somefatchick

A friend recently moved to Vermont. I spoke to him yesterday, and he was telling me about how very strange all the locals were. “I hear they get something called ‘winter blues’ because of all the cold and snow,” he told me. “Yeah, I know that happens,” I tell him, “But I’m the opposite. I love winter. I love snow. I love cold. I’m happiest in the wintertime. I can’t imagine it making me sad.”

But then I started thinking about how down I’ve been this month, and all the problems J and I have been having, and I wondered if I had lied to my friend. Could I have the winter blues? Well, yes and no.

I didn’t lie to my friend. It’s absolutely true that cold, snowy winters make me happy. But the thing is, I live in TEXAS. We don’t have winter, we have…coldish temperatures with infrequent ice, overcast skies, and an occasional inch-deep dusting of snow. There’s no beautiful winter wonderland to behold. A gorgeous cold night with a clear star-strewn sky makes me incredibly happy, but it’s not the same thing, and I don’t even get that often. It’s like the atmosphere is constantly threatening winter, but it never follows through. And maybe it’s that never-ended torment, that giant tease, that has lead to my own variety of the winter blues.

Here, we can have clear and sunny 80 degree days (like last Friday) followed by windy and unbearable 30 degree days (like last Saturday). At the moment, it’s 28 outside, with crappy freezing rain. My Firefox weather thingy claims it’s snowing, but freezing rain is all I’ve seen. Oh, and I had to walk the dog in it just a little bit ago, even though J had taken her out an hour beforehand, because she was whining and crying at the door. And then she didn’t even poop. And I sorta hate her and think she’s an asshole. Da na na na…