Five Good Things

1.) In conjunction with my four-day-weekend project, I am going on vacation at the end of the week.

2.) Because I am a grown up, there was no reason for me not to have a dinner entirely of cheese…so I did.  Osteoporosis prevention, etc.

3.) On Sunday, I went to one of my favorite brunch places in tundra.  I gobbled up their pork belly, poached eggs, polenta, and an english muffin with a lovely bellini.  I love me the brunch.

4.) Gas where I work is twenty cents cheaper PER GALLON than the gas where I live.

5.) It’s less than six months until I move away from the tundra!

Winter Survival Tip #3

One of my best winter survival tricks for tundra living is quite simple: leave.  Get out.  Go somewhere, preferably warm and sunny, but at the very least somewhere else.  Winter is a great time for visits of obligation; it’s a better time for fun vacations, but sometimes a body needs to work within certain restrictions.  A required family trip to your mismatched Nader’s Raider aunt and “Romney is too liberal” bellowing uncle might not be the most pleasant experience, but if they live in Florida, it is a lot more pleasant if you can couple the visit to them with one to some sunshine and temperatures above freezing.  Ideally you can take a week or weekend for fun – cheer on your team at a spring training baseball game, watch the whales migrate in Cabo, surf in Hawaii – but sometimes it is necessary to be a bit practical.  Vitamin D is a practical need; if only I could get my insurance to let me apply airfare to my deductible.

Besides the benefit of a break from snow and ice, taking a break from the tundra also gives you something to look forward to…regardless of the weather here, I will not have to scrape ice off my car to go to work next Monday – I won’t be near my car and I’m not going to work!  Win.  It’s a mental, physical, and emotional break and it is necessary.

So!  Tundra.  You are on notice.  If you are not significantly warmer and sunnier, preferably with longer days, by Thursday  I AM LEAVING.  One of us has to make a change; I accept that it will likely be me.

 

I Chopped Off a Foot…Twelve Inches of Hair

Image from Pantene's Website

I keep waiting to feel sad, but it’s just not happening.  My friends who’ve already done this warned me that I’d be sad.  I’ll cry, they cautioned, it will take awhile to get used to the change.  The latter part is true for sure, but not in a negative way.  I’m chronically squeezing out too much shampoo and then too much conditioner.  As someone raised as a Lutheran Scot in the Midwest, I definitely feel guilty about that waste, but not sad.

A week and a one-half ago, I cut off twelve inches of hair which I donated to the Pantene Beautiful Lengths Program.  This program’s mission is to provide wigs to women who lose their hair due to cancer treatments.  (I considered donating to Locks of Love, which makes wigs for children.  However, most LoL recipients suffer from alopecia and cancer is a more personal cause for me and my family.  I looked into both organizations and both are solid causes.)  The last time my hair was this short, I still had baby teeth and Mr. Reagan was clamoring for Mr. Gorbachev to “tear down that wall.”  It’s clearly been awhile.  I did maintain enough length that my hair is roughly at my shoulders and I can pull it back into a perky (short) little ponytail.  Still, it feels kind of crazy.  I reach back to touch it all the time, to make sure it’s there, but it’s also not all there.

Currently Reading…

One of the great things about my job is that it allows me a fair amount of “my choice” reading time – on the clock.  Because I’m a huge dork, I’m currently reading (yet another) book about Tudor England: The Children of Henry VIII by Alison Weir.  Yesterday, I got sidetracked and did not put my book away before getting the peanut up from her nap.  (Aside: Really glad I’m a huge dork.)

Ever aware, Peanut spotted it and asked me what was on her coffee table.  I make it a point to be as honest as possible with the kids, but also know my audience, so simplified my answer.  “That is the book I am reading.  It is about those two girls, who are princesses, and their brother, who is a prince.  The other girl is their cousin.”

one prince, two princesses, and their cousin

Peanut nodded and moved on to her own books…which just so happen to also about princes and princesses.   D’oh.  Whatever.  My prince, princesses, and their cousin are cooler.

Aside #2: I am aware that Jane Grey was the grandniece, not child, of Henry VIII and her inclusion on the cover bothers me.

Cold Weather Survival Tip: Kids and Cold

Single-digit weather is not the perkiest extended forecast.  I get chronic cabin fever and my usual winter fun activities are less fun – and at a certain point unsafe – when the temperatures plummet.  Most children share that afflication with me, but there’s a point at which I suspect staying inside with the kids becomes more dangerous than streaking in -80F temps would be.  Thankfully, my extended forecast isn’t that miserable, but the next few days are more than cold enough.  Thankfully #2, I’m not working this weekend, so only have one day of ubercold to strategize.  Here are ten tips to beat the cold and the crazies from/with the kids

A Good Day

I started my new job today.  Love it.

I went to a free beer class, with generous amounts of free beer and free cheese tonight.  Love it.

Today was a good day.

Winter Survival Tip #1

I live in the tundra, where winters are long, cold, and harsh.  The lack of daylight, biting winds, and frigid temperatures are hard on both my complexion and my emotional state.  One of my former coaches would likely refer to this extended season as “an exercise in mental toughness.”  However, always lived in places where I spend way more on snowboots than swimsuits and scarves are for function versus fashion.  I believe this makes me qualified to dole out some advice – a WINTER SURVIVAL TIP, likely the first of many I will share.  Let me be your “Get Through This Guru.”

This week’s weather report for my zip code is rather depressing.  Basically, if at any point, I walk outside with wet hair, my hair will freeze.  This does not put me in my happy place.  This puts me in a place where I question why I do not own a hairdryer and potentially puts me in a place that sells hairdryers.*   I tell myself this also means I could totally flood my backyard and go ice skating; but I also need a bit more. 

Effective ICE Contacts

My family bought our first cell phone – “for the family” – in the early 1990s.   It was roughly the size of our smaller cat; the battery alone outweighs my current phone.  And actually using that original cell phone?  Emergencies only!  Quick emergencies only!  Quite the opposite of my current life, in which my phone is where I check and send emails and text messages, find recipes online while at the grocery store, ask “The Goog” pressing questions, get directions, play games, study for the GRE, and yes, make the occasional call.  Despite all of its fancy tricks, emergency calls remain its most basic and most important function. 

 

I’m going to try not to get overly dramatic, but the most important thing your cell phone can do is aid you in an emergency.  Whether it’s a life-saving call to 911 or a call to a contact during a rough situation or medical info stored in notes; your cell phone can help big time.  If you do not already have an ICE (In Case of Emergency) contact stored in your phone, do it.  Do it now. 

Inflight WiFi

I’m flying Delta, a mistake for other reasons, who is offering free in-flight wifi through the holidays.  So far I’ve used it to:

1.) Search flights to family destination Christmas (woo!)…not on Delta

2.) Check the arrival status of my flight and email a text to the friend who is picking me up, telling her my delay has increased while inair.

3.) Play on facebook, gchat, and email.

4.) Take and post a picture of my ridiculous amounts of legroom (emergency exit row + almost a legal midget in Canada) on facebook.

5.) Blog.

Basically, what I would do at home.   I find the whole concept of in-flight wifi kind of ridiculous.  I mean, none of those things were at all pressing.  I remember the days when flights were spent with parents just threatening to beat their children with the books they were not reading, if they didn’t quiet down.

Big Day, Lights and Sirens

I’ll post more on this later, but by 9:30 this morning, I’d had my first rides in both an ambulance and a police cruiser.  (I’m totally fine.)  The distances of both rides are best measured in blocks.  Since 9:30am, I have not ridden in any emergency vehicles.  Unless I meet a studly firefighter, I’m hoping to keep up this trend.