Fall

Written By Paula Babon on Friday, September 2, 2011 | 3:33 PM

I would say that many people I know consider summer their favorite season. I did, too, when I was little. I loved summer not only because it was vacation time from school, but because I particularly disliked elementary school.

★

Once I finished elementary school, that no longer held true for me. Even though the long months of high school were still a drag, spring easily won me over with its gorgeous weather and beautiful pastel colors.

Nowadays, I have to say that fall has stolen the spot away from spring, and for a good, but kind of disappointing reason.

Over here on the northeast, especially in New York City, our extreme weather is just getting more extreme, and our once-gorgeous spring is slowly becoming shorter and shorter.

At least, I feel this is true.

The beautiful, breezy warmth of a typical spring doesn't seem to stay around too long these days. The winter's deep freeze seems to last a little longer every year, and true spring weather seems to only stick around for a couple of weeks before the summer meltdown begins.

And for everyone who is thinking "Just go to the beach!" I say nay. While most people are psyched to spend their summers at the Jersey shore or in the Hamptons (awesome places, no doubt), going to beaches on the northeastern coast doesn't really excite me anymore. It used to be an annual thing when I was younger, like I'm sure it is for many families.

Here's the thing: I love to swim, and I just can't bring myself to continue swimming in northeastern waters. If I'm gonna enjoy a beach, it needs to be a place like this:

CLEAR waters, white sands, palm trees.

I do love the whole boardwalk thing, though. Great food, gourmet desserts, frozen yogurt, amusement parks/carnivals, etc. But most people who go "down the shore" want to spend some time on the boardwalk and some time on the beach, and being that I don't enjoy swimming in these waters or baking in the sun, it wouldn't be the most useful trip for me.

Soooo, while I'm still living in a seasonal region, fall is the season that I look forward to the most.

No, I don't think I will ever go full-circle and call winter my fave. Winter SUCKS.

Sure, it looks pretty, but DAMN. The cold weather just makes everything difficult and less enjoyable.

This pretty much sums up my feelings about winter in New York:

But the fall, while also seemingly getting a little bit shorter every year, is GLORIOUS. The cool weather is absolutely perfect. It's the only weather that doesn't make me miserable when walking around Manhattan. It's not freezing, but it's cool enough that I don't start sweating profusely when wandering around the city streets.

It just makes me happy.

Some of the things I'm looking forward to the most, besides the beautiful weather:

★

My birthday is on the 19th. TECHNICALLY my birthday is a summer birthday because the Fall Equinox always starts couple of days after it (the 23rd this year), but since school always started before my birthday and because the weather is usually nice and cool by then (and because I hate summer), I've always considered myself a fall birthday girl.

Pumpkin Pie.

Pumpkin Drinks.

I MUST try Pumpkin Cake Pops.

And the treat I'm looking forward to the most:

Pumpkin Frozen Yogurt.

I've actually never had Pinkberry before. Can you believe that? Native New Yorker, frozen yogurt-obsessed, and never tried Pinkberry. Shame on me.

I will definitely be trying it this fall, as well as pumpkin frozen yogurt from any other accesible place that makes it.