I broke out the sweaters and boots this past week. Not because it is cool enough to wear anything more than shorts and t-shirts (well, at least we finally got below 80 degrees), but because it is now November, and I feel that it is socially acceptable for me to wear pants now, if I so please. I will say I did break a minor sweat, as I walked across campus to class, in my attempt to resist what the weather told me I could do (the weather won). I never thought I would say this, but I am so ready for the day when I will be able to wear a hoodie to class and not feel the urge to stop and take it off on the way there.
"Fall" in Waco, if you can even call it that, is not the most pleasant experience. I have not see any yellow, orange, or red leaves around here. There are no cool breezes, and the humidity is just as absurd as it was three months ago, continuing to make my hair large and out-of-control. I am still getting minor sun burns every time I spend over an hour outdoors and sandals are still a critical piece of my wardrobe. In my efforts to make the cooler weather come sooner, I took about half of my shorts home and exchanged them for winter boots. It did not work out as planned.
As soon as there was a sign that the days of smoldering heat were behind us, the southerners pulled out their warm apparel and the northerners made fun. The southerners recognized that this would probably be as close to fall as we are going to get, and the northerners just started feeling it was a bearable (haha, see what I did there?) temperature.
Waco is an interesting place in terms of weather. I am told it will most likely get below freezing at some point in the winter months (I will not believe it until I see it). We do have some things to be grateful for in terms of crazy weather patterns. At least we did not just experience days off of classes due to a series of tropical storms. The power outages we have experienced were not due to the trees crashing to the ground around our residence halls. It is highly unlikely that we will ever get snowed in, and if we just so happen to, it will never be for more than just a few days. The leaves are not gorgeous, but our campus is still pretty stunning. So, I guess I will take the weather you are giving me, Waco, and continue to wear my sandals to class.