My Cold Weather Manifesto

Summers were murder; two-a-days doubly so. Growing up in the sweltering Texas heat taught me two things: the sun is evil and don't go outside until December. Unfortunately, my parents had this pesky idea that children should do something besides read and play video games indoors all the time, so sometimes there was no avoiding the sun.

In college, something compelled me to pick up yarn and start hooking. Now, in my part of Texas, where the temperature usually only drops below 40 degrees a few days a year, knitting and crocheting might seem like a poor choice of hobbies. Given my growing knowledge of fibers, cotton would have been about the only thing worth using. My recollection is that my early efforts sat squarely in the "acrylic" territory, but memories are imperfect.

The fiber artist in me died after graduation and it wasn't until my move to New England five years later that yarn found me again. My yarn story is for another time, but suffice it to say it plays a large role in the following realization: I am a cold weather girl.

Texas is a wonderful place, and homesickness still tugs at me on a disturbingly frequent basis, but it will likely never be my home again. And that's okay, because it's not cold enough there anyway.

From blmiers on Flickr.

My first "real" winter taught me so many things -- put your windshield wipers up the night before a snow; always keep your shovel and scraper in the car, not the trunk; don't pass the plow truck, even on the left; don't use the rear defroster until the car warms up and not all windshield wiper fluid is created equal.

So now, as my third New England winter quickly approaches, there are two main thoughts in my mind, which are in direct opposition to that which my upbringing taught me: the sun brings great joy and don't go outside from December to March.

I love you, winter. I love being cold and I love making warm things to wear during your months. May it never be 90-degrees-in-the-shade again.

Rest of world doesn't give a shit

As the year goes on, and as I listen to NPR on the way to work, I find myself becoming more cynical about other human beings. I don't like it, but there it is.

There are two things I know for sure. First, the guy who made the anti-Islam film is batshit crazy, a con man, and should probably be locked away forever. Second, aside from a few very loud protests by a small group of hateful people, the vast majority of the world doesn't give two shits about us, and has other things to worry about.

Did you even know, for example, that China and Japan are at each others' throats right now over a land dispute? Over some shitty islands no one actually wants? Did you know that Japanese businesses operating in China are being pelted with rocks, workers lives are in danger and flights have been cut all over the country?

Screenshot from Google Image Search.
Click to embiggen my feelings on all this.

I apologize for the rant this early in the morning, and you probably won't read it anyway, but there it is.

No one working a 9-5 in Libya has time to care about a crazy, ignorant American making a shitty, hateful movie in the same way you don't give a shit about Japan/China tensions over some islands. There is no possible way any of us can know all of the news from all the places, but let's keep in mind that no one else in the world can either.

The fact that we have the ABILITY to read news from all of the places, even down to the tiniest detail of, say, local daycare facilities' mounting problems in the Netherlands, tells me we're doing okay as a nation and world. We SHOULD care about each other, and we SHOULD be genuinely concerned for the welfare of others. But the story is over. The deaths were tragic, but let's let those involved mourn quietly and focus on warp drives and space and things that are important, mmkay?

Now, go enjoy your weekend :)!