October already?

Yeesh. Wasn't it just June? Now we're coming up on the time of year I love...and hate.

I love it, first of all, because it's our anniversary. Four years. Sometimes it seems like twenty, (never in a bad way, mind you); other times it seems like yesterday.
As October 14th approaches, I find myself in a very introspective and retrospective frame of mind. We have come a long way in four years. I'm just as happy as I was the day I got married. Perhaps more. Marriage, for any singletons out there, isn't the trap you might think it is. What it is, is single life...with security.
I hate this time of year because it's Oktoberfest. We got married in October for several reasons, one of which was that it got us out of this boozecan for at least part of the (spew) festivities.
. "Oktoberfest is a celebration of German culture" , they'll tell you. I have one word for that contention and that word is

Bullzenspeigenschit!

This town has almost forty thousand university students in it. Every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night presents an excuse to get sloshed. The last thing we really need is a week-long sanctioned oom-pah-pah wherein everyone gets to projectile vomit in three-quarter time.
If you ever wonder where this attitude--which even I'll admit is a tad harsh--comes from, I can only invite you to work a few night shifts in a convenience store whilst Oktoberfest is in full riot mode all around. You'll see

• beer bottles thrown like confetti
• people urinating and defecating right in the middle of the floor while onlookers applaud
• countless people just grabbing things off the shelves and stuffing their faces...and if you dare say anything to them, you'll get "hey, buddy, it's Oktoberfest! Lighten up!"
• fights breaking out over nothing (you really get to feeling the gemutlichkeit when you look outside and see a bunch of people jumping up and down on cars, kicking in windshields, especially when you know you can call the cops and they may or may not show up within the next three hours)

Anyway, before I get to popping a blood vessel...

I love October because it's fall, which is far and away my favourite season. The temperature's (finally) comfortable both at noon and at midnight...some nights we'll even turn off one of our bedroom fans!); the leaves are a symphony in colour; the air is crisp and tart...it's just perfect.

I hate October because of Devil's Night, which is Oktoberfest for the younger set...and now that I own my own house my anxiety has at least tripled.

Happy October to everyone. Only 74 days 'til Christmas, you know!