Ok! So apparently, people do comment on my posts. I was feeling a bit unloved because I had received zero comments on my last two posts. Actually I had received several comments, but for some reason am not receiving the email notifications. So I just thought everyone was hating and turning up their noses.
Additionally, it is very, very cold here. I feel like everyone’s in a pissing contest about the weather lately. My Seattle friends are all “it’s so cold and it’s SNOWING!” and my Portland friends are all “you think you have snow? it’s COLDER here…” and I’m sitting here in North Dakota, and it’s 20 degrees below zero, with a -45 wind-chill, AND snowing. And those west coast cities are shut down. Me, I worked all day and then taught class and drove home on glare ice in the driving wind. I couldn’t feel my legs by the time I got home, and that’s even after I warmed up my car–remotely–for 15 minutes before briskly shuffling quickly to it in my giant shin-length puffer jacket. And I could laugh and say those west coasters are babies, but what’s the point? Extreme weather is different depending on where you live. We can turn it around and point out that in that part of the country, the cities are not equipped for widespread snow removal and road sanding. Additionally, the citizens aren’t used to driving in it.
The best part is, one of my online students lives in a place that’s much colder and has worse conditions than it is in ND. So it’s not like I win at Being Tough In Weather, either.
There is one thing I really love about this bitter, bitter cold. It’s so very peaceful. Everything is crisp and dry, and it’s extremely sunny. (This very cold weather usually only happens due to clear, cloudless skies.) The sun dogs are beautiful too. I wish I had my camera earlier; I saw an amazing one.
Oh, and, I’m pretty sure this is my life right now, if you were wondering how I’m doing.
Also, I bought a nice expensive gallon of that Upper Eastside paint I chose for the kitchen, went home, put some on the wall, and it was CLEARLY purple/pink toned. *barf* Before anyone says I should have bought the sample jar, I will simply tell you that I am not impressed with our Lowes’ store’s ability to make two cans of paint even close to the same color. Honestly, when the kid at the store mixed the last couple of sample jars I bought, he just squirted the pigments in to the jars and stood there, shaking them manually, for about 30 seconds each. Pretty sure they have a machine for that. But alllrighty. The last two rooms I painted, the sample jars were notably different (not just slightly) from the comparable gallons I bought. So I went all in and bought the whole gallon of Upper Eastside, and it sucked. At least Valspar has a rebate going on right now. I’ll get $5 of my 35 wasted dollars back in the mail, eventually.
New color was chosen: Valspar Cincinattian Hotel Hannaford, 3007-10C. It’s a National Trust for Historic Preservation color. I picked it by a highly scientific method: I brought my paint swatches of Upper Eastside and Churchhill Hotel Wheat (the living room color) to the store with me, and picked on that was less yellow than Wheat and less purple than Eastside.
New color is perfect. Will post that soon. Painting kitchens are a huge pain in the ass, by the way. Huge. Especially kitchens with 9 foot ceilings. And even more especially when you may inexplicably have the largest consumer fridge money can buy. (I can now say I have sat on top of my fridge. Probably not covered under warranty for usage.)
That’s all I’ve got at the moment. More soon, I hope. Like I said a few weeks ago, this is going to be one hell of a semester. OH! I’ve lost 6 lbs since Christmas though. That’s pretty great.
What’s up with you?
Late-20s yuppie, professional techie, terminal student. I probably live farther north than you do. (
that illustration = a little too true/depressing to be funny!
congrats on the weight loss!
I feel like the older I get, the less I am able to withstand the cold (and I used to LOVE the cold!). I can’t even imagine how cold it must be in ND when I am already whimpering in 15-degrees weather.
I hear you on the weather! Winter took a bit of time getting started here in Alaska, but when it came, it came with a vengeance. We got several feet of snow in 3 days, and it has been around 0 for a week. We haven’t hit -15 yet, but this morning it was -6, but with those lovely clear skies you brought up. I prefer clear and cold over snowing and a bit warmer!
I love the illustration – that is such a good description of how I have been feeling lately! That on top of the weather (I live in Western Canada) has been making this really feel like January blahs!
Wanna hear some crazy stuff? We’ve had NO SNOW here in Bozeman. None. None at all. And it was 36 degrees when I drove home last night at 6:30pm. I don’t know what happened to the major snowstorm we were supposed to get.
Whatevs. That’s fine with me because like the wonderful illustration you shared above, I don’t have time to drive slowly and prudently on snowy roads!
I just wanted to say…I never ever ever (except now, I guess) leave comments, but don’t feel sad! Yours is one of the firsts I read on my arrive at work/read blogs circuit. So there must be more like me!
Growing up in the Rockies, I scoffed at those people who couldn’t handle winter (cancel school because of a little snow? OH PLEASE). Then I moved somewhere warm, with no snow, ever. And now I live somewhere with winter again. And I am such a baby about it, but still think those cold, crisp sunny winter days are just about the most beautiful thing in the world.
We lived in Michigan while my husband was working on his masters and I was totally a baby about the cold. I don’t know what I’d do if we moved back and I had to, say, walk our dog on a daily basis. My husband claims he misses the snow. For me, I think the worst part about the winter was just that it would be so gray and sunless, whether it was snowing or not. It sounds like ND winters are sunnier? That would make it a little more tolerable, I suppose.
Sun comes with the cold. And by cold, I mean the very very cold (negative temperatures). So if it’s in the 20s above zero, it’s probably cloudy. If it’s in the teens or 20s below zero, it’s probably sunny. We definitely have our share of dreary winter days. I do think I’d miss a place without snow. I lived in Oregon for 4 years and I definitely missed the snow (and it was quite dreary there in the winter, but the temps were much more pleasant than they are here!).
Valspar has a money back guarantee that I unfortunately have had to use several times in the last few months. Lowe’s is actually pretty awesome about it. If the color is the least bit off compared to the swatch I’d take it back and get a refund. The last time I bought a gallon but ran out before I finished the room. So, I went back and got a small can of paint. WRONG color. It was in the system two different ways because I had them color match it for me and it didn’t turn out the first time. I brought it in and they gave me new paint. Sucked but better than having to pay for it.
Sadly in this instance, it was my fault — the paint did match the swatch, the swatch was simply the wrong color (and I couldn’t tell before I bought paint). I have used that policy in the past though, when our office color was incorrect. I had to argue a bit however because Lowes has a sign on their paint counter that says they do not take returns of tinted paint. Grr.
I know I complain about the weather A LOT. Enough for it to be stated in my twitter profile, even. So I’m definitely guilty of chiding my Bama friends when they get all “OH GOD, IT GOT BELOW 40 LAST NIGHT BUY ALL OF THE MILK AND BREAD”** I’m just bitter for the reasons you mentioned above, and because Southern snow “events” just often…aren’t. I know, I lived there for 27 years.
**Buying milk and bread before an impending snow or ice storm (that may or may not actually occur) is a trademark Southern Thing. I’ve never understood it, but it is a Thing. This is one of my favorite illustrations of the snow/bread/milk Thing: http://www.jamesspann.com/word.....5d3f_b.jpg
Ahahahaa bread and milk. That’s great! (But tell me, where is their bleach, duct tape, and plastic sheeting?!!)
Actually here in the DC suburbs it’s bread, milk and toilet paper and lately water that are the must buys. I never could understand the toilet paper thing since I always buy 36 rolls at a time from Costco, maybe twice a year.
I just painted my kitchen last weekend. What a pain the neck. Some much taping.
heehee.. a pissing match. So true though right. I feel that way when I look on facebook. Pissing matches are no fun, everyone just gets pee all over them. I think I’ll use that one for why comparative research is no fun. ha! I’m delusional with all this indoor time.