Little Kite Girl

I daresay it’s almost fall.  Driving to work this morning I almost ran over a small child running willy-nilly across the street with a green backpack flapping up and down on his back.  Where was he running to, you might ask?  To school!  I can’t believe it’s already started!  That’s crazy!  Don’t people know that children need summer vacation to last as long as possible?  Ask me yesterday, and I would have had a different opinion.  I ran to WalMart yesterday for some things for work, and I swear, 13 different children came up and touched me.  Just touched me.  How odd.  One had a car from Cars, and ran up, thrust it into my face and yelled, “KAPOW KAPOW!” I looked slowly down at him, not really reacting, and squinted a little, as if to say, “Are you really shoving your car in my face at WalMart, small child that I do not know?”  He turned and ran away and tried it on another woman who said, “OOoooh, how scary!”  Great.  Let’s help children learn that scaring strangers is fun.  The one thing that strikes me about Utah is how HAPPY everyone is.  It doesn’t matter if a woman is pushing a cart with two infants, trailing 3 toddlers and a couple of older children…she’s got this happy look on her face as if she’s just found the aisle where you can sign up to receive free diapers for a year.  And if her five year old comes over and leans up against me and pulls at my pant leg, she just gives me a look as if to say, “Oh!  Cute!” Oftentimes, they even travel in packs, so you’ve got 3 mothers and about 4,352 children.  Hmmmm.  Maybe I just need to be more tolerant of small strangers touching me for no reason.  I don’t really get why it unnerves me.  I love playing with kids…mostly kids that I know.  Who knows.

So yes.  While I was driving to work this morning, I had a series of very vivid memories run through my head.  First, I remembered my first few days in Scranton, PA.  When you go to the U of Scranton as a freshman, you get the ROYAL treatment.  You can pull your car right up the cobblestone commons to the front of your dorm room, and student volunteers dressed in purple bring all of your belongings to your room for you.  After that, they show you were to go, where to sign in, where to eat, and provide activities for a couple of days.  The smell in the air this morning reminded me of standing on the curb, watching people shuffle my stuff into a big building, and watching my Mom, Dad, brother, aunt and cousins (yeah…I apparently brought quite a few people that day) helping and getting ready to say goodbye.  Then, almost immediately after that, I remembered going to a little shop in London, across from the house I was living in on a Tankerville street.  I needed to buy my bus pass for the next couple of weeks.   I remembered what London was like this time of year.   The seasons sometimes confused me in England- because the kids go to school year round.  There are no small boys in backpacks to announce that September is almost here.  “Autumn” was a little more wet and chilly that I’ve experienced here in Utah.

I  can’t believe I’ve been here a year!  I’m pretty sure by this time last year I was either here, or driving across the county with my Mom.  I was moving into a house with Becca and Shelly, wondering if I’d ever fit in around here.  If I’d be happy.  If anything big would change.  I should say so!  A lot can happen in a year, apparently.  Now it’s almost my FAVORITE time of year.  Time for pumpkins and turkeys, spicy perfumes and candles.  Almost time for the heating to kick on and for me to go buy some socks and throw out the summer’s flip flops that I’ve worn every day for months.  Ok, maybe we’ve got a few weeks yet.  But I’m excited.  I LOVE fall.