Where's the great pumpkin, Charlie Brown?

"The pumpkins are getting smaller and the trick or treaters are getting fatter," Jay Leno.

This summer I was on a mission to make Jim this Jell-O no bake peanut butter and chocolate dessert. I searched the store high and low, only to find the Publix by my house did not carry it.

Since I was already at the grocery, I decided I'd make Jim pumpkin chocolate chip cupcakes, since they're his favorite. However, after looking in every fathomable aisle (we're talking even the frozen section) I couldn't find pumpkin.

Finally I found someone to help me. I asked him where the pumpkin was and he informed me that there was a pumpkin shortage. In Georgia? I asked. Not just GA, everywhere.

Since it was only July and I was skeptical of his credibility, I didn't worry.

That is, until Jay Leno announced there was a shortage tonight.

Apparently, a chilly, damp summer in the Midwest and New England has caused crops to struggle. Some farmers are reporting as little as one tenth the pumpkins as last year. Crops are down, prices are up, and pumpkin will be hard to find.

Personally, I almost don't see the point in beginning fall if I can't be guaranteed pumpkin lattes, ice cream, and muffins. Pumpkin makes fall perfect. So, until I can be certain there will be pumpkins to carve, I'm going to stick with summerfall.

dresses off the shoulder, kanye off [his] rocker

They say a balanced and symmetrical life (zen, if you will) is the key to happiness. Maybe so. This same balance has also been proven the key to being perceived as beautiful.

Brad Pitt is so attractive because his face is perfectly proportioned (his face is zen).

Both the symmetrical face theory and Brad Pitt have been around for quite some time. Because of this, I'm shocked to find stylists still pushing the one-shoulder dress. Stars were decked out in single-shoulder frocks at Fashion Week and the VMA's last night.

Sure, Victoria Beckham looked great in her dress, but she looks great in anything. Imagine if her dress (most likely like her face) had been symmetrical.

Taylor Swift looked stunning in her gold dress, but it would have been even more breathtaking if her dress had been symmetrical.

However, for Swift I'm sure the even more breathtaking part of the evening was when Kanye decided to steal her moment by running onto stage and announcing Beyonce's video was better, essentially.

Of course, Taylor recovered gracefully when Beyonce gave her the moment back, proving the only person un-VMA worthy was Kanye himself.

WhoDey? Oudin.

The first time I watched IU basketball my freshman year of college, I remember thinking - oh my gosh, they're my age! These semi-celebrities, boys we'd had crushes on, were now my peers.

Then as I began to investigate this finding, I realized that some professional athletes were younger than me (I'm kind of a sports-watching novice). It felt so odd. I suddenly felt inadequate. Sure, I was in college, but they were in college and providing us with the joy of March Madness.

It was even more shocking my senior year when I realized that 75 percent of all college athletes are younger than me. What was I doing with my life?

I just experienced this feeling again recently when I learned about seventeen year old Melanie Oudin. I'm five years older than her (half a decade!) and she's all over the news as she made it the US Open quarterfinal. What was I doing when I was seventeen? Well, I think I was probably still enjoying the fact that I could drive...

Even though Oudin lost tonight, I can't help but be in awe. In just ten days, she's evolved from a typical American teenager (though talented at tennis, still leading a typical life) to a celebrity. The word "believe" is now a message reserved for her tennis shoes. She actually has command of a word as common as believe.

She'll undoubtedly receive insane sponsorship as her career continues to grow. And as long as she doesn't pull a Phelps, things should remain pretty constant. So, I'm sure she was sad to see the tournament end for her, but for a Marietta girl, things are looking pretty good.

WB <3 FD

"I like my Skechers, but I love my Prada backpack." Ten Things I Hate About You

True love...

I love my Rainbow Sandals. I loved them before I had them. I loved my first pair. I am currently loving my second pair. I truly believe they are flawless and as far as I can tell, I will love my Rainbows forever.

Before, during, after: eternity. True love.

Not true love...

My junior year of high school I became obsessed with dried fruit. About two months before Christmas, I decided I absolutely needed a food dehydrator. On Christmas morning, there was no FD under the tree. I was very sad. My love for the food dehydrator grew.

Around 10 pm, my mom told me that she forgot, the FD was on backorder! It would be here soon. I was very happy. Again, my love grew.

When the beautiful dehydrator arrived, I began reading the instructions. Apparently, it takes 24-48 hours to dehydrate fruit. I thought it would be a matter of minutes (like magic). I no longer loved the FD. I never used it and it is still sitting in the attic (though I think Ashley did give it a go, once). Maybe someday the affair between me and the dehydrator will begin again.

This is not true love. This is infatuation.

I believe I am currently experiencing infatuation with Twitter. It's fun to read what my friends are doing (ie: so glad recruitment is over @saralayne! RT freeee! no more recruitment everrr). It's also fun to see what's going on around me and get news updates. I'm undoubtedly more up to date on sales, news shorts, and local events than ever before.

However, I don't believe it's true love. I think my feelings will eventually fade. I already have a few qualms with the site. For example, I don't love it when tweeters use it to be ostentatious and show off (I won't retweet an example on this one). Sometimes, I also get frustrated by the character limit. According to a recent study in Scotland, this limit is also making us dumber by reducing our attention spans. Therefore, I am definitely not ready to declare it love with Twitter.

However, unlike Twitter, I am most definitely in love with Gmail. In my opinion, it is the perfect email tool (Courtney, just say no to Hotmail). When the site went down last week for more than an hour, I'll admit that I was not only slightly panicked, but in disbelief. How could my love forsake me? I felt stranded and vulnerable...

It's definitely love.

I'd like to think I will remain faithful to Google forever (if Google Wave replaces Gmail, it still counts. It's just like my lover got a makeover). I can just picture myself sitting at my computer in 70 years, clicking through my Gmail and loving on my Rainbows.