I thought I saw the first frosty breath of fall today…I got so excited. You would think that people would be considerate enough not to smoke right around the first cold snap so as not to get all of our hopes up. I mean talk about disappointing, I run up to the guy and I am like shaking his hand, I was like “man this is SO great…its officially the start of fall!! I saw your breath a second ago!!!” He like “No man im just smoking.” Hurts. Its like thinking you were going to an coldplay concert and ending up at cold stone. …..right….never mind. Any ways everything turned out ok the guy I talked to ended up being the president of the FIFFE organization (fall is fun for everyone). He was so stuck with my passion for fall he made me the vice president on the spot and asked if I would be the key note speaker for their conference in Miami next week. Oh and I did see the first REAL frosty breath at caregroup tonight. Caregroup in the gazebo, oh yeah. its great fun. We will test the metal of our group as it gets colder and people start breathing ice cubes instead of frost. i was thinking about how music ties us to time again today, don't worry i will spare you any of my usual deluge of adjectives describing poignantly pleasing scenes. I will however try to describe a very specific experience with music this summer. Thinking back i am unable to pin point the first time when I heard of sufjan stevens nor the first time I actually listened to him. It wasn’t instant love. I was certainly unready to deal with his style, it was unlike anything I had enjoyed in the past. I must admit, I am very resistant to new things, particularly music. As the summer wore on there was more and more exposure to sufjan, I still don’t think I would have told you that I liked his music any more than the first time I heard it. But there was the beauty of it, sufjan became a part of my life. I was surrounded by fans of sufjan and the constant exposure subtly over took me. I began to look back on trips and events over the summer, and to my surprise hear the lines from the song Chicago attached to theses fond memories of the summer. Illinoise(the only sufjan album I am aware of) simply became the theme of the summer. It was amaizng I couldn’t keep him outa my mind even if I wanted, I am sitting there listening to Snow Patrol, suddenly there he is again. SP gives props to sufjan in their song hands open. Everywhere I went it seemed that sufjan would show up. Whether it was on the way home from kings dominion, sitting at work at 4 am, or crusin around with Mitch, Ryan, or Steve, sufjan was there. I could truly spend hours describing how these songs have locked up so many memories in my mind (…in my mind). The power of music never fails to amaze me, its is truly amazing how God created music to have such an affect on us. I guess cable car by the fray also deserves an honorable mention for the musical theme of the summer. But I think the fray was more on par with princess diaries for a close second place. Hmmm I don’t know… guess we will leave that one up to Mitch. | 
