"Don't you just love New York in the fall?

It makes me want to buy school supplies.
If I knew your address, I'd send you
a bouquet of freshly sharpened pencils."

--Tom Hanks (as Joe Fox) in You've Got Mail

Who doesn't love fall, right? It almost seems like a cliche' to extol its virtues. So I find that I'm one of those people who goes around saying--as if can can somehow convince everyone--no, I REALLY love fall!

I don't usually go into all the reasons why I like fall so much, partly because they're mostly very obvious, but for some reason I feel compelled today to explain myself. I always felt richest and happiest in the cooling, crisp, leaves-turning-brilliant autumn, but in the fall of 2000, September and October earned their places in my personal history as Best Months Ever.

You see, I fell in love that fall. And not just a little bit in love, but in the kind of love you read about in books and see in movies. The kind of love that takes your breath away and makes you stay up all night just so you can keep experiencing it. The kind of love that makes you want to become immortal so you can spend eternity with your vampire boyfriend. (Okay, that last part was just to see if you're still reading... and to admit that I'm just a bit over the top with the Twilight series.)

Brad and I met in late July because of a wedding. I was living in Houston and he was in Cleveland. I traveled to Ohio for a friend's wedding... she was from Ohio, but we taught at the same school in Houston. I won't go into great detail here, but it was definitely love at first sight. I actually had one of those epiphany-like moments when I first looked at him and thought something along the lines of "This could be the first glimpse of the rest of my life." No kidding.

We didn't start dating immediately, but it was pretty obvious--to us and everyone else--that we hit it off. We were like silly teenagers, laughing uncontrollably and tuning out everyone else. We were giddy. I saw Brad twice that weekend and somehow knew that we would become best friends. He came to visit Houston about a month later and I decided then that I was falling head-over-heels in love with him and that I wanted to be more than friends. He later told me of the exact moment that he decided (during that weekend) I was The One.

We spent the next six weeks talking on the phone as much as possible and e-mailing nearly every day. We never actually established that it was a courtship, but it was about as old-fashioned (if you can call talking on the phone and e-mailing old-fashioned) of a courtship as possible. Within those six weeks, we covered every imaginable topic except, of course, whether we were actually interested in each other romantically. I finally got up the nerve to ask if I could visit him during my fall break and we spent the last couple of weeks before then making plans.

I've never been so nervous in my life! Here I was, completely, hopelessly, ridiculously in love with a guy who never even told me if he was interested in more than friendship. Just before I left for my trip, my 6th grade students were giving me advice on how to let him know I LIKED him. My favorite was Shannette, who said I should "Put on a nice dress--not a hoochie mama dress or nothin--and take him out to a romantic dinner."

When he picked me up at the airport, I had a pretty strong indication that he was feeling the same way. He handed me a bouquet of freshly sharpened pencils and I knew he was just as smitten:

Of course I would like to go on and on about that wonderful weekend, but my purpose in writing this was to share my extra-special love for this season. In addition to all the other things that I enjoy about this time of year, I have the precious memories of falling in love with my best friend. The best part: he fell in love with me too.