Baby, It's Cold Outside
by Cari Crosby

It’s hard to believe there was ever a time in which I enjoyed winter.  Like most kids, when I was younger, winter was a very exciting time of the year.  It meant you could do things you couldn’t do in the summer; activities like sledding, skiing, building snow forts and snowmen, having snowball fights, and the special family trips to the local toboggan run.  And then you’d warm up with a hot cup of cocoa in front of the fire.  And if you were really lucky, you got marshmallows in your cocoa. 

How did we do it?  Somehow anyone under the age of 10 has an incredible tolerance for cold.  Then again, maybe the ridiculous snowsuits really worked.  I don’t buy the theory that it’s any colder now than it was then.  I could go outside in sub-zero temperatures, but so long as my parents devoted the half-an-hour prep time to bundle me up, I was all set for winter fun. 

Of course, that has since changed.  In high school, the time in your life when you’re too cool to bother zipping up your coat (if you’re actually wearing one), the walk to the bus stop would result in wet hair freezing solid and the numbness of your entire body.  As we grow older we are more willing to bundle up, but it seems like even the basic scarf-hat-glove combo with a heavy coat is no match for the bitter cold that winter brings.

All winter means to me now is scraping ice and snow off of the car, dealing with daily treacherous driving conditions, dry, itchy skin, and (of course) the constant cold, which just keeps coming back, even as spring begins to peek through. 

I’ve found myself wishing for summer (hell, I’d take spring too) more than usual this winter.  Summer means being able to walk around downtown with (at most) a jacket, and having that be all I need to get me through the day.  Summer means not having to worry about bundling up or how far you are from your destination.  It means cheap and beautiful flowers for sale in the grocery store.  It means eating outside!  Oh, how I miss eating outside.

But I suppose I shouldn’t obsess over summer, as it’s still quite a while away.  You’d think after all these years I’d get used to the winter, but it only seems to get worse every year.  I wish I were a kid again. 

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