at last

Fall has come at last. The 90 degrees have dropped to 75 and will drop further tomorrow--now we are praying for some fall days and not an immediate descent into winter!
Fall is my favorite season--the colors, the temperature, the warm wind, the harvest smells. I look best in fall colors, especially burgundy and berry colors, and I'm currently wearing my favorite new brown pants. Perfect, perfect, perfect.

To make my day even more perfect, I had an Amy's Baked Ziti bowl for lunch. Holy cow was that good. vegan, gluten free (though neither of those are my needs), and amazing. The sauce, with the soy "ricotta" (I don't even like ricotta) was so good, I wanted to lick the recyclable bowl. But since that's generally frowned upon in polite company, I didn't. Even though I was alone in the church kitchen, you just never know who's going to walk in to see their pastor licking a recyclable bowl clean of its tomato sauce, and possibly getting said sauce on her face at the same time. I resisted the extremely strong temptation.

Then, to make the day EVEN BETTER I went over to Two-A-Tea, my favorite coffee shop (which is, sob!, closing at the end of the month so the owner can focus on teaching yoga and pilates and being a massage therapist!) and had a wonderful caramel apple cider. And I'm about to eat my cinnamon apple scone (yes, for dinner...I had a good lunch!). I love everything from there and will be sad to see it go.

I also got out and about a little bit today, walking around Ridgefield (our little antique shop filled neighborhood-that-was-supposed-to-be-the-town-but-Crystal-Lake-happened) handing out posters for our David LaMotte concert! That's right, David LaMotte is playing a concert At.My.Church....On.My.BIRTHDAY!!!!! I am beyond excited and am having a great time around town taking posters and telling people about it. I cannot believe he is playing a concert right here at my church on my birthday. dang, it's awesome. It's the best birthday present to myself I have ever organized. I have no words besides overused superlatives to express myself on this point. wow. So if you are in the Chicago area, come to our little church for a concert! Here's the info: David LaMotte at RCLPC!
You know you want to come celebrate with me. Come on now...we're 50 miles northwest of the city....come on out!

I think that's enough gushing for today--it's time to get back to work getting ready for meetings and whatnot. yippee. However I am avoiding news as it is likely to make me angry and I'm in a good mood today--I want it to last!

(So cool! David LaMotte is coming to my church!!!)