It was super fun to hang out with Allison while she was here. And now her plane is heading back east to Milwaukee, where water is solid most of the winter. Four degrees yesterday! Why it seems like just a few months ago we were there, walking along the lake shore in t-shirts, through the park under canopies of green. Her backyard sits under four feet of white, where we sat in September toasting marshmallows.
I have spent my life in low-drama climates, places like Seattle that could get hot or could get cold, but could never freeze damp skin or wet hair. I don’t think my hometown ever got colder than 15F, and that was only well after dark.
Leonard said that there is an initial excitement to the challenge of living in extreme weather, but it soon gets old. Yet people stay in the midwest and the east and Canada, so there must be something more to it, there must be great reasons to stay. I’m really getting so disenchanted with the Bay Area, you know. It can be so provincial. “The Best Place on Earth,” crows the local newscast’s tagline. Really? I doubt that very much somehow. I take it you don’t spend much time on 6th Street or on Potrero Hill or any other trash-strewn city street outside the posh north-city Rich neighborhoods.
Blah. Vent. Yes, Marin is lovely, but it helps to have a half-million in the bank, dear. And to be white and shop at Talbot’s.
My acupuncture was approved, I just found out. Going to get needles poked into my lumbar spine! Yay. And hopefully I won’t incur a jinx when I say that my back seems to be slowly improving. What appears to be most important is to exercise regularly. (Duh.)
I think I may develop a fetish for MAC cosmetics and I blame Allison. In a good way! Last night I bought a matching set of nail polish and lipglass (“Cafe Blend” and “Ornamental” respectively). Don’t even bother trying to see the colors online; the bozos tried to replicate the hue of the pearly glittery reddish-coppery goop using a photoshop color picker. It’s NOTHING like what’s in the swatch onscreen. In the least.
I miss baseball and I miss springtime. February is always the hardest for me, as it is always darkest before the dawn.
Jane, I love your visuals…
If it’ll help? (the Feb doldrums)..In a few weeks, Andie and I will take my 2 boys to my hometown in NY. Our sole purpose is to expose them to NY/New England winter FUN…as it’s nearly impossible to enjoy hurling oneself down a snow covered hill on a plastic saucer here in green North Carolina.
I’ll let out a throat killing scream of joy for you!
Yay! I love snow. Of course because growing up in Seattle it was a huge rare treat and only lasted for a matter of hours. Brian hates the snow — he’s from Michigan.
I think that with the crappy winters you appreciate the really good weather when it rolls around. I guess it’s the ying and yang, Batman vs. The Joker, George W vs. Intelligence. Good needs evil.
…spring…
I can’t wait for spring as well. Though this NM summer wasn’t bad, lots of rain kept it from getting too hot.
I think everybody is different on this. Jeff and I both hate the cold and snow and winter weather. A lot. I also hate extreme heat and humidity, but not as much as I hate the cold. Jeff does winter sports (tubing, snowboarding, etc.), I don’t. I would move in a second if things like job, family, schools, house, etc. didn’t moor us here and make it the right place for us right now. But I’ll never get used to it. I’ve lived my whole life in the northeast. It gets worse for me, not better. For me, it’s just that there are things more important than the weather that made my decision.
Also, LOTS of people in these climates LOVE this weather. That’s why they are here. It is really ill-making.
bleck
jane, yesterday it was like 12 degrees all day, with a brisk little wind. i was outside for less than 10 minutes before my entire face was numb yet burning from the exposure. i’m going to have to be one of those people who wrap a scarf around their entire head and leave an eyeslit! it was not pleasant. the snowy days are kinda fun, but the pure clear and cold ones aren’t. all told, i wish i was back in CA. but i am also suffering from the worst case of eczema ever cuz the humidity is so low here. east coast means skin problems for a lot of people, unfortunately! ok enough whining, back to your invites, xoxo rena
My theory:
Midwest Winters: everyone snowed in, they can’t leave.
Spring arrives and melts the snow, everyone thinks “hey, this isn’t bad, I’ll stick around!”
Midwest Summer: too humid to go outside. Again people can’t leave or they will melt.
Fall arrives and people think “hey, this isn’t so bad, I’ll stick around.”
… and the vicious cycle continues.
Let’s move to Chicago now.