The seasons have a funny way of wishing the northern hemisphere a happy new year. January 1: new goals, new start, beginning of new trends, the horizon to days, weeks and months still undiscovered, unscathed, undamaged, and inviting... Also, beginning of the two bleakest months of the entire year: filled with overcast days full of slush, ice, snow, smog, frozen noses and ears, cold toes and fingers, and a complete absence of color. Obviously, Mother Nature is attempting to crush the world's confidence. This kind of cold is bearable... but only with Christmas lights! As a substitute for the lack of festive decoration, I have been diligently seeking a consolation, a comfort, or a sunny-side to this season altogether lacking all warmth and life provided by the center of our solar system. I need a reason to survive the season; I am on a mission to discover the life (if any) that was left when the sunshine deserted the town of Provo. I will discover it, or I will move to the equator.
Logical, provable, and valid reasons for loving (or at least appreciating) those winter months following the festivities:
Fireplaces: How wonderful is it to curl up in front of the fireplace in a huge quilt with a wonderful book? Very wonderful. In fact, it almost rivals wearing flip-flops every day. It especially counts as a plausible argument for winter when the fireplace smells like a fireplace natural does and is situated by a large, overstuffed, and comfortably worn-in chair. Flaw: Unless I am willing to pay a tremendous fee for turning my roommate's bedroom into a furnace (and probably threatening a large amount of screaming girls at the same time), I will experience a drastic lack of fireplace this winter.
Hot Chocolate: Yum. That's about the first and last thing that I want to say on this topic. Dark chocolate orange, milk chocolate mint, creamy chocolate with a tinge of hazelnut, or deep chocolate peppermint, which almost makes the air in my apartment taste like Christmas again. There is not a stopping place when it comes to this divine gift. As I have said more than once, chocolate is proof that God loves us. Two weeks ago, this seemed like the perfect solution. I think that chocolate orange quickly became the most popular in my mouth, although a straight dark chocolate rich enough to make you dizzy was a close second. However, two weeks was two weeks too long. When I was in my bed, completely sick to my stomach, with the second cup of hot chocolate from the last day of the second week still standing on my night table, I proclaimed the experiment a fail. The amount of hot chocolate it takes to take away the winter blues is also enough to run you flat into bed for days. Bad idea. Also, it's more expensive to make "healthy" hot chocolate than I at first realized. Sorry, delicious comfort drink, my sugar tolerance level AND my pocket book say "No."
Snow: I would think this one is rather self explanatory. It snowed today - a light sprinkling of itsy-bisty flakes flying around while I was walking to class. I loved the first snow! It was magical, breath-taking, peaceful, and all those other cliche things that snow is. I loved every bit of it. I don't actually mind the snow, I've come to realize. It's the innate fact that it simply must be accompanied by bitter cold, and more often than not, bitter wind, that I am just not fond of. Snow: not a bad thing at all, but simply not good enough to make up for the bleakness and blahness of January 20th.
New Year's Resolutions: No. I am a goal-setting, list-making, self-improvement-meeting maniac. But how much more optimistic are a set of new goals and exciting endeavors if you announce them to a drizzling sky? They are not. I have quickly discovered that this year's set of resolutions is proving much more difficult to keep than ever before simply because of my atmosphere. The sun motivates me, encourages me, and strengthens my will to keep going, try again, do better, do better! The desertion of that energy source leaves my self motivation rather raw. Unfortunately, the weather has effected this element instead of this element effecting my outlook on the weather. But persevere I will, as this lengthy post proves, I am determined to find a reason to at least like the winters in Provo.
I am now searching for a new object, state of existence, or thought process that will improve upon the first two months of the new year, or even take my mind away from their faults. I am taking suggestions! At the moment, I am simply looking forward to the fact that there is one more single-day-long break from classes approaching quickly. And once it is gone, the end of seemingly endless grey skies might, just might be in sight.
