a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils

"don't you love new york in the fall? it makes me want to buy school supplies. i would buy you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if i knew your name and address. on the other hand, this not knowing has its charms"

-you've got mail-

a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils is perhaps the most exquisite thing i can imagine right now. the leaves will soon change and the school buses are already milling around, signaling the end of summer and the turning of the tide.   

today i am craving a dip in the pool or a walk along the beach-- some end-of-summer celebration. but really, deep down, i yearn for new pencils and books and learning!

it is oh so strange to not be organizing my fall schedule and sifting through a new planner. monday is the start of college for baby freshman and stoic seniors, but right now my backpack is stowed beneath my bed and the pencils are shoved in my top drawer of odds-and-ends.  sad pants. 

granted, graduation has it's perks-- no more tuition or late nights of cramming and/or paper composition.  

but in this moment i miss the excitement and uncertainty of the first day of school-- the trees bustling with a fall breeze and potential. i miss shining my shoes {so to speak} to learn. for all of my days since i was 5, i have donned a new outfit, squared my shoulders, and prepared to meet education enthusiastically head on come the end of summer. but now... monday will be just another work day. endless summer i suppose? oh to be young again... oh wait, i still am :)

now before you loathe me with jealousy or pity my predicament, my days of studying are far from done {GRE and graduate school coming right up} and there is an abundance i have not learned that i either want to or should to be a high-functioning adult in american society. 

so perhaps i will not be going to my first day of school monday morning but this post is my commitment to learn something new every day, and to keep on loving those bouquets of newly sharpened pencils. now if joe fox would send me some i think my life would be complete in a kathleen-kelly sort of way. 

p.s. a random thing i must say: cake-toppers are creepy. end of story.