Alas, the scent of autumn is here.

The weather is our seasonal cowbell. Ringing torturously, it signals the changing time. In this case, the coming of fall.

It’s quite the foreboding sign when you wake up and realize that it’s too bloody chilly to walk out wearing a tank top with no cover. For people like myself who didn’t consider the recent tornado alert and flooding to be a sign of seasonal change – the wardrobe re-think certainly is. And if that’s not enough – its CNE time.

Quite frankly though, a secret part of me – that hides in fear of public flogging – loves the fall. The sense of change, of evolution, of something anything to mix things up. However, that secret part of me hides quivering behind the truth that with fall comes the torment of winter. Brrr.

Philosophical meanderings aside – here’s the synopsis for the weekend.

Friday night we convened at Red Lobster – the regular crew to celebrate M’s new job. As always we shared lots of laughs, our hidden fears, a few friendly jabs and tones of unwanted advise. M starts her gig today. I’m sure she’s going to be wonderful at it. Her nerves are a sign that her psychological self understands the hugeness of this step – we’re all grown up. Literally.

P & S are my very own Bridget Jones’ – minus the overt desperation that the aforementioned wears as her cloak. These girls are smart, sexy, salacious, strong and surprisingly single. Go figure! This city is either filled with men who are bordering on legal blindness or metrosexuals too afraid of a strong woman. I’m willing to bet it’s a little bit of both. After all, I’d be afraid of painting myself into the idiotbox with an opinionated woman as well. No matter, things will be exactly as they were destined to be – unless you build a fort and hide behind it for fear of getting ouched. We’re gonna run a little experiment that mirrors ABC’s (or is it NBC’s) Hooking Up. Independent women sifting through profiles of hopefully independent men, online. I still have to work out the semantics of it all before I open a veritable pandora’s box. Stay tuned.

Sat – the big chill. Mom, R & me ran some errands, did some chores and then plopped on her bed and watched a hindi movie. Yup, it was soo nice. The movie itself was sub-par but the actual activity of relaxing with my mom was amazing. I tend to forget how awesome she is – how much she does for us – how badly she wants to shelter us from everything – how much she misses dad. I tend to forget all the reasons why I should be forever indebted to her – and why I should be grateful for having the privilege of being one part Mrs. R.

Sat night: S&Magic, R (minus his R) and M&I showed up massively late for a surprise birthday party. Surprise! It was nerve wracking. Tamil people (young or old) mixed with alcohol never makes for good clean fun. Instead, it was a bombardment of noise, chaos and drunken misbehavior. Magic and I decided that we hate surprises. No massively embarrassing moments for us thank you. We’ll just do regular chill sessions minus the drunken unmanageable crowds. R, we decided loves to be in the thick of things. Poor kid, he misses my sister madly. However, he is quite smart because he told me straight up – once R gets back – I get her all of Friday. Woo! After the fete we went back to S&Magics place and hung out on the front porch. Now, that was an awesome way to end a hectic evening. Flare magazine had this article on “hiving” – it’s this phenomenon that’s taking the twenty something to thirty something generation by storm. Instead of going out and getting lushed – the trend is to invite friends over to your home and get lushed. A variation of cocooning but heck, it’s far more enjoyable than screaming “excuse me, would you mind taking your massive girth off my feet?” at some anonymous club.

Sunday – work. And work is still love, actualized. Oh and M surprised me with a stopover. Gosh, i love him to pieces.

I slept on dad’s side of the bed last night. I miss him. The way he loses his temper. The way he shakes his head in disappointment for the tiniest little thing (like finding the milk jug empty) – just everything. God I miss him. And I miss R even more. I never realized how lonely this life can be without a best friend around. But whining aside – 12 more days to go.

Work calls. Well, she’s actually like a banshee – screaming her lungs out.