The fall, and pumpkin spice

Fall will soon be upon us and while I look forward to it getting colder as my car still has no air conditioning, there are a couple of things that I do not look forward too.

The first is Halloween, I realize that in my circle of friends I am in the minority, but I don't really care much for the holiday, I like giving candy out to trick or treaters and I also enjoy roasting pumpkin seeds, but you know what? I can buy pumpkin seeds in bulk at Winco so really there is only one seasonal part of Halloween that I can't do any other time of year, parents generally being alarmed at best when a stranger tries giving their kid candy any other day. It's a sacrifice I am generally happy to make.

I don't really care for the aesthetic of the holiday I guess, it should come as no surprise to any of you who know me that I am not much for costumes or parties, and even less for a combination of the two. I don't really like decorating and, well, am just sort of bland overall so it's not for me really.

This isn't to say I hate it and want it to go away, the holiday is a basically neutral event for me, I just don't get excited by it.

Pumpkin spice is another thing I don't care for about the season, but there my reasoning is a bit more complicated.

Personally I am not a big pumpkin spice fan, it tastes fine, and if people give me things with that flavor I will eat or drink them happily but won't seek them out myself. I also do not care that other people love the shit out of the stuff, I have a hard time getting bent out of shape by people taking joy wherever they can in our terrible hell-reality. No my problem is hearing and seeing people who are desperate to share how much they don't care for the stuff and hate those who do.

I realize the irony that, in an article talking about how I don't care for things, I criticize others for talking about how they don't care for things but do keep in mind that I am not bagging on anyone for liking stuff themselves and am not irritated by that, just saying that it isn't for me and sometimes the saturation of this stuff annoys me.

The pumpkin spice backlash in particular is upsetting because it is primarily directed at women who, like it or not have become the main target demographic for the product in the minds of the public. As we all know well, women liking things, and things being for women, is unacceptable to a depressingly large percentage of the population, this isn't to say men don't get crap for liking things, we do, but be honest here. When you see a joke about how much dudes love, I dunno, Mt. Dew or something, you don't take it as an indictment of your gender, whereas the pumpkin spice memes have more of a "Bitches be shallow" thesis to them.

I don't know if I really had a point today, I actually sat down to write about how horrible the president is at handling classified intelligence and all this came out instead. Maybe next time.