Thursdays seem to be coming awfully quickly this fall. Three Beautiful Things are upon us again:

1. Sam and Alexis got married on Monday and it was clearly the best thing in the world that they did. They’re very much in love (but not in that sickening way that sometimes love can materialize as) and they complement each other well. They knew it, their families knew it, and their friends knew it. Their celebration became a celebration for all of us present — an embodiment of what love could offer to the world.

2. Sam and Rudi and I have known each other for a long time now — 11+ years since Sam first walked into the College Relations office at Conn and thought I was a grown up (a mistake he has never since made). In that time, we’ve spent a great deal of time together, particularly with his mother’s extended family. His grandparents, Mac and Irv, lived about half an hour from where I grew up and we would drop Sam off to visit and he would invite us down to celebrate Christmas Eve with them. As such, I got to know his extended family in ways I haven’t with many friends. So attending his wedding was like going to my own family’s wedding in a way — a chance to catch up with aunts and cousins whom I hadn’t seen in a while. And a nice visit with Mac, who is a dear, and Sam’s immediate family — Charlotte, Terry, and Alan.

3. I don’t care if Eddie from Ohio believes that the “prettiest October in all the 50 states” can be found in Virginia. I come from New England and I will forever believe that it has the best foliage in the fall. Pink, scarlet, yellow, orange, brown, and various greens. The colors were muted because the trees had only just started to change when the storms came through, but it didn’t matter. It just made it look like someone had caught in watercolor the moment when you should start paying attention. Another week, and by the time you noticed, it might have been too late. But this gave you a chance to actually see the colors arrive.