Oh no, Pumpkin Spice Latte! Not this time!

I suddenly realized last year, as I drank my first Pumpkin Spice Latte of the fall, that I really don't like Pumpkin Spice Lattes.  I don't!

I don't!

But I thought I did.  I really thought I did.

I think a lot of it is associative.  Fall is my favorite season.  I find the cooler air a relief after a long Tidewater summer.  I like the waning days a little, the feeling that the days are being more properly ordered into night and day, but it's not like you are guaranteed to get to work in the darkness and leave in darkness - you still get to see the sun a little bit.  A little bit.

And there is a feeling of newness.  It's a new football season, it's a new EPL season, it's a new school year for the kids.  Life suddenly has structure again, there are things to graft meaning onto.

And here is the Pumpkin Spice Latte, virtually the first sign that summer is ending and fall is close around the corner, and I've always thought "wow, I really love Pumpkin Spice Lattes.  I think I will have one."  But it has it's problems, namely that the aftertaste reminds me of pledge and if you get any on your shirt it will stain it orange and whenever that happens I find myself asking:  what in the bloody hell is in this shit?

Why have I allowed myself to be deluded for so long?  I think it's because the drink is associated so closely with something I love.  As a case in point:  my boss loves, loves, loves the movie "One Crazy Summer".  Never heard of it?  I can't say I am surprised.  It stars a very young John Cusak and a very young Demi Moore and the John Cusak guy wants to be a cartoonist and some old guy wants to tear down some old lady's house and put up a seafood restaurant but the teenage kids give him what for save the day.  I've seen it.  I didn't think it was very good.  In fact, I thought it was awful.

But he LOVES it.  And I don't think it's because it's a good movie, but I think maybe instead it's because it came out in 1986 and something awesome must have happened to him that year.  Maybe he met his wife or something like that.  It's a good year, he associates it with the movie, and so he thinks it's really quite good.

It's the only possible explanation for why he could love such a terrible movie.

So, my love of Pumpkin Spice Late, or at least what I thought was love, is really just associated with the fall. It's the only explanation of why I could love something so terrible.

Not this year though.  Not this year.  I'll stick to the tall Pike's Place, and find another way to enjoy the fall. Maybe get a nipple pierced or something like that.