a clear description. This time i'll try keeping it simple. The following items are inextricably linked in my mind:
- Autumn
- Beginning of the school year
- My favorite weather
- 90s rock music
- High school & college in general (my youth)
- Flannel
- Happy/content

Once i get into this mindset, my thoughts go to places like the cider mill back home - getting a cup of fresh apple cider and a rich cinnamon donut, then wandering around in the woods adjacent to the mill. *sigh* And as Halloween approached, we'd hit up the mill and then stop by one of the pumpkin farms nearby. I've decided that if heaven does exist, for me it'll be a place where every month is October. But more on this later.

So the weather was already sending me in this direction; then i saw that one of my friends had posted a few photos to facebook from ~2005, which of course triggered another set of wonderful memories and invoked some serious nostalgia. Furthermore, i'm flying back to Champaign-Urbana this coming weekend for her wedding, which i'm very excited about. Being there for their special day, seeing a bunch of my friends whom i usually only get to see once a year, visiting my old home (i can't seem to let go of this place).


Next up - a silly fun encounter at lunch: So i found this awesome little bagel shop near the office and have been going there for lunch 2-3 times a week for about 6 months now. And because i'm me, i get almost exactly the same sandwich every time. Thus, not only do i know the exact sequence of questions that come with ordering (what kind of bread, cheese, etc), but i have the answers cached. I also know everyone who works there (by face, not name (yet)), including the pair of hotties who usually run the registers.

So today i walk in and swiftly order from one of the girls, answering the questions without missing a beat, leading to this:

Her: "Wow, you've clearly been here before!"
Me: "Yep, i come here a lot and i usually get the same thing. Although it's not always you; usually it's..." *i peek around the counter* "...her."
Her: "Oh, you mean the annoying one..."
OtherHottie: "No, he means the *pretty* one."
Me: "I think you're *both* pretty."
Her: "Aww...heh, she's blushing back there."

Totally silly & lame, but it put a smile on my face.

Finally, i've been sitting here pulling up video after video from Scala & Kolacny Brothers. They're a Belgian girls' choir and they are *awesome*. I'd never heard of them until a friend shared their beautiful cover of Depeche Mode's "Enjoy The Silence" (i love this song):


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msVtD_oMdKg

They have a lot more covers posted on YouTube - everything from U2 and Radiohead to Nirvana, The Cure, tons more. Just search for "Scala" and take your pick.

Ok, one more video - their lovely cover of "With Or Without You":


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M27IMEjqEgk

So awesome.