My Perfect Autumn Day

My perfect autumn day starts with waking up in my cozy bed naturally on a Saturday, without any alarms or dogs thinking that they are a good substitute. As I sit up, the sun is just starting to break through the trees outside of my window. Only the sunrise is what can be filtered through the fog that rests heavy in the sky. The trees are simply multicolored auras in the distance.

Tori slept back-to-back with me all night, and the moment I sit up, she lets out a yawn, a big stretch, and then asks me with her eyes, "Are we going outside?" I give her a kiss on the head, "Let's go!"

She jumps off of my bed and runs, and I rush after her to the door. We walk outside to the divide of cool-toned fog, frosty dew, and warm reds, oranges, and yellows in the trees. A breeze picks up a few leaves from their branches and sends them twirling to the ground. Tori and I play with her ball while the sun rises and the fog dissipates.

When we come inside, the first thing I do is make a pot of coffee. Just by the smell alone, I feel ready to form the first real thoughts of the day that don't involve reflecting on the dream I had the night before. The perfect autumn breakfast would be a nice hot cinnamon roll that I eat while drinking my coffee. If I wasn't in the mood for coffee, I'd made a smoothie from ripe berries and just enough banana that it isn't overpowering.

After feeding the dogs breakfast, I take a shower and get ready for the day. I put on a cozy sweater and leggings. My curly hair needs no styling and it just so happens to be a great hair day. All set to go, I grab my keys and head out the door to go thrifting. I find cute clothes for myself as well as some great Christmas gifts. I check the physical media section and the books I've been wanting to read stand out on the shelves. Everything that I really like just coincidentally happens to have a discounted tag. I leave the store with a great haul. I stop by the post office on my way home, and it is full of postcards. Even though it is the middle of the day by now, somehow there's barely any other cars on the road.

I go home to pick up Tori before going to a nearby trail. No one else is there, and Tori can run and sniff as she pleases. The sweet smell of the dying leaves fills the forest as the leaves fall around us. I take a bunch of photos.

When we come home, mom is making some (vegan) chicken and dumplings and my mouth starts watering! I grab a big bowl once it is done with a bunch of huge dumplings and sit on the couch with it, letting the bowl warm my legs as I let it cool down just enough to not burn my mouth. We put on a nostalgic movie and talk about what has been happening recently in our lives.

After I scrape my bowl clean, I drive to Dylan's with Tori. I let Dylan love on Tori and I go to check my blog on my laptop. Dylan reads all of the new cards I received and tries to find a spot on the fridge to put them. I mention that maybe I should take the oldest ones off to add to my collection, but he refuses.

I sit at my desk with another hot coffee that has foamy almond milk and crunchy sugar crystals on top. After responding to blog comments, I go to my drafts and write over 1,000 words seamlessly with no grammatical errors (yeah, right). After that, I either work on some kind of paper craft or read for a while on the couch with an autumnal "ambience" themed video playing on the TV for some background music.

As it gets later in the day, we light some scented candles. It is a cool day, though, so we take advantage of it before the sun goes down fully to have dinner from the grill. The charcoal grill lights perfectly the first time and we sit in our fold-out chairs while we wait for the coals to burn down. The wind blows any smoke away from our direction the entire time, and Dylan and I watch as the fireflies start to show themselves in glimpses of travelling light. Along the fence line, squirrels make their leaps across with food in their mouths. I let Tori come sniff outside, and she watches the squirrels with interest.

Once the coals are ashed over and ready, we throw on the burger patties. I sneak in some corn to grill as well. Everything cooks fully and evenly without much effort. While Dylan supervises the cooking, I head inside to slice the tomatoes, onions, lettuce, and set out the mayo, ketchup, mustard, and pickles. I hand the sliced cheese over to Dylan so they can melt on the cooked sides of the burgers.

The meal is done cooking and assembled at golden hour, and after I feed Tori, we head outside with our food to eat with the gradual sunset as our entertainment. Once it is dark and all that's left on our plates are crumbs, we head inside to clean up and change into pajamas. Then, we play a few rounds of Battleship in which I successfully cheat and win in various elaborate ways that get more hilarious each time.

At the end of the night, I head back to mom's with Tori and eat a leftover cinnamon roll from the morning for dessert. I give the pets their nighttime treats and get ready for bed. I make sure all of my thrifted Christmas gifts are hidden away and put all of the thrifted clothes in the laundry room to wash the next day. I don't need to check if I should return anything, it all fits perfectly.

Tori and I tuck into bed in a similar way that we woke up in, and I fall asleep without even trying to count sheep. It was the perfect autumn day.