Two Thumbs Undecided

I can't decide if I like winter or not. I mean, I know there are pros and cons to everything, but winter is the one thing I can't figure out which side I'm on. Do I like it? Do I not like it? I don't know because it alternately annoys and exhilerates me.

If I'm weighingthe good with the bad here, I might as well start with the good because that's just the kind of mood I'm in today.

Pro 1: The crunch of snow under my boots. It's such a crisp sound! It makes me smile for some odd reason. It reminds me of when I was little and that sound meant an adventure. Plus if the snow is really good and crisp then it makes for better packing, which leads me to...

Pro 2: Snowball fights. If you don't enjoy them it's because you always got your butt whooped. Even me with my bad aim adore snowball fights. I remember every winter a bunch of the neighborhood kids would all get together and have a snowball fight. It would lead into one another's yards depending on how much snow we had used up. Sadly we don't seem to do that anymore. We're all too busy being "grown up".

Pro 3: Snowmen/snowangels. The whole crisp snow theory comes into this one too, at least for the snowmen. I haven't made one in a handful of years. Not because I don't want to make a snowman, but because the snow hasn't been good enough to make a snowperson bigger than a Keebler elf. So really, a winter is determined by the quality of its' snow. Snow angels on the other hand can be made in whatever kind of snow you're stuck with, which is rather kind of them. You just plop down in the snow and--swish, swish, swish--you've got a snow angel. Of course now you have snow caked on you and it will begin to melt and make you uncomfortable but I'm not going there.

Pro 4: Hot Chocolate. Technically I could have hot chocolate any time I wanted but it just feels right during the winter. Yummy.

Pro 5: Sleigh rides. I can't really count this I suppose because I've never been on a winter sleigh ride. But the idea is extreamly appealing to me. I should do it on day. But I would have to wait for more snow since all of it is melting right now. The idea of a sleigh ride just sounds like so much fun right now!

Pro 6: Snow days. This is so far down on the list because I almost never get one. Except this Friday which was marvelous!!! I was so shocked when we got it though because there really wasn't that much snow on the ground, just ice.

Pro 7: The clouds of breath. I don't care how freaking old you are the breath clouds are fun!

Pro 8: Fresh fallen snow. This includes the snow that is falling merrily outside a window, the pure white blanket spread out across any landscape, and the inevitable debachment of the previous two. There is something magical about untouched snow. Which of course leads us to touch it and therefore ruin the whole effect but whatever.

Pro 9: Baking seaon. Maybe it's our need to bulk up for the winter, some animal instinct to pack it on and hibernate, but people make the best damn cookies this time of year. And it's not just one type of cookie. I don't know why but people seem to feel more creative as they make hundreds of baked goods during the winter. My personal favorites are Peanut Blossums, Pinwheels, Sugar Cookies, and Ginger Snaps (but I'll eat anything you'll give me).

Pro 10: The warm fuzzy feeling. Y'all know what I'm talking about. Uh-huh that. It's different for every person I think. For me it's sitting in my warm house (if I had a fireplace I would be in front of it), under a patchwork quilt reading a book, while listening to Holiday music (none of the new pop crap either, the goods--Billie Holiday, Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra), and watching a light snowfall out side. It's that goodwill feeling where everything is right in the world. It's hope.

On that happy note I'm heading into the Cons. NOTE: I tryed not to mention any Christmas themed Pros because that is the biggest bribe winter has.

Con 1: Ice. Oh God do I hate ice. I always feel like a duck because you have to waddle--feet turned in taking baby steps--in order not to fall. Which of course you do, fall, I mean, and it's always on your butt. So now your dignity is gone, your pants are wet, you're in pain, and best of all your butt is now going to be sporting a big honkin bruise! As if that weren't enough the icicles start to rain down on you like little daggers of death! Those suckers hurt!

Con 2: The frost on your windsheild. It takes forever to clear the windsheild in the morning with this stuff. And it always seems like there is more of it when you're running late.

Con 3: Snot. Yeah that's right you heard me, snot! The runny Rudolph nose only happens in the winter. Winter turns your nose into a spigot. A spigot which you cannot turn off! It runs, and runs, and runs. Then you sniffle every five seconds. Or you blow your nose, and it's never a polite little sound; it's always the sound of a cruiseliner hailing port. Ick.

Con 4: Snow days. Wait, what? Didn't I have this on the Pros list? Yes but in this case I'm talking about the let down. My school almost never gives us a snow day. All the other schools around can be let out, but Webster's got to be stubborn and force its students to come forth in blistering weather. Even when there are six to eight inches on the ground our superintendant won't give us the day off. It's stupid. And it crushes all of a child's hope in the world. Your watching the snow fall, watching as it piles up higher and higher outside your window, and then you have go out in it because even though that snow drift could eat you, you have to go to school! It's a widely circulated theory among the students (and some staff), that our superintendant is from some place very far up North so what is a big deal to us in Webster is nary a flurry to him. Some say one of the Dakotas, others Minnesota, and some Antartica. No matter, it's cruel to have your hope slaughtered by snow.

Con 5: Cold. I hate being cold. And it doesn't take much to make me cold. I wear sweatpants and a sweater in the summer time, imagine what the winter weather does to me. Five minutes outside and my cheeks are rosy for a hour or more, and my teeth won't stop chattering. Oh did I mention that I had three layers on including a heavy duty coat? Yeah it's bad. In the winter, my toes are never fully defrosted. It's miserable.

Con 6: Severe illness. Let me just start this one out by saying that I have little to no respitory immune system. That is not an exageration either. That's what the doctor told me, so I have to be careful this time of year. Every body seems to have something too. A cold, or the flu; just something. And I always seem to get it. If someone coughs in my general direction I get whatever they've got. Most of the time I have to tough it out and go to school anyway, which isn't good but I can't miss too much school for every little thing I catch during the winter. But I hate it. Especially the coughing. The dry heave death rattle that steals the breath from your lungs and makes your chest hurt for hours after it happens. Last year was the first time in my memory where I didn't stay home for a week long period from some sort of illness. I'm hoping I can duplicate this phenomenon again this year.

Con 7: The dryness. What I mean by this is the chapped lips, and cracked hands. It's not fun. Why else do people give lotion as gift so often?

Con 8: The fact that I can't hibernate. Grrrrr... I just want to sleep in the winter and I'm not allowed. It's not the winter's fault but it's gettingblamed anyway.

Con 9: Gluttony. I know I said earlier I wasn't going to use Christmas but think about it. There are so many food holidays in winter: Thanksgiving, Christmas (and all the other December holidays e.g. Kwanza), New Years, and Valentines Day. All of these are stuffed to the gills with food, particularly sweets. Now I don't mind the food or sweets. In fact I love them. What makes this a con, is the overeating. The regret afterwards, that's the bad part. The momment where you go "Whoa, I shouldn't have eaten that..."

Con 10: Cabin fever. I can only take so much of the carols and the eggnogg before I'm bored with it all. And I'm trapped because of my cold issues. So really I do this to myself, but I still blame winter.

Even listing all my issues with winter out hasn't helped me decide if I like it or not. Maybe I'll figure it out as it's happening to me. After all my key issues with winter hinge on changable things, such as how many snow days or how sick I get. Hmmmmmm. We'll see.