Photo Illustration by Erin O’Flynn/The Daily Beast/Shutterstock, Columbia Pictures and Warner Bros.
I turn on my computer. I wait impatiently as it boots up. I go online, and my breath catches in my chest—until I hear three little words: “Meg Ryan Fall.”
As true devotees of the Meg Ryan Fall movement will undoubtedly note, this is a play on a line from Nora Ephron’s You’ve Got Mail. Alongside When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve Got Mail is one of Ephron’s three Meg Ryan rom-coms to have inspired the yearly trend we now know as either “Nora Ephron Season” or, more commonly, Meg Ryan Fall.
I like to think that I am one of the earliest adopters of Meg Ryan Fall. I have vivid memories of autumn 2012: I throw on my favorite wool coat, plug my headphones into my iPod Nano, and strut dreamily around my university campus as the uplifting chords of “Dreams” by The Cranberries lull me into the fantasy that, like Meg, I too am living in Ephron’s leafy, cheery version of the Upper West Side. The world is full of possibilities: Maybe I’ll grab a freshly made bagel from the friendly neighborhood bagel shop. Maybe I’ll fill my tote bag with fresh vegetables from the outdoor market. Maybe I’ll bump into the love of my life in line at the local coffee shop. Naturally, I chose to ignore the not-very-aesthetic Starbucks product placement in Ephron’s movie.