Love/Do Not Love {No. 3}

A new month (eek, it's November!) means a new Love/Do Not Love. As always, please leave a link to your blog post if you join in!

I love:
- Boot cuffs/boot socks. My mom crocheted me a few pairs after I'd been drooling over them on Pinterest and Etsy. They keep me a little warmer. Mostly, though, they look so darn cute.
- Nora Ephron movies. They are wonderful all year round, but they seem to ripen in the late fall. The music. The brownstones. The way they're inspired by some of my favorite old movies. The scripts, most of all. Just charming.
- Chicago. It's true; I bristle a little bit when everyone assumes that I must live in Chicago because I live in Illinois. But really? I love that city. I dare you to stand in the middle of it, with the Chicago river below you and the towering buildings above, and try to be indifferent. It's everything Carl Sandburg wrote of it and more. It's been a few years since I've visited and I can't wait to go back.
- Beverages in glass bottles. Milk from a glass bottle? Heaven. Pop tastes ten times better from a bottle than a can, too. I remember visiting my dad when he worked at the campus fire station here, and pushing dimes into what surely must have been the last bottled soda machine in the country. I'd get the grape, and that frosty, purple pop was the biggest treat.
- Since we're on the subject of glass bottled beverages, let's go ahead and mention Woodchuck. I rarely drink alcohol, and can count on one hand how many times I have in the last year and a half, but hard cider is where it's at. I'm not fancy enough to have racks of wine bottles. Just hand me a little green bottle, please.
- This exact moment of fall. It's the height of colors and smells here in Chambana. In fact, I think this may be one of the prettiest autumns I've ever seen. Millie and I love taking walks and swooning over the leaf confetti scattered all across the sidewalks. I adore the big flash of fall before everything is frozen.
- My kids in costumes. Can it be Halloween every day? I really don't like the holiday much, but they made a pretty adorable bear and puppy.
- Instagram. Oh hi, 2010. I know I'm the last one to the party on this. It's okay. I wasn't sold on the concept until I ditched Facebook, but this is a fun way to keep up with people I care about and share my own photos without all the complications and yuckiness of Facebook (see below). It took a long time to convince me, but I am now officially a fan.

And now, a few things I do not love:
- Food/diet fads. I won't name any specific ones for fear of hate mail, but they're the ones dominating recipes on Pinterest, labels at the grocery store, and hashtags on Twitter. I get burned out from hearing about them pretty quickly.
- Facebook. The truth is, I don't care what my ex best friend from first grade thinks about the president. I wanted to write a longer post about my decision, but I think I'll just leave it at this: it gets really messy. It gets awfully mean. And it steals my joy. I enjoy social media and I'm still active in it elsewhere, but kissing Facebook goodbye has been one of the best decisions I've ever made. It felt strange for about 12 hours. But after that, it felt like freedom. Despite what we're sold, it turns out we can go on living without it- quite happily, even.
- Onions. I just can't. When I have to cook with them, I either chop them into huge pieces that can be avoided, or mince them as fine as possible so I can pretend they don't exist.
-Going along with that, most pizza toppings. Basically, I'm 12. I want extra cheese and sometimes green olives. That's pretty much it. A supreme pizza (onions!) is my worst nightmare.
- Sangria. I've only had it once, truth be told. The concept of it bothers me, though. I won't tell you what it reminds me of, but...ick.
- Michelle mentioned it in her post the other day, and I agree- chevron. It's got to go.
- And finally, Daylight Savings Time. But really, does anyone on earth love DST? It's got to go, too.

So, what are you loving this month...or not loving so much?