I know I've got troubles

I cannot get warm.

I'm sitting in my living room wrapped in a quilt, next to a heater grate, pretty near to a fireplace...

and I cannot get warm.

I don't think I've been warm all day. I wore my big winter jacket in a staff meeting at work because I had come in on my day off and by the time I got in the building I was frozen. I stood out on the school playground for half an hour while my kids ran around and threw snowballs at each other, and I couldn't feel my fingers the entire time. I had an indoor appointment this morning and I refused to take my fleece muffler off at all. And I blew on my fingers for a solid hour and a half.

I am so frickin' finished with winter I could spit. But I know it would freeze mid-air.

My house never feels as much like an old house as it does in the winter. Even though it has blown in insulation, it has old house windows and doors and it feels like you're standing in a wind tunnel. Until you go upstairs. As you climb the staircase you can feel the temperature changing until you reach the landing - otherwise known as the Bahamas. Every last bit of the heat has risen to the second floor, where it is almost too hot to move. Sleeping at night leads to dreams of sand dunes and scorpions. My house is its own climate zone.

If you believe the weather people, we're supposed to have a warm snap this weekend. I think it's actually supposed to hit 20 degrees. I feel a city wide party coming on.

I wonder which bathing suit would go with my thermal socks.

California Dreaming

This is what my lilacs looked like two weeks ago.

This is what my lilacs look like today.

These are my hostas.

Kind of looks like overcooked spinach, doesn't it? You should have seen them two weeks ago - they were gorgeous. But since we have spent the better part of a week in a "hard frost", my budding garden has taken a hard hit. I would post a picture of my tulips, but then I'd have to cry.

As I write this we are being told to prepare for three to five inches of snow tomorrow night. This will follow the thunderstorms and high winds they're predicting tomorrow afternoon. The Film Geek was supposed to be away this weekend on a shoot. The plan was for him to be something like fifty feet up in a crane shooting a planned prairie fire. On Friday the 13th. This sounded suspiciously like a human lightning magnet to him and he insisted on postponing until the weather got better. Luckily they agreed. We have two soccer games and a six mile charity MS walk planned this weekend. The soccer they'll have to cancel, but we're committed to the walk, and I can't imagine they'll cancel it. And as much as I'd like to bail out, I'd feel pretty bad, since my friend who actually HAS MS will walk it no matter what.

Last fall at a garage sale this amazing woman was selling some of her plants and she had a drop dead gorgeous jasmine. You could smell it ten feet away. Now jasmine is my all time favorite scent, next to bald baby heads. It was actually kind of funny. I was with my friend who grew up in Missouri and doesn't know jasmine from orange groves. She just walked by it. Then I hear this southern voice saying "oh my god, is that JASMINE??" and of course that got my attention. To make a long story short, I duked it out with this chick from Florida over the jasmine plant, and it has sat in a sunny window by my computer all winter. I actually cried when I brought it home and my sweet husband has babied it ever since. I'm smelling it now, looking at an ominous sky outside and feeling very homesick.

Is it Spring yet?