Tag: fall

• Fall in Milwaukee is like a warm hug ❤ (soaked in beer)

  Y’allllll mama has had a WEEK lemme tell you. Like, nothing has been objectively bad- let’s just start with that. But you know how people like to people? And by that I mean be exhausting with their people-ness? Well, there’s been lots of that. And it’s not anyone in particular, but just like the collective people-ness of the world. The more I repeat this in my head as I’m writing, the less it makes sense. But let’s just say that I spent almost all day today disassociating in bed watching Housewives and eating pumpkin pie. Maybe my social battery is just a little empty? Maybe it’s the fact that today has been pretty grey in Milwaukee and you know mama is always lacking in D (Vitamin D you pervs Jesus can’t I have a serious talk about my health for once??) Maybe I’m just like a feral hog and my body is powering down as we enter hibernation season (do hogs hibernate? Probably not. In all honesty I just wanted to say I was a hog tbh). Regardless- the pie and Housewives deffo helped, and like a gay, tired, 32-year-old phoenix I have risen from the ashes (aka my bed LMFAO) to write this post. Now before y’all start going ‘OMG Matt hates fall in Milwaukee it’s confirmed burn it all to the ground’ lemme just stop you there (lovingly). While fall may have hit a lil later here than normal (from what I’ve gathered) (thanks climate change– oh wait but it’s totally a hoax right guys??) it has been FANTASTIC. The nights are cold (thank GOD because I run so warm when I sleep it’s honestly disgusting), the days are crisp, the leaves are vibrant AF, the squirrels are going absolutely haywire, there’s a nice lil’ breeze, everyone has set out their spookiest yard decorations, and did I say I’ve officially now gorged myself on pumpkin pie? Fall is officially H E R E (that spells here).

  I always considered myself a summer girlie and while I do love summer, the older I get the more I really appreciate every season for what it is. Fall is the celebration of death, a time of reaping rewards from a productive year, and starting the process of hunkering down for the big cold. Speaking of which- I can’t lie, I’m a lil scared for my first Milwaukee winter. Like I know I’ll be fine, but like what if there’s a polar vortex? What if the heat goes out in every building in the state and it’s -5,000 degrees and the whole ocean freezes? What if after climatologist Jack Hall is largely ignored by U.N. officials when presenting his environmental concerns, his research proves true when a superstorm develops, setting off catastrophic natural disasters throughout the world; trying to get to his son, Sam, who is trapped in New York with his friend Laura and others, Jack and his crew must travel by foot from Philadelphia, braving the elements, to get to Sam before it’s too late???!!! (that was just the plot of the iconic 2004 film The Day After Tomorrow, copied from Google. For anyone who clocked that- NERD. Also as a side note- wouldn’t it be fun to play a drinking game to that movie where any time anyone says ‘anomaly’ you take a shot? Or anytime there’s a scientific and/or plot hole you take a shot? I’d love that. Get blacked out faster than New York City froze over. That just reminded me of this one time me and my friends Shmileana and Shmallen played a drinking game to Cars 2 where we drank every time there was a car on screen and blacked out within like the first 10 minutes of the movie. Come to think of it…..that was when we were snowed in during a winter storm in Seattle. OMG am I gonna become an alcoholic this winter??? Maybe even more of a Cars 2 fanatic??? That’s impossible…. I’m already the worlds #1 Cars 2 stan. Well, maybe the world’s second Cars 2 stan because I know how much Shmileana loves that movie (eyyy shout out Shmily if you’re reading this I love you). Anyways, I digress). I can’t even remember what I was talking about before that extended tangent so- hard segway into the next topic!

  It’s been so fun discovering what fall is like in a new part of the world. Like in Seattle I always associated fall with big ass spiders everywhere being annoying as fuck and dry, sunny, beautiful days and the salmon spawning and Lake Union being a complete shitshow for Labor Day weekend. In Reno I always associated fall with hedonism and seeing the Sierra get their first dusting of snow for the season- it was always so nice to see the clouds roll over the tops of the mountains (accompanied by big gusts of wind) and then the next day BOOM! Snow. Oh and the hedonism? It’s Reno and Halloween….do I need to explain any more? So far here are a few of my Milwaukee fall observations:

  • People do NOT fuck around with their yard decorations. Like there are lights, fake (hopefully) giant spider webs, 12-foot blow ups, giant skeleton guys, animatronics, etc. Like the whole works. It’s really crazy.
  • People PARTY here. Like yesterday my friend Shleah (shout out Shleah!) told me that obvs people rage for Halloween- but also the weekend before, the day before Thanksgiving, the day after Thanksgiving, the day after Christmas, Labor Day, Election Day, the 2nd Wednesday of each month, every Thursday, extra hard every weekend, the first, third, and last Tuesday of each month, every time there’s a Packers, Brewers, Bucks, or any other sports team’s game, every day before and after any of those aforementioned sports team’s games, and the 17th. Much of that was a lie (yeah Shleah sorry I just made up a bunch of shit and said that you said it lol) but some of it is in fact true! That’s for you to figure out when you come visit 😈
  • Doors Open Milwaukee is an annual fall event where a bunch of places around the city open up (usually) inaccessible parts of their buildings for the general public to check out. This year I got to check out the interior of some incredible churches, a row of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings which are in the process of being restored, a former funeral home being converted into an events space (including a trap door in the floor leading to where the bodies were stored- they would LIFT UP full caskets from the basement to the main floor for events and then lower them back down afterwards- fucking metal), a beautiful cemetery (with a greenhouse-esque part of their chapel which was really cool??) a museum dedicated to labor and workers, and a punk art exhibit operating out of the basement of a gallery where you could see a huge variety of vintage band posters and memorabilia while ducking to not run into ductwork (yay being tall)
  • A lot of folks go to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to camp and see the incredible fall colors of the Porkies (aka the Porcupine Mountains). When I heard people talk about going to Porkies the first time I was like omg wait is that a strip club or something?? Needless to say- my Nevada roots showed extra hard.
  • People LOOOOOVE wearing their workwear here this time of year. I’m talking heavy canvas jackets and pants, super thick jeans, Carhartt, Dickies, Levi, etc. I fucking LOVE IT. My fave pair of jeans ever are a pair of Carhartts I got at a thrift store in Reno that I wear religiously and I feel so validated wearing them here. I also bought me a nice heavy canvas jacket myself so I can fit in (and stay warm too I guess) and I feel SO MASC. It’s crazy. Am I a top now? Is that what the midwest has done to me????
  • Not Milwaukee related at all, but I’ve come to the conclusion that Spirit Halloween is the fungus of the retail world. Whenever a store dies and leaves behind it’s rotting, hollow corpse, Spirit moves in to leech nutrients off the decay and sprout a showy, fruiting body. It’s an essential part of the retail life cycle and we must protect it at all costs.
  • Milwaukee has OPOSSUMS.
  • Milwaukee has SKUNKS.
  • Milwaukee has FERAL HOGS (me).
  • The leaves falling here are on another level. Like, imagine an actual sprinkling of leaves raining down on you every time you walk down the street like you’re in a fucking Hallmark movie. The mixture of dense tree canopy and extensive coverage, plus diversity of species plus windy weather has led to conditions where there have been legitimate golden showers every time I’ve been out and about the past few weeks (and I mean the GOLDEN LEAVES- again you pervs Jesus). It’s honestly so beautiful and makes me feel like a fairytale princess every time I leave the house.
  • Milwaukee has an annual mushroom festival in the fall (which of COURSE I am going to tomorrow: I will report back).

  Ok that about sums up my fall experience so far!! With all that being said, I want to leave you with the photographic version of my fall experience here. I hope you enjoy (and if you don’t plz don’t tell me bc I just now have good self esteem in life and don’t want to undo years of therapy and make me question my current SSRI regime so just say they’re all beautiful and stunning and like this post and send me a text with 15 hearts in different colors if that’s possible).

  Sometimes there are these moments in life where everything aligns so perfectly that you can’t help but have a strong emotional reaction. That was me watching the sunrise the other day at Holy Hill. It was cold as hell, but watching the sun slowly come up over the clouds as it illuminated forested ridges and valleys cloaked with morning mist while Minnie Riperton hit her whistle tone in my airpods was one of those moments. I hope as you hear Minnie’s part of this post’s playlist (at timestamp 12:54 and 14:20) and look through the pictures below you feel that same feeling. Also RIP Minnie Riperton- truy an angel on this planet who was taken far, far, far too soon. Ok bye!!

  Milwaukee- Fall 2025

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  October 25, 2025

  architecture, autumn, fall, landscape, Milwaukee, nature, photography, travel, Wisconsin

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• As much as I love to Tokyo Drift™, sometimes you gotta be driftless~ The Driftless Area (Wisconsin)

  I’ve had the most incredible mornings the last few days. So incredible, in fact, that I need to tell you all a little story about it. So- my apartment is on the third floor of my building in the corner, with my bedroom having windows facing out on two sides. Out one window I look out onto a small alley beyond which lie the backyards of several homes. The other window faces directly out onto a narrow alley, on the other side of which is another apartment building. As it’s been quite warm lately (and because I run hot like a wildebeest in heat while I sleep) I’ve had both windows open to get a nice draft. For the past three days at 6:30 AM, someone’s alarm clock has been going off. Loudly. And whoever’s clock it is must either be hearing impaired, suffer daily comas, be an absolute sadist, or some combination of all three. Now- although the alarm has been loud, it HASN’T been what’s been waking me up. Accompanying this alarm are the livid screams of a neighbor who obviously has NOT been sleeping through the alarm. Now understandably, this neighbor is pissed. And the first day, I was pissed too! But what made this whole scene so beautiful was that Angry Neighbor’s yells became more unhinged each day. The first day it was things like “WAKE UP! WAKE UP! WAKE THE FUCK UP!” the second day my choice threat was “I HOPE THAT ALARM IS THE LAST THING YOU EVER HEAR FUCKFACE!” and by the third day, they were just screeching their own version of the alarm noise. “BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.” Now- by the second day I was already deeply entertained at just how angry (and creative) the neighbor’s screams had become, and by the third day I was audibly laughing. Not loudly of course (I mean- imagine if the neighbor heard me and somehow found out which unit I live in -can you say death wish?!) I wondered if this would become my new normal- each morning being pulled gently from the warm embrace of sleep by the duet of the alarm’s steady rhythm and my neighbor’s soprano caterwauling. But NOOOOO. Property management HAD to get involved and sent out a message to everyone about it, kindly telling us all to remember that if we don’t shut the fuck up between the hours of 10 PM and 8 AM we’ll get in trouble. And- it must have worked? There was hardly a scream, threat, or BEEP! this morning. While it’s true that I was able to get amazing sleep and woke refreshed, I felt sad. Unsatisfied. Empty. It’s true that you don’t truly know what you have until it’s gone. And that includes my beautiful morning serenades. Thank you, my two mystery neighbors, for giving me some cherished morsels of wholesome chaos.

  Now you (and my 13 pro bono therapists on speed dial) might ask: as someone who loves and thrives on chaos, how do you not simply descend into insanity? First I ask you: are you not even somewhat curious as to how I have 13 pro bono therapists? Not even a little bit? Well it’s cause I’m bangin’ em. Each and every one (we call that pro boner in the industry.) But back to the point: NATURE. Making sure to spend lots and lots of time in the big beautiful outdoors helps me keep my lid on tight. Cause otherwise, well, the pot would be absolutely boilin’ over each and every day. I mean, I guess the Lexapro helps too but ya know, ✨balance✨. I knew when moving to Wisconsin that the Midwestern nature would be much different than the kind I was used to. There’d be fewer mountains, more humidity, more plains, and ticks (yay). What I didn’t know was just how much amazing natural scenery there is here. I think the phrase “hidden gem” is so overused that it makes me uncontrollably vomit in rage whenever I read it. But now that I’ve had a chance to clean the aforementioned rage vomit off of my computer and continue typing, I can say that IT’S TRUE. WISCONSIN HAS A BUNCH OF THEM. AND THEY’RE ALL GEMS. THAT ARE REALLY HIDDEN. In particular, the southwestern corner of the state has a concentration of unique geological and ecological marvels that I truly didn’t know about until moving here. They call this area: The Driftless Area. It sounds like a Stephen King book, am I right? Maybe one where the protagonist is a teenager in 1980’s Derry, Maine who lives in an apartment building with his abusive parents that yell at each other like my neighbor does at the alarm clock. Oh, and there’s a sentient evil mime robot alien ghost who’s actually an ancient Cthulu like demon that talks to people in town through 5G and drives them crazy. C’mon- you cannot tell me that doesn’t sound like a legitimate Stephen King plot, right? (Hey Stephen when you write this book cut me my 20% or I’m coming for you bitch). Anyways- the Driftless Area is a real place. And it’s really fucking cool! Read below for an actual informative paragraph about the area (or skip to the one after that for more insanity).

  The Driftless Area is a remnant of a pre-Ice Age land. The southwestern corner of Wisconsin, far southeastern Minnesota, northwestern Iowa, and juuuust the adjacent tip of Illinois were never glaciated during the last Ice Age. As a result, when the glaciers retreated, they didn’t pulverize the landscape into a flat, featureless plain. As a result, the Driftless Area is characterized by rolling hills, dissected by steep river valleys, bluffs, rocky cliffs, karst caves, springs, waterfalls, and ridges. The term drift is referencing the clay, silt, gravel, limestone, etc. that is left behind by retreating glaciers and made up of the conglomeration of aforementioned pulverized land. While this drift is extremely fertile and helped create the famously rich soils of the Midwest, it skipped this area (leaving the pre-existing topography intact). It’s really fascinating! Almost like this area is a time capsule of what more of the Midwest may have looked like if glaciation never advanced so far south. Ugh, I just love #GeologyFacts and #ClimateHistory. Some of the most dramatic landscapes are around Baraboo (I know, such an amazing town name) including the steep cliffs around Devils Lake and Mirror Lake. These are all remnants of the pre-glaciated upper Midwest. The area also has a ton of underground rivers, caused by aboveground water which sinks into the earth through fractured bedrock or sinkholes. Because of this, there is an abundance of caves, springs and even *whispers* sinkholes in the area. Needless to say- there’s a lot of really cool rock formations to see, so if you’re a fan of that stuff (or know someone who is) take them here. They’ll have a good time. And then go and buy yourselves some pocket protectors and calculators at the closest Office Depot cause you’re NERDS (it’s ok, so am I. We can calculate together ❤) In addition, there’s the beautiful flora, fauna, and fungi! I’m especially in awe of the incredible variety of showy fungi, including bracket fungus (check out the pics below some of them are absolutely stunning), chicken of the woods, morels, truffles, stinkhorns, ghost pipes, bog bells, polypores, and so so so many more. And I promise those are all real names of fungi that grow here, I didn’t make any of them up. Pinky promise. Ok what about dead man’s fingers- guess if that’s a fungus that grows in Wisconsin or something I just made up. If you guess right I’ll….I dunno….give you a pat on the back next time I see you? Beyond the fungus is the foliage. It being fall already (I know, crazy right??) the trees are just now starting to turn here and let me tell you, I am NOT READY for the full show (more photo galleries to come). But even now, there’s a stunning variety of reds, oranges and yellows peppering the forests. With Wisconsin deciduous forests being so species diverse, it creates a beautifully complex array of fall hues that we don’t really get out west. You have your ashes, and birches, and maples, and oaks, and hemlock, and elms (if you’re lucky..), and chestnuts, and walnuts, and box elders, and hackberries, and beeches, and poplars, and redbud, and willow, and hazelnut, and so. much. more. Needless to say, I will be that obnoxious bitch taking 15,000 photos and staring at the pretty trees with a grin on my face and not a single thought in my brain come mid-October. So- get ready for those pictures 🍂🍁🍂🍁🍤

  Ok now back to the crazy!!! Remember how earlier I was saying I really enjoy being adjacent to chaos? Well, my Youtube algorithm must know me really well, because it recently suggested a video of someone playing Grand Theft Auto 4 but the speed of NPC car traffic was multiplied by 999,999,999. So basically, cars are flying by at impossible speeds, hitting buildings, exploding, shooting off into the sky, and destroying everything around you every second. I cannot stop watching them and giggling uncontrollably. AND THERE’S A WHOLE YOUTUBE COMMUNITY DEDICATED TO VIDEOS LIKE IT. AND OTHER STUPID GRAND THEFT AUTO NPC TRAFFIC MAYHEM. Check this one out for starters. This one is also one of my favorites. In particular, I found this one to be a really great video to fall asleep to on those nights where my mind just can’t turn off. Honestly, do whatever you gotta do in today’s economy to get that shuteye. Cause you never know when one of your neighbors might start serenading you awake ❤✨💫🌸

  Driftless Area- Summer & Fall 2025

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  October 6, 2025

  driftless area, fall, fall leaves, forest, fungi, midwest, mountains, nature, photography, summer, travel, United States, Wisconsin

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