Slushing Through A Winter Iceland

Most of my life I have been a winter fan. Well, to the extent that we get it here in Maryland. Cold noses, red cheeks, "blizzards," sledding, snow castles, boots, skiing, even shoveling to a certain extent all held a great deal of joy and excitement. I would languish through the humid summer heat, longing for the exhilaration of the solid cold, and the anticipation of snow. It helped that my mom loved it too. As she put it to me just now "I am a mountain woman living in the lowlands." She made sure we had boots, gloves and hotchocolate in abundance and there was always a warm fire rolling all winter long. Snow days when the Fed. Government closed down were especially exciting, as Dad got to stay home too. The. Best.

Theeen I hit higschool and got a job. Snowdays vanished, and the energy that accompanied them melted into my warm pillows. I suddenly had homework regardless of the weather and 6 a.m. to work was just that much harder when the car needed to be warmed up and scrapped off first. Winter weather and the cold was a pain, but I still "liked" it. What I liked, however, was all the inside parts of winter. I loved the warm cozy evening with the fire when it was snowing outside and everyone was home. I loved it when my mom made hot soup and we all had books to read in the livingroom and I got to call out of work the next morning. I liked sitting in my room with all the shades up watching it snow as I did my homework, glad that classes were cancelled. But then it started to interfere with my social plans. "Ruth I don't want you driving in this weather." And I was not home as much to actually enjoy all of the cozy moments. But if you asked, I still "liked winter."

Then I started dating Ryan and his warm weather loving philosophy must have rubbed off on me. I still advocated for the cold, but I started to actually enjoy summer for the first time. Then we got married in the warmth of the summer, and honeymooned in Hawaii for three weeks and I was officially hooked. Then I was all prego for the epic blizzard of 2009 and still had to waddle into work at 6 , or take a massive feeling call sheet home and spend my early morning calling patients to cancel appointments. I decided that I had become a fair weather lover.

Now that I have a 9 month old to keep warm and dry, I have found that I dislike the cold even more. (Last night, I did feel a little bit of excitement build as I heard reports of snow coming. It was short lived.) Instead, it "wintery mixed" for 2 inches and turned everything into slush and cold and wet outside. We were off to my mom's this morning and I had to bundle both of us up, load up my enormous baby bag that feels like its going to yank off my shoulder, and shuffle through the slushy snow (beautiful, but annoying) to my car, which needed to be scraped, warmed up and coolent filled. I did, however, get some adorable pictures of Leilani in her snowsuit and it made me feel better. Sorta. (It is driving me nuts that they are still on the camera and not on this post, but whatever. I will move on.) My boots got all dirty in the nasty slush by the car and the good feelings faded. Grumble.

BUT Now I am sitting inside rambling about the condition of outside, and all the fluffy friendly winter birds are eating on the birdfeeder, mom is talking about making soup and I am about to build a fire... So nevermind about everything I just said. Mostly. I sorta like winter at the moment. Until I have to pack up and slush back out to Bible Study... But yeah. I sorta like winter at the moment. Fickle me.